Hacker crashed my Hard Drive?

geekgirl1920geekgirl1920
edited October 2010 in Science & Tech
Hoping someone can help me with a question.....

2 weeks ago my Hard Drive crashed (the only symptom before this happened was my mouse/cursor "froze" and was completely unable to move) I had not recently downloaded anything suspcicious or gone to any new websites

I know this sounds like a paranoid question....but I'm wondering if it's possible that my computer was hacked and the crash of my hard drive was "deliberate"

I'm not really paranoid....I just recently broke off with a boyfriend who is an IT specialist for the military (God only knows what those guys can access!)....it was not the nicest "break up" :sad2:
I know very little about computers....I have AntiVirus...and I have Firewall up
and I have Wireless Internet service (yes, with an encrypted key code too)

I happen to know that the ex-BF was out of town (across country in fact) at the time my hard drive crashed.... so again this may sound paranoid.
But.....
How do Hackers hop into your computer anyway?
IP address? (how would he get that? email?)

I'm just curious to get peoples opinions on how complicated it would be for a skilled hacker to get in my computer (despite geographical distance)
HOW do they do it?......
and also -- is there anyway I can trace if someone HAD hacked me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank You !

GeekGirl

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2010
    The probability that you were hacked is incredibly small. In fact, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning while wielding your $455 million winning lottery ticket.

    Hard drives die all the time. They're sensitive to heat and dust, few people clean their PCs regularly and so on.

    Besides, crashing a hard drive while hacking is close to impossible (literally impossible) and, to put it lightly, very stupid if you're trying to get information.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2010
    Just to back up what Thrax said: A hard drive crashing is a physical phenomenon. You cannot cause the hard drive to physically break via any sort of hackery.

    Coincidence combined with paranoia.
  • Paladin677Paladin677 Moriarty, NM Member
    edited October 2010
    While I would hate to use the term impossible, exceedingly unlikely to the nth degree I would easily say. However typically the last thing a malicious outsider would want to do is incapacitate your system by destroying your hard drive. The whole point of going to the trouble of infiltrating a system is to either/both gain access to the information on your hard drive or/and using your (along with likely many many others) compromised system for their own purposes.
  • geekgirl1920geekgirl1920
    edited October 2010
    Thank you Rober, Primesuspect & Paladin677.....

    You're easing my mind....a bit.
    Yes, I know it would make no sense for your "average" outsider hacker to destroy a Hard Drive ( if, as you said...even possible to do so)

    But we're talking about someone I know.... who possibly got into my persoanl data and didn't like what they saw (namely my diary I keep privately in My Documents section....or pictures...etc).
    If someone saw stuff....and wanted to crash a hard drive....
    Then let me ask you this...

    At this point...is there any way for me to track or detect if I was hacked now that the old Hard Drive is dead?
    Or to trace any possible intrusion on my computer?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited October 2010
    I'll take it one step further and say it is physically impossible for a hacker to kill or crash your hard drive. Your hard drive died on its own volition not due to any outside influence. Having worked in IT, I can tell you I have stood over a networked computer while an outsider hacked the machine via the internet. The machine chugs, it bugs, but the hard drive does NOT crash or die. Get a new hard drive and a new boyfriend and enjoy life again!
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2010
    Also being an IT person, I can confirm that it is not possible to physically destroy a hard drive via hacking. It is basically impossible to damage your computer physically using only software these days. Believe me, I've tried (on scrap hardware, just for shits and giggles). The most a hacker could do would be to tamper with your data and/or write tons of data over and over to your hard drive. While doing this could, in theory, damage the drive physically; it would take an extended period of time (read months or years) to do it and you would definitely notice significant slow down on your system the entire time (I/O wait is a bitch).
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