Idiot's guide to reformatting hard drive...

[Legend83]

Have a virus on my PC, have backed up all my files and now want to wipe my hard drive and start again. Have Windows XP.

Thought if I put the installation CD in it would automatically start and give me a reinstallation option...but that would be too much to ask.

So, can anyone give me a quick guide?

Cheers!

[Badgerboy]

(This should be in computers)

Regardless, do you have a actual Windows install disc, or a OEM supplied 'repair disc'

If it is an acutal Windows media disc, it will prompt you to re-install and you can clear the partitions during this process.

[AndrewTait]

If your PC is not attempting to boot from the CD, then you will need to set it to boot from CD in the BIOS.

In order to do this, watch when it first boots up, and there will be an option to get into the BIOS via a key press. (Often the DEL key, F2 or F10)

Once in there, look for some settings that list the boot devices, and move the CD to the top.

Place the CD in the drive, and as it boots, it should come up with a message, asking you to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key and it will boot into the blue Windows setup screens.

Follow the on screen instructions.

[tossbag]

It sounds to me like your CD RTOM drive isn't set as the first to boot, so your PC will skip it and look for windows on your hard drive.
You need to go into your BIOS - this is usually entered by tapping either the F2 key or your Delete key (not backspace, the one that says Delete on it).
Turn on your PC, instantly start tapping those keys over and over until your BIOS menu pops up.
In there the will be something along the lines of 'Boot Device Priority' - it's a menu within a menu.
Choose your CD / DVD drive from the list, save and reboot.
All this will make a hell of a lot more sense when you are actually doing it - it's not as scary as it looks!

[Scraggles]

why not remove the virus instead ?

[Cara Van Man]

Legend83 said:

Have a virus on my PC, have backed up all my files and now want to wipe my hard drive and start again. Have Windows XP.

Thought if I put the installation CD in it would automatically start and give me a reinstallation option...but that would be too much to ask.

So, can anyone give me a quick guide?

Cheers!

Did it not prompt you to make boot discs at some point? these are quite handy!

Sorry if that's not much help

[tossbag]

Scraggles said:

why not remove the virus instead ?

Depending on the virus sometimes a full format is actually a lot quicker than removal (if removal is possible, it's not always).

[tossbag]

Cara Van Man said:

Legend83 said:

Have a virus on my PC, have backed up all my files and now want to wipe my hard drive and start again. Have Windows XP.

Thought if I put the installation CD in it would automatically start and give me a reinstallation option...but that would be too much to ask.

So, can anyone give me a quick guide?

Cheers!

Did it not prompt you to make boot discs at some point? these are quite handy!

Sorry if that's not much help

No because from the sounds of it, his hard drive is set as the boot device, so any boot disks would be ignored until he goes into his bios and change the settings.
Then XP should be bootable in itself.

[AndrewW-G]

On top of all the other advice..............

When running the XP setup, you may want to delete the partitions (may as well if your formating the whole drive) incase the virus has been installed\infected other parts of the drive

[Cara Van Man]

tossbag said:

Cara Van Man said:

Legend83 said:

Have a virus on my PC, have backed up all my files and now want to wipe my hard drive and start again. Have Windows XP.

Thought if I put the installation CD in it would automatically start and give me a reinstallation option...but that would be too much to ask.

So, can anyone give me a quick guide?

Cheers!

Did it not prompt you to make boot discs at some point? these are quite handy!

Sorry if that's not much help

No because from the sounds of it, his hard drive is set as the boot device, so any boot disks would be ignored until he goes into his bios and change the settings.
Then XP should be bootable in itself.

Yeah.....true.

Mine does it automatically, so the bios must already have an order set.

I'm forever wiping it and restarting.

[tossbag]

Cara Van Man said:

tossbag said:

Cara Van Man said:

Legend83 said:

Have a virus on my PC, have backed up all my files and now want to wipe my hard drive and start again. Have Windows XP.

Thought if I put the installation CD in it would automatically start and give me a reinstallation option...but that would be too much to ask.

So, can anyone give me a quick guide?

Cheers!

Did it not prompt you to make boot discs at some point? these are quite handy!

Sorry if that's not much help

No because from the sounds of it, his hard drive is set as the boot device, so any boot disks would be ignored until he goes into his bios and change the settings.
Then XP should be bootable in itself.

Yeah.....true.

Mine does it automatically, so the bios must already have an order set.

I'm forever wiping it and restarting.

Yeah, it'll be set already, different manufacturers set it differently, so it's pot luck.

[Legend83]

Cheers guys! Yeah, definitely skipping the CD so will change the boot settings and see what happens.

Re removing the virus - tried. It's a pig that seems to defend itself! Everytime I try and download some malware removal tools, it gets to 99% download and freezes.

Once in XP setup do I just delete the C: partitions then create a new partition with full volume of space?

[The_Jackal]

Yes and do the full defrag not the quick creation.

[TonyToniTone]

The_Jackal said:

Yes and do the full defrag not the quick creation.

Do you mean format or format(quick) as there is not defrag option?

other than checking for bad sectors there is no difference.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/30268...

[Scraggles]

as the op admit's to being an idiot where pc's are concerned, suspect he might have issues with a full format

at least get a usb stick filled with the anti virus software as an unprotected XP connected to the net is going to get at least 1 free virus in the time it takes to download the AV software

[Don]

OK.

If you want your machines to stay virus-free it's really simple to achieve.

(1) Always connect to the net through a router with NAT and a firewall. If you must use a 3G USB stick or similar then...

(2) Run a full AV package with firewall. I use Bullguard.

(3) Any machine you use to surf should be running a full AV package and a firewall.

(4) Choose an ISP that sweeps emails for spam/viruses for you

That's it. I can go years in between rebuilds.

[Legend83]

Don said:

OK.

If you want your machines to stay virus-free it's really simple to achieve.

(1) Always connect to the net through a router with NAT and a firewall. If you must use a 3G USB stick or similar then...

(2) Run a full AV package with firewall. I use Bullguard.

(3) Any machine you use to surf should be running a full AV package and a firewall.

(4) Choose an ISP that sweeps emails for spam/viruses for you

That's it. I can go years in between rebuilds.

Cheers Don. Ran AVG free prior to this issue. Needless to say, I won't be using it again.

As long as the full format is relatively intuitive I should be ok.

Thanks all.

[onlynik]

Out of interest, which virus was it?

[Legend83]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlob_trojan

[GlenMH]

Legend83 said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlob_trojan

Don't be so quick to dismiss AVG: according to that article, you (or someone that uses the machine) may have clicked on something to help it along....