A little over a month ago, I was dealing with the W32.Myzor.FK@yf virus. I got some help in the virus forum here, and we've gotten rid of the virus (so far so good), but as my computer was often freezing up on me, and Internet Explorer was working exceptionally slow, it was also suggested to me that i reformat my hard drive. The freezing has since stopped, but IE is still slow, and I figured it can't hurt to wipe things clean and start anew. Except I have no idea where to start. I'm on Windows XP Pro and I have the Reinstallation CD. I was told I just had to reboot from it and the process would be self-explanitory, but it wasn't really. All I know is that I have to somehow erase my hard drive (I was going to use DOS, just because I couldn't figure out which erasing software to buy), and then reinstall Windows. Can anybody give me some simple instructions on what to do? I've got a backup of my C: drive on an external disk (which I've even disconnected from the computer), so I'm not worried about losing anythign on the desktop unit. Thanks.
1-turn pc off, 2-turn pc on, 3-when pc is starting press the ESC KEY untill you get into your bios, 4-go to your boot section and change the booting sequence so that your cd rom is the fist boot, 5-exit the bios and when askedSAVE CHANGE say yes or ok, make sure your os disk is in the cd rom, 6-your pc will re-start and on the screen it will ask you if you to press any key to BOOT FROM CD, so find the any key and press it LOL... having fun...just press any key and the rest is simple. when the new os is completly installed you will have to go back into you bios and re-set the boot so you hd is the first boot. good lunk
hang on.......If your hard drive is a sata drive then you must put the sata drivers on a floppy BEFORE you reinstall otherwise your drive might not be recognised.Your mobo nanual will have the details on how to do this.When you reinstall, windows will ask you if you need to load any third paty drivers by pressing the f6 button.Press it asap or it will assume you dont.
both jacka$$ & pieman have good points. However, if you think that you need to format your drive, by following jacka$$ idea you may not get rid of the problem that you were having. You could tell us what steps you have taken to get your machine clean (in detail please) and I may be able to help you get your computer running smooth again. Or you can format your HD. If it is a SATA drive then follow pieman's instructions. After you have your SATA backed up reboot your machine. As the BIOS screen comes on press F8 repeatedly until a DOS menu appears. One option will be to boot your machine to the command prompt. When you are at the c:\ drive. type cd\ to get there if you do not start out there. Now type format c:. It will ask you if you are sure, say yes. After your machine is formatted place in your OS CD and reboot the machine. Do a normal Install. Please make sure that you have the full OS for your machine and not an upgrade.
Wow, I have absolutely no idea what you guys are talking about. I've never heard of a SATA drive or mobo nanuals ("manual?"). I haven't done anything yet. I've been warned that I should expect to spend several hours dealing with the reformat, so I haven't done jack yet until I have the time to sit and focus. It's a Dell Dimension 4550, which I bought probably around 2001. I have the OS disk that came with the computer, from Dell, in case of situations like this. So what's step one?
Why don't you give the people in the virus forum a chance to work with you to see if they can see anything and perhaps you won't have to do a reload. Likley the first thing thay will want to see is a HJT log.
Jaytan716, I had posted this for someone else on aD. Hope it helps you. Make sure you have a CD with the Windows XP setup files, and the letter of the drive which you wish to format. 1. Start the PC 2. Keep pressing either DEL, F2, F1 or ESC until the BIOS menu comes up. If your OS boots up before this, reboot and try again with a different key. 3. Make sure your 'First Boot Device' in the BIOS is set to 'CD'(a.k.a. Your CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drive). Don't forget to save and exit. Refer to your motherboard manual for more information. 4. With the boot disk inside the disc drive, boot up the computer. 5. When prompted 'Press any key to boot from CD, do so within 5 seconds. 6. It'll load the drivers. If you have SATA, you may also need to do as pieman said. 7. After that, press ENTER to continue the setup. 8. Accept the license agreement by pressing F8 9. If it detects an older windows installation, press ESC 10. Choose the drive where you wish to install XP, and also choose to format it on the next screen (THIS IS IMPORTANT in your case). Decide whether you'd like FAT32 or NTFS, and choose it (NOT the 'QUICK' option) 10. Confirm the format by pressing the appropriate letter (can't remember which one), and wait till it formats and copies some files. 11. Let it reboot, and after it does, when the prompt of 'Press a key to boot from CD' comes, DONT DO SO. Leave it alone, and let it boot from your HDD. 12. The rest of the setup is pretty simple, as it has the windows interface. Make sure that you have your Product key handy. Refer to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/default.mspx for more information Post if you have any doubt.
try this double click on my computer right click on c drive click format hard drive it will wipe ur harddrive clean put windows cd in and it should tell you to press ant key to boot from disc.when done restart pc and change boot system to harddrive ,since I dont know what make your pc is I cant tell u how to do this .
lonernz, You are asking him to format his windows installation drive from within windows itself. Do you even think that would work?
my bad forgot I used a boot wipe disc ,it wipes your harddrive clean .sorry about that ,but reformating his harddrive this way will only crash his systsem and he can still reinstall his windows its just a fast way of wiping harddive ,or he can put his windows disc in and reformat his drive just by changing bootup from c drive to cd/dvd drive.
Actually, NO. Windows simply won't allow you to format it's system drive. If you try it, you will get an error messge saying "Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of this drive. Then try formatting again."
Bottom line: Windows will not let you format it's own os drive because you are using it. How could it because it is using the very content your trying to destroy. An XP os disc gives you many options, you can delete and re create partions then format them. It will not work any other way no matter what you shut off there is still plenty working in the backround that you don't see. Im sorry to be blunt but it just wont happen. If you want to blow away your disc something as simple as a low level formatter from you drive maker removing the first 64 bytes (the master boot record) will destroy the drive and you can format from there. Sorry just the way it works. A dos Fdisk might work but if windows is active it won't. Big loss that MS took dos out of windows. Dos always worked. Good luck
sorry just read my post (sober& strait) my post is crap,not well at all no more posting for me when im in that state .
