Reloading hard drive in your computer.

[MATTYBLU2]

hey guys, writing from work as my puter's got a nasty virus, dont know how it got in as i have PC-Cillian antivirus & several windows cleaners. it wont even let me go online now, cant find the browser?? anyways its been ok until a few weeks ago when a friend contacted me from highschool to look freinds up on this site called (facebook). so i went and signed up to reconnect with some of my highscool friends, and it seems ever since that i got viruses, dll problems, cant find image problems, etc.

now i am considering erasing my hard drive and reloading windows XP back and starting fresh again. i do know whats involved in saving all my data and stuff. I have DL a few programs to try and fix this, but it did not work. i DL win reg fix & rec cure, but neither of them helped.

has anyone done this with XP? how difficult? how time consuming? i read some stuff online about doing it an dit says you need a floppy disc? floppy drive? man i havent had one of those in years. can you use a CD drive instead? any info or help would be great. also are there any programs out there that would just fix my puter instead?

any suggestions woul be cool or do i need to have a prfessional take care of it? i am computer savey

[cravnsn]

How about the system restore function. Roll back your settings to a date prior to the virus, that will hopefully work without having to start from scratch.

[messym]

Before you wipe your HDD, there is an app called HiJack This! which you can download online. It looks at your reg and highlights anything suspicious. It will eliminate anything that may be lurking on your pc. Use it w/ caution though, it picks up any program it does not identify and if you remove the wrong item you will definitely have to wipe your entire HDD and reinstall XP. Google is your friend here and you can post the HiJack This! log online and others w/ more expertise than I will tell you if something does not belong.

Wiping the HDD should be your last option as it is time consuming...do you have your install/restore disks?

[clyon]

Originally Posted by MATTYBLU2

hey guys, writing from work as my puter's got a nasty virus, dont know how it got in as i have PC-Cillian antivirus & several windows cleaners. it wont even let me go online now, cant find the browser?? anyways its been ok until a few weeks ago when a friend contacted me from highschool to look freinds up on this site called (facebook). so i went and signed up to reconnect with some of my highscool friends, and it seems ever since that i got viruses, dll problems, cant find image problems, etc.

now i am considering erasing my hard drive and reloading windows XP back and starting fresh again. i do know whats involved in saving all my data and stuff. I have DL a few programs to try and fix this, but it did not work. i DL win reg fix & rec cure, but neither of them helped.

has anyone done this with XP? how difficult? how time consuming? i read some stuff online about doing it an dit says you need a floppy disc? floppy drive? man i havent had one of those in years. can you use a CD drive instead? any info or help would be great. also are there any programs out there that would just fix my puter instead?

any suggestions woul be cool or do i need to have a prfessional take care of it? i am computer savey

yes I have done it about 2 or 3 time... I never used a floppy just the cd.. I don't even have a floppy drive.... Note I have XP Pro

1st you have to reformate the drive, that time will depend how big the drive is.. if it is over 100gig let it do it over night. You do that by using the XP cd at start-up

2nd is instill XP... that is about 45 min to a bit over an hour

3rd install the hardware drivers for whatever you have in your computer, & make sure there are the most resent ones.. sometime finding them can be hard. Took me 2 weeks to find the driver to my video card one time

4th run windows XP update, this will have to be done maybe 3 or 4 times.. this will take time about 1-2 hours depending on your internet speed (closer to 2 hours maybe 3 hours because they just did SP3 & that is big).

5th install your sercurity software & do the update on that.

6th install any software your have, install Flash & Shockwave + install the drivers if you have a printer.

7th your mostly done just have to do the little thing that makes it yours, like favorites folder, any tweeks to IE (Like i Hate Tabs on my IE so I have that off) or windows wallpaper, screen saver & that... or if you use something diffrent like Firefox install that then...... then you all done!!!!!


it is mostly something that will take up a weekend...

have fun