Format or Re-Install XP (Oh My God)

[doc_bean]

my Brother formatted his C Drive on his comp to, and it didn't help, since he had several Drives. it destroys the OS? To What extent though?

You'll need to completely reinstall Windows and reinstall (download, for most people) all the updates. You'll also need to reinstall all drivers and additional software, but you already knew that I guess.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Nope. didn't know that. I Thought Formatting just Deleted all the stuff, and that's it. But, if I have to re-ninstall Windows again, what the sense of formattion :-/?

[LeftEyeNine]

The sense is you get rid of ANY AND EVERYTHING!

..sounds genius, right ?

[Husar]

..sounds genius, right ?

Yes, long live the man who introduced formatting into the computer world.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Well Of Course, But if you have to install Windows Again, What the sense of formatting, when you could just re-install windows :-/

Here The pic now
See if it better,just zoom in

https://img157.imageshack.us/img157/6086/ev8is6.jpg

[Oaty]

In sert the windows disk, then turn off your computer. Restart it and instead of booting up you should be prompted by windows install.

The choices will be reinsatll, format and install or cancel.

If your bootup doesnt read the disk you need to set bios to bootup from the CD before it boots from the main disk

[doc_bean]

Well Of Course, But if you have to install Windows Again, What the sense of formatting, when you could just re-install windows :-/

Because reinstalling windows on top of windows solves ****.

EDIT: It actually causes a lot more problems, DO NOT DO THIS.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Just like I thought Bean. I read in my one PC Magainze,how it is Hell (hope that is allow) to install XP, but twice as bad to re-install

Have to Find my XP disc then, Thanks Guys :-) :-)

[caravel]

Yea, I get a bigger pic

I've seen it below. It's as I've said. The partition is active so it cannot be formatted.

But m8, my comp isn't going to be fix with some spyware tools. My Comp is to the point of, ethier I format it, and take all the Spyware/Trojans and Worms down with my other info, or have my whole comp blow up.

You don't know that. I've brought back quite a few machines from the brink in the past. The users had obviously been seriously into pr0n and had taken no precautions whatsoever. There are means to remove such trojans, browser hijacks and spyware, but it's never easy. It's usually much easier than reinstalling however, though if you're little or no computer knowledge, both tasks are equally difficult.

So you mean it will destroy all data? Of Course, my Brother formatted his C Drive on his comp to, and it didn't help, since he had several Drives. it destroys the OS? To What extent though?

In basic terms ,formatting removes the file allocation table and rewrites it to effectively erase all of the data on the disk. The disk then becomes a new disk. This is why datas is referred to as being "lost" rather than being destroyed or deleted, because it is there, but you can no longer access it. New files will be written over the old data, which is treated as free space. Restarting your PC after this will give the message "missing operating system" and nothing else. To render the PC usable you will need to resintall the OS again from scratch. Once reinstalled you will need to reinstall the drivers for your hardware, reinstall your programs and reconfigure the OS to suit your needs. If you don't feel up to such a task I suggest that you seek the assistance of a professional, or go down the route of trying to "exorcise" the malware from your system.

[Husar]

I don't know in what way installing Windows should be hell, I have been sleeping while Vista Beta 2 installed on my system and when I woke up it was ready to go except for some plugins of course.
I think XP is similar or only slightly worse, never felt the need to sleep while installing it, but I think I heard that it also goes on and does it automatically, if not, I don't know what's hard about choosing a timezone or giving your computer a name?

[caravel]

XP dates back to 2001. As soon as it's installed on a newer system chances are that it needs alot of updating to service pack 2 and then a whole host of other updates. Then there's motherboard chipsets drivers, graphics card drivers, sound card drivers, etc etc. We can assume that someone has a bog standard rig, and that XP's included drivers will support 99% of the hardware, but I never feel it's wise to assume.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

I've seen it below. It's as I've said. The partition is active so it cannot be formatted.



You don't know that. I've brought back quite a few machines from the brink in the past. The users had obviously been seriously into pr0n and had taken no precautions whatsoever. There are means to remove such trojans, browser hijacks and spyware, but it's never easy. It's usually much easier than reinstalling however, though if you're little or no computer knowledge, both tasks are equally difficult.



