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I have a HP Windows 10 laptop. Recently I suspected that I contracted some kind of malware on it off the internet, and I didn't want to take any risks, so took the laptop to a tech shop to get it fully formatted. the technician tried to perform a format and reinstall, but couldn't, and then he said now he couldn't even get the hard drive to boot or get detected. He said my hard drive had failed and I needed a new one. Now, I must say, while I was using the laptop, several days even after the infection, I never once had a problem booting the computer. Also, my laptop and hard disk are pretty new, not even a year old. It seems unlikely to me that the hard drive would fail, unless the malware caused it to fail.

My question is, what should be my course of action? Get a new hard drive? Because I know now malware can damage hard drive, but I also don't really want to get duped by some tech guy. He tried to format in front of me, and I saw he was using HP Recovery manager to do a factory image recovery. Are there other ways I could try to do a complete clean format? Maybe that would work? I want to exhaust all my options of trying to format the computer before springing for that new drive. Also, is there a way to check the hard drive health, should I be able to perform a format anyways? Not very well versed in this, but I'm learning. Help will be greatly appreciated.

Dobby
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    Possible duplicate of [Can some software physically damage hardware?](https://superuser.com/questions/313850/can-some-software-physically-damage-hardware) – music2myear Mar 29 '19 at 18:42
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    Please read the linked likely duplicate for a rather thorough explanation of how software could harm hardware. – music2myear Mar 29 '19 at 18:43
  • "HP Recovery manager to perform a factory image recovery the same as a full clean format?" Yes – Moab Mar 29 '19 at 18:56
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    Oh. Wanted to clarify. Because I read in some places a factory reset and system recovery is often not enough because it has the slight possibility of leaving behind malware, and that wiping the hard drive and a fresh install is the only way. I guess they are same then. – Dobby Mar 29 '19 at 19:07
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    HP Factory reset is completely different from most other recovery methods, It wipes the entire drive and re-creates all partitions and restores the OS to a clean state. – Moab Mar 29 '19 at 21:15

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Try this to fully format the hard drive

Make a bootable windows(any version) pendrive( or any thing you used to for installing windows )

Boot into the windows in pd using F9 button

On First Window that appear press shift + f10.

A command window will appear Then type in the following command

diskpart

sel disk 0

clean

You can too use live Ubuntu for formatting harddrive using gparted(Ubuntu)...

Note: This will completely wipe your data in the disk...

vaku
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    This will destroy the HP recovery partition. – Moab Mar 29 '19 at 18:56
  • Yes but I can always recreate the recovery partition, right? And I know for a fact that my recovery partition got infected too, so no use. – Dobby Mar 29 '19 at 19:10
  • If your pc is in under warranty contact customer support for asking about the corrupted recovery partition, They will send you the recovery cds for your pc(you may have to give the delivery charge for that)... – vaku Mar 29 '19 at 19:32
  • "I can always recreate the recovery partition, right? " Only if you have the HP recovery media. – Moab Mar 29 '19 at 21:13