Your assumptions about malware are somewhat dated. In the past, malware may have been devised by script kiddies to perplex PC users, but today it is all about money - big money. Malware will either take control of your system in an obvious way and popup fake scans and alerts to try to trick you into buying a bogus product to remove the bogus threats - or it will try to remain as hidden as possible in order to use your PC as part of a botnet. Messing with Flash Player is not something malware would do.
You may be having the first inklings of a hard drive that is starting to go bad, or it may be something less dire. Either way, as Allen alluded to, running System Restore can cause its own problems - and worse, because it changes some things and not others, it really complicates trying to troubleshoot what may have caused an issue in the first place because the system has been altered in ways that are not obvious.
The following article discusses some symptoms of impending hard drive failure, which I include here for your reference. Due to all of the System Restore operations, you may want to remove and reinstall any programs that seem problematic. Don't just install over the top. Completely uninstall the program first. Use vendor provided removal tools, when available (Adobe provides a removal tool for Flash Player, for example).
I do understand and agree with most of your points about the SR.
But...regarding the "script kiddies" issue -- I have something of a "special situation" here. Some personal things involved that I wouldn't want to discuss on a public forum. I stand by my analysis on this though. These are not "kiddies," but rather people with highly detailed computer knowledge -- and the wherewithal/resources -- to do substantial damage (via computer -- and otherwise) to people they don't agree with.
Have done some analysis of my HDD in the past. It appears OK, for the most part. But... you could be right. [And, tks for the link.] Yet, again -- too many things are too "coincidental" for it to be that, in my mind. Too much "correlation factor." This has been going on for years. I have a good many "data points," as well as some reasonable ideas about motive -- and opportunity.
Though I understand where you are coming from and I am truly sympathetic to that I would nevertheless submit the following.
You appear convinced that you have malware on your computer. To choose to live with that and not do anything about it would make the malware writers the winners instead of you.
The sites I mentioned are experts at what they do and what they do best is help computer owners remove malware. There are no guarantees that malware cannot cause harm to your computer in the process of attempting to remove it, but these sites I listed have a very good reputation and they do know what they are doing. Again choosing to live with malware makes the bad guys the winners.
If / when your computer is cleaned up you should invest in an imaging backup program like Norton Ghost or some other one - there are lots of good ones out there. This is yet another good and solid defense against not only malware but other completely unrelated computer problems as well.
If you really do have malware on your computer it could be doing most anything behind your back, such as stealing personal data from your computer and a host of other things which may not be obvious to you.
Again the above assumes you actually do have malware on your computer and honestly I am not at all convinced that you do but the most important thing is that you believe you have malware and therefore it seems in your best interests to do something about it, in either getting it cleaned up or getting a clean bill of health.
Yes, I like your thoughts on this. Am thinking about it. Will let you know if I do a "ticket" with those malware-fighter links.
And, tks again for all your time and trouble.
Best to You,
Robby
PS, I've had GHOST 14 for (3) years or so (though never used it to restore my system). The malware knocks it out, too -- whenever the malware chooses to do so. I really, really wonder what kind of GHOST "image" I have out there. If they can knock out GHOST, they probably can corrupt whatever GHOST has saved. Just sayin'.