this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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PC Master Race

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Possible virus downloaded in PC? Any explanation for issues I encountered? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Habahnow@sh.itjust.works to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
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My cousin had encountered issues where his PC would ask to choose an OS to boot into which was strange as I only installed windows 11 into it. From there it began to not detect any bootable devices.

I go to check it out and enounter the same issues, even after changing the boot priority (the only storage, a HDD, was still showing in the BIOS). I am unable to even boot into an Ubuntu image on a USB (crashes when it does a "file check" or something to that effect).

Suspecting the HDD, less than a year old, may be damaged I connect it to my rig (dumb mistake in hindsight), and I am able to view files in the hdd with no issues, several times. I assume then that the HDD is likely working and my cousin either downloaded something malicious or made a change to his system to damage it.

I setup a windows 11 image, and connect to via usb to his system where I reinstall windows. Even after successfully "installing" windows 11, i kept getting a no bootable device error. I was finally able to boot into an Ubuntu image on a USB, and still view the HDD, so I reinstalled linux with no issues, after which i was finally able to reinstall windows 11 with no issues.

I'm curious if this could have been a virus that cause these issues? (do any viruses cause similar issues?) If its more likely he did something wrong to the PC (he's not tech savvy) or potentially something else?

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[–] LifeLikeLady@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry, you are correct about the last part. But yes that's what I'm saying. Your pc will run with your friends HDD in it, it'll just complain at start up. But if the boot partition is fucked it's not going to matter.