I had used to use some computers at a place I worked and they gave similar error messages...blah, blah, blah...it was definitely a virus and it was hijacking the computer to their website for virus removal...for a small fee, of course...but they were actually scamming credit cards...
I'd try the virus removal steps above as cvar stated first...
And I've never had a hdd warn me of a crash...they get sluggish and/or simply stop working...
I have.
S.M.A.R.T. is a "real thing" which is why scammers copy it to run their scam.
I've had "SMART" warnings three times and all three have been very real.
The first one was actually disturbing, but it was a fresh, literally hours old
Install on a HDD I had unwrapped from a sealed package.
I've known for a long time that "new" is NOT equal to "Good"
(the UPS man only has to drop it ONCE)
When I called WD for an RMA their person asked "how do you know it's bad
I replied "SMART says so" and I got an RMA without a quibble.
I would recommend downloading and installing:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard
When it loads click the item for "Hard drives" and look under "SMART" for "Reallocated Sectors Count"
any number>0 is a bad sign (Any Number >0 and I repurpose that drive to non-critical use)
"Seek Error Rate", "Spin Retry Count", "Recalibration Retries", "Reallocation Event Count",
"Current Pending Sector Count" should all be -0-.
if "Uncorrectable Sector Count" is >0 that drive would go right from my bench to the trash bin.
If all these things are -0- in speccy, download (on another computer to a thumb drive)
and RUN:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16
If you think your laptop is virus infested I would not do a windows7 update, it's cheaper to buy another laptop.lol. Seriously with out your vista instal w7 will not instal clean to a new drive.(it will only update)
You can boot from a Ubuntu/Linux live disk (not instal)and copy anything you want to a pen drive. And test everything while you are at it. You can also clone your drive and a bunch of other things. But it's a steep learning curve. Good side you are unlikely to ever see a virus or trojan.ever.
"hirens boot disk" also is freely download able. And has a ton of tools on it. From virus scanners to drive tests.to clone software. Even a semi usable bootable winXP.
An OEM (OEM means no free phone support) installer for Windows7HomePremium is only $99 from Newegg,
you can get it as cheap as $80 if you wait for a sale.
You can boot more than one OS with out partitioning. Different windows directory 's on the same position. I prefer separate partitions but it's not required.
I have 3 OS's booting from separate partitions on my desktop.
Dual/multi booting is generally a bad idea, because you still have only one BOOTLDR and if that part corrupts
you lose BOTH operating systems.
And that doesn't matter if the dual-boot is on a single partition on a single drive, seperate partitions on
a single drive or if the dual boot systems are on seperate drives, it's like Raid0 it's not even false
redundancy if you actually understand how it works.
Dual booting on a single drive / single Partition has another issue, doing disc cleanup with EITHER OS can remove
important files from the other OS... Oops!
If you want more than one OS for a single machine put them on seperate drives and shut down
and swap drives (or disconnect cables) to switch from one to the other, that way they are ENTIRELY
"divorced" and cannot in any Cluster-fook each other.
Multi-OS installations are a "Geekier than thou" thing, and serve little real purpose otherwise.
Frankly as I've already stated they are more trouble than they are worth.
and there is a degree of "False-geek" in a multiboot, because a REAL "geek" would have
spare HDD's floating around... and thus would not worry about useing seperate drives.
If you've never thrown away a 5gallon pail completely filled with hard drives you are less of a geek than you think you are
Being a pop up would mean virus...but if it was one of those pixelated DOS type windows showing some attention is required it could be an actual system error...I've never seen one but that doesn't mean they don't exist...
However, trying to do something in a corrupted OS can be nearly impossible...that's a good time to try something like partition a drive and install a second OS...if the computer seems to function properly under those conditions then it is probably fine...it's when a simple task like formatting a partition becomes sluggish that would indicate a true HDD malfunction...
How you go about that is really a matter of what resources you have available now...if you have partition tools or can get them it would tell you pretty much if the system will function without hardware swaps...if you don't have the resources and there is nobody near that can provide them I'd have to recommend taking the laptop to someone who can...
There must be someone from TRS close by that that has a partition program...I have one somewhere and would gladly ship it off to you when I find it...but that could take a week or so...
S.M.A.R.T. will generate both a DOS "Black Screen" warning and in Vista/7 can and will
throw "Notification area" or "Action Center" failure messages.
IF the drive is FAILING you want to absolutely minimize run time.
Farting around with partition programs is a good way to run the drive into the ground and lose the data he's trying to protect.
What I would do is hustle my ass to the nearest BestBuy, buy a 320gbSATA Notebook Hard drive.
MAke sure I had a USB SATA drive enclosure and USB cable for it
Go to a Desktop computer with a CD-Burner and download:
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
Connect both drives, insert the CD and boot from the CD.
(Call me and I'll talk you through it)
After which you'll have a complete functioning COPY of the installation with ALL data and
not be worrying about an actual physical drive failure.
IF it IS a virus you would be no worse off than you are now.
It it IS an actual impending failure every little bit of monkeying around increases the risk of permanant data loss.