Virus and Formating

Hi everyone. My daughter informed me that her computer kept starting and starting. I told her she had that big virus I had a couple of years ago. She has my old computer and I know how it is configured. She is suppose to let me come over and reinstall and format everything. I've done it before so I don't need to ask that question. But the question I do have is that as I recall, the computer was configured as follows:

C: Windows XP
D: Downloads
E: Other stuff and so on

She only has a 40 gig hard drive and 128 mgs ram. So for now that's what it is. I was never able to do a proper defrag of the C Drive (windows XP) because there wasn't enough room on the drive. What I would llike to do is completely format all drives and make it into only one drive wiith everything on it like most computers. But where the computer starts over and over, it doesn't stay open long enough for me to get anywhere. I haven't seen the computer yet since she lives an hour away. But from what she told me on the phone, I gathered what the problem was.

My question again: Can I format all the drives into one BEFORE installing XP? I will have to boot with the XP CD in order to get into it Or can I press CTL AlT DEL to get into the setup it it doesn't boot from the CD? What about Safe Mode. If the computer keeps starting and restarting, can I get into safe mode and format the drives from there? I know there are lots of questions here. Thank you for your time and help.

msmelle

 

Hello Melle.

That symptomps doesn't necessarily indicate an infection, but let's try first things first, considering that you already decided to change partitions.

Yes, you would have to boot your system from an external source, be it XP installation CD or bootable floppy. Most common way is to boot from your XP installation CD, your computer will ask you to press any key to boot from a CD when you restart it (insert the CD before a restart, of course).

If you cannot do that, you would have to change the order of boot devices in your computer's BIOS. But, let's hope that everything is OK there.

You should take a look at this nice and detailed guide on installing XP Pro (and here is for XP Home), which explains deletion and creation of partitions as well. Take a good look at it before you start with your task, and if you have some other questions, please feel free to return here...

Regards.

 

You do need to backup the files you need beforehand, but you can format all the drives (or partitions). During teh XP install it will let you delete/create partitions and after doing so it will ask you to format it.

You can also partition/format the drives using Acronis Disk Director, or a boot floppy with fdisk on it.

I never tried installing Windows from Windows. I just boot off the CD.

In safe mode, you should be able to format your D and E drives but not C since its being used.

 

Thank you Nick for your reply. I'm on my way out but will definately read the entire link you sent me and copy and print it. Thank you very much. I'll get back to you if I don't understand something.

Melle

 

Thank you WSFuser for your reply. I will take all this into consideration and prepare carefully before the big surgery.

Melle

 

Hi again. I asked my daughter and she told me the stuff is as follows:

C: Windows XP Pro
D: Downloads
E: Pictures, etc.
F: Program files (I think).

I'm not sure where she put her music though.

My question again here.....I believe she might have the blaster virus or something cause her computer reboots every minute or so. As per your posts at the beginning saying that it might be other than a virus, would her pictures and music be salvageable? If I can't get the computer running, how can I save her stuff? And how? And if and when you tell me how, wouldn't there be a virus through the stuff or would it only be in windows? Thank you kindly for your replies.

Melle

 

You can connect the drive to another computer and then get the files off teh drive.

Additionally, u could use that computer to scan the drive if you think there is a virus.

 

thanks for your reply
Melle