Hard drive formatting

[G-MANN]

Would like to reinstall my windows xp and start my pc from scratch. Think i have viruses and programs which have hijacked my pc but dont know what to do to get rid of them.

Any help with 'where do i start' appreciated!!!

G-MANN

[Tonic Please]

I only have about 2 minutes but let me say don't go and rush into formatting the disk. Give some things we suggest a try over a week.

I expect you'll have replies by tonight, but I'll come back to you anyhow.

If you haven't already, get adaware and spybot, and run them. They are free and a search on www.download.com will reveal them. After, get hijack this and post the report.

Further advice will follow :)

Dan

[Binoculars]

Always a very tempting idea to start from scratch, it conjures up images of a brand new start, and that's what it is. But like you I'm not an advanced user, and whenever I format a hard drive I allow a day and a half for the process. Be aware of everything you have to reinstall, anti-virus programs, email programs (do a search on how to save emails in Outlook Express if you want to save anything in that line... it ain't simple) etc etc. If you have software discs for everything you want to reinstall and you're confident you can handle everything including reinstallation of broadband/dialup connections, networking etc, then go ahead.

You may find it's more worthwhile going through the hijack processes as described in various threads here (search on HJT for a start). You can free your computer of all the nasties without necessarily taking the drastic step of reformatting. AdAware, Spybot, HJT, all the usual suspects. Download them all and use them before you reformat, you have nothing to lose.

And if you have to format, do another search on saving. It's unbelievable what you can lose from a hard drive without even knowing it's there until you start from scratch.

And since you're using XP, don't dismiss the restore function. If your nasties are relatively recent, it's well worth snapping your fingers and taking your computer back to a time when things were better!

[5milesbaby]

I've done this recently myself and can be very straight forward. Make sure you have a list of all the product codes you will need after the reboot, ie ZoneLabs, ISP connection, Norton. Save all your data you want onto a CD, and note down or save the e-mail addresses you need. I fortunately printed out most of mine, as when I saved the address book it didn't save properly and couldn't be reloaded. Finally find all the disks you need for reload, most essentially the Restore Pack and Service Pack for windows that was supplied with the computer. When you are ready, and have a good few hours free, set the boot up sequence in BIOS to start from your disk drive, not hard drive. Insert the Restore Pack disk and restart again and a menu will appear giving choices of repairing, restoring etc. Follow the selections to do a full install, and when it comes to selecting to create a restore point, don't. Eventually it'll tell you that you may lose files needed for Windows, but as long as you have the Restart Disk, this doesn't matter. It'll also tell you several times that this will erase all saved data, just keep going as this is what you want to do. Somewhere it'll ask something about partitioning or something like that, don't create anything in anything already there, instead delete what you have to start again from fresh. My first time at re-doing XP took three attempts, but eventually I got there. Someone else will hopefully give you the proper names for the points it'll ask you to use/create or erase. I'm not very computer orientated but I managed it eventually, just make sure you have all the correct disks first, and then good luck!

5mb

[Stoney X]

format c: My favorite dos command :O

My preference when doing this is get Windows, an antivirus and a firewall loaded onto the machine before allowing any access to the internet. Hit the register later buttons during the installs, have the cable unplugged, etc. Then connect to the internet and get all the windows patches, antivirus and firewall updates applied. I'm not a fan of spybot, adaware or hjt. Personally I think they are more bother than they are worth. A good antivirus and an effective firewall can provide adequate protection. Don't forget to scan your backups to see if you have saved any interesting viruses.

Regards
Stoney

[BRL]

Blimey!! The poor fella will be sitting there scratching his head at this. There is conflicting advice in every post here!!

G-MANN, this is what I would do, me being a basic computer user.......

1- Download Spybot

2-Download Adaware

3-Download Zone Alarm(Free version)

4-Install all three programmes.

5-Connect to the internet and update all programmes.

6-When updated, run Spybot then Adaware.

7-Update your anti-virus definitions and run scan your computer.

8-Stop looking at dodgy sites!!!!

All of the above will not take more than an hour or so and should be straight forward to do, even for a beginner, don't be put off by all of this, it is easy and very straightforward.

Hopefully, this will sort it out without taking to drastic measures such as reformatting your hard drive as this can sometimes be a pain to do(see posts above) if you do not know much about computers. This is a run down of the basic things you need to do to get rid of problems. If successful, simply keep updating them and you should be ok.

As said earlier, hijack this is the way to go if what I have suggested fails but that is something I know nothing about so will leave that kind of advice to the experts here.

Keep us informed here on what you do to sort it out.

Good luck!!

[rotorcraig]

I'd agree with BRL, with the addition of:

9. Download and run HijackThis, post log here, wait for advice!
(Might look much better after 1..8, but best get a second opinion!)

Formatting your hard drive and reinstalling XP is a real last resort
(eg when XP won't boot, even in Safe Mode, thus can't get to 1 :eek: )

RC

[Stoney X]

I get the impression that G-MANN wants to starts from scratch so lets give what advice we can. It's certainly the most effective way of cleaning out a system and can be very rewarding. I do this at least once every 18 months. Throwing in a bit more ram or adding a new hard drive at the same time gives the PC a new lease on life. Loading on more thisware and thatbot is only going to clutter up a system that G-MANN implies is already cluttered. I think BRL's points 3, 7 and 8 are the most important.

Regards
Stoney