In basic terms ,formatting removes the file allocation table and rewrites it to effectively erase all of the data on the disk. The disk then becomes a new disk. This is why datas is referred to as being "lost" rather than being destroyed or deleted, because it is there, but you can no longer access it. New files will be written over the old data, which is treated as free space. Restarting your PC after this will give the message "missing operating system" and nothing else. To render the PC usable you will need to resintall the OS again from scratch. Once reinstalled you will need to reinstall the drivers for your hardware, reinstall your programs and reconfigure the OS to suit your needs. If you don't feel up to such a task I suggest that you seek the assistance of a professional, or go down the route of trying to "exorcise" the malware from your system.

Yea, but When The Person (myself) doesn't have the money to spend onn 75 dollar Sertciuty Suites, then, Formatting is the only answer.

So, One Person tells me just to format,Several anyhow, and then Cara tells me, if I format, I will have to re-install the OS anyhow? Makes No Sense. If I have to re-nistall the OS anyhow, why do they give you two choicens anyhow,amkes no sense

Just going to format it Tomarrow (Sunday) and see what turns out..

[doc_bean]

So, One Person tells me just to format,Several anyhow, and then Cara tells me, if I format, I will have to re-install the OS anyhow? Makes No Sense. If I have to re-nistall the OS anyhow, why do they give you two choicens anyhow,amkes no sense

I'm not quite sure how you got the idea that you can format without losing every single thing on that HD partition (including the OS) but just get that out of your head. It's an illusion and a dangerous one at that (you 'll end up more losing than you'd expect or you'll mess up your system even more).

While I consider reformatting a pretty standard operation, Caravel might have a point, you shouldn't mess with what you don't know/understand.

If you're going to go ahead anyway, make sure you don't put the Windows cd in while running windows and then just install. You have to boot from the Windows cd.

[caravel]

Yea, but When The Person (myself) doesn't have the money to spend onn 75 dollar Sertciuty Suites, then, Formatting is the only answer.

Not "security suites". Every tool/method used would have been absolutely free and easily downloadable from the net. Anyway you seem set on formatting so go ahead.

So, One Person tells me just to format,Several anyhow, and then Cara tells me, if I format, I will have to re-install the OS anyhow? Makes No Sense. If I have to re-nistall the OS anyhow, why do they give you two choicens anyhow,amkes no sense

If you format, you lose all data. This means you'll need to reinstall everything. How can I make myself any clearer?

Resintalling the OS over the top of your existing OS is not a clean install. Corrupted windows files will be replaced, the registry won't be touched and all of your programs and the malware will still be intact. It will also probably remove your security updates, so you'll be in a worse situation than that which you were in before. These type of reinstalls are also prone to crashing.

Formatting and reinstalling, will first remove your old windows, the registry, your programs, your files, the malware... everything. When you reinstall windows it will be a new, clean install with the malware gone, but also your programs, files and personalisations gone. You will need to reinstall these.

Just going to format it Tomarrow (Sunday) and see what turns out..

Good luck.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Not "security suites". Every tool/method used would have been absolutely free and easily downloadable from the net. Anyway you seem set on formatting so go ahead.



If you format, you lose all data. This means you'll need to reinstall everything. How can I make myself any clearer?

Resintalling the OS over the top of your existing OS is not a clean install. Corrupted windows files will be replaced, the registry won't be touched and all of your programs and the malware will still be intact. It will also probably remove your security updates, so you'll be in a worse situation than that which you were in before. These type of reinstalls are also prone to crashing.

Formatting and reinstalling, will first remove your old windows, the registry, your programs, your files, the malware... everything. When you reinstall windows it will be a new, clean install with the malware gone, but also your programs, files and personalisations gone. You will need to reinstall these.



Good luck.

Don't need to make yourself any clearer, I understood this Days ago

I give up. No Idea at all how to format my comp. Abousltey No Bloody Idea how. Yea got my Xp Disc, but I can't seem to boot it up, from the Disc. I can't re-install it, won't work there ethier, don't got a clear set of directions, Xp directions are confusing enough.

[Oaty]

Your Bios is not setup to bootup from the disc.

