eraser or dban vs rootkit?

I belive to have found a rootkit (and some other junk) on my girlfriends computer. I want to be sure this threat is properly removed, just reinstalling the OS doesn't feel like enought.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a disk wiping tool that also should be able to kill rootkit(s)?

I was thinking a harddrive eraser such as dban or eraser could be a good pick but I don't know, what does the experts here suggest?

All the best.

 

If it's a rootkit/bootkit that modifies the mbr, u might wanna rebuild the mbr as well...

 

It is my understanding that a "zero write" to all hard drive sectors should get rid of rootkits. Any of the hard drive manufacturer's bootable diagnostic disks should have this option. There are many other bootable disks that will also do a "zero write" to all hard drive sectors.

Freewares:

1. Terabyte's CopyWipe bootable CD
2. Partition Wizard's bootable CD

Payware:

1. Terabyte's BootIt Bare Metal bootable CD

There are many others.

 

that bring a question

If i completely formatted a disk and reparation it
the root wont be gone ? or wont get deleted ?

if i installed a system over a quick format with MBR scanning is it enough ?

Or should DBAN and reparation ?

 

Deleting and recreating any partitions on a disk, then formatting them will kill off any malware, rootkit, whatever.

Dbanning and all that nonsense is just senseless paranoia

 

Some rootkit can preserve itself from simple formatting.

 

Can they ?

How pray tell ?

I didn't say "simple formatting", i said "delete and recreate all partitions, then format them"

 

If you are in a hurry and only have one primary partition you could first delete the primary partition (using a parition management software) followed by a "zero write" operation for a couple of minutes. It is my understanding that a "zero write" operation starts from the 1st sector of the hard drive which is where the MBR is located. A Full "zero write" may take a few hours.

 

Exactly!

Check This and This

 

A new MBR and volume boot record is written when a disk is partitioned, no need for dban at all.