Restart your computer and hit f1 as it is booting up. Then change it to read the cd before reading the hard disk on bootup.

If that doesnt work hit the pause/break button on bootup so you can visibly read the instructions to see wich key to hit to accesss the bios

[caravel]

Don't need to make yourself any clearer, I understood this Days ago

Sorry but if you understood days ago, then why are you still totally unsure and asking the same questions, after the whole process has been explained time and again? You reject advice and believe that you need to format, then you return here because you don't know how to format an HDD. If you have no clue as to booting from the WinXP CDROM or formatting an HDD, then I would advise you again to seek the assistance of a professional.

I give up. No Idea at all how to format my comp. Abousltey No Bloody Idea how. Yea got my Xp Disc, but I can't seem to boot it up, from the Disc. I can't re-install it, won't work there ethier, don't got a clear set of directions, Xp directions are confusing enough.

Well... Again, you "understood", "days ago" yet you have "no Idea at all how to format" your HDD.

You need to place the WinXP CDROM in your CDROM drive and reboot your PC. When your initial boot splash screen appears you will need to hit either DEL or F2, depending on which type of BIOS you have, to enter the CMOS setup. You then need to go to, usually, the 'BIOS features' menu and alter the boot sequence. Changing options is usually done via the page up/page down keys or the +/- keys. Your BIOS will tell you near the bottom of the screen. You need to place the CDROM device at the top of the list, which may looK something like this.

IDE0
CDROM
DISABLED
DISABLED

You will need to change it to look like this:

CDROM
IDE0
DISABLED
DISABLED

Then you need to exit saving changes. The system will then boot from the WinXP CDROM. A message will appear "Hit any key to boot from the CDROM..." or something to that affect. Do so. The WinXP setup will launch, you will see a blue screen with device drivers loading across the bottom. Wait until this finishes then you will see the options. You need to format the entire partition in NTFS and install WinXP.

Before you do that though, you need to download Windows XP service pack 2 and burn it onto a CDR. As soon as your clean XP installation is finished you'll need to install that before you connect to the internet. If your WinXP CDROM has already got SP2 integrated then disregard the above.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Sorry but if you understood days ago, then why are you still totally unsure and asking the same questions, after the whole process has been explained time and again? You reject advice and believe that you need to format, then you return here because you don't know how to format an HDD. If you have no clue as to booting from the WinXP CDROM or formatting an HDD, then I would advise you again to seek the assistance of a professional.



Well... Again, you "understood", "days ago" yet you have "no Idea at all how to format" your HDD.

You need to place the WinXP CDROM in your CDROM drive and reboot your PC. When your initial boot splash screen appears you will need to hit either DEL or F2, depending on which type of BIOS you have, to enter the CMOS setup. You then need to go to, usually, the 'BIOS features' menu and alter the boot sequence. Changing options is usually done via the page up/page down keys or the +/- keys. Your BIOS will tell you near the bottom of the screen. You need to place the CDROM device at the top of the list, which may looK something like this.

IDE0
CDROM
DISABLED
DISABLED

You will need to change it to look like this:

CDROM
IDE0
DISABLED
DISABLED

Then you need to exit saving changes. The system will then boot from the WinXP CDROM. A message will appear "Hit any key to boot from the CDROM..." or something to that affect. Do so. The WinXP setup will launch, you will see a blue screen with device drivers loading across the bottom. Wait until this finishes then you will see the options. You need to format the entire partition in NTFS and install WinXP.

Before you do that though, you need to download Windows XP service pack 2 and burn it onto a CDR. As soon as your clean XP installation is finished you'll need to install that before you connect to the internet. If your WinXP CDROM has already got SP2 integrated then disregard the above.

No Cara, because I didn't know it was going to be this confusing,of course.


I try that later then...

[TosaInu]

http://www.hitmanpro.nl/hitmanpro/index.php?lang=en

A Dutch site, but the program supports English. This is basically a manager for several spyware/virus removal tools. Instead of having to launch and update each (free or commercial) tool, this program does it all for you. Of course, a scan is going to take some time.

I've been using it for a while.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Thans Tosa, I try that out now :) :)