Reformatting

  • Thread starter Thread starter lly
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lly

I have a virus on my computer and I need to reformat the
harrd drive and reinstall windows2000. Can someone give
me the steps of reformatting a hard drive.

Thanks a lot!!
 
lly said:
I have a virus on my computer and I need to reformat the
harrd drive and reinstall windows2000. Can someone give
me the steps of reformatting a hard drive.
Click to expand...
1) You LOST ALL YOUR information after reformating
2) Boot from w2000 CD, select system partition, select format (as
NTFS or FAT)
 
I have a virus on my computer and I need to reformat the
harrd drive and reinstall windows2000. Can someone give
me the steps of reformatting a hard drive.

Thanks a lot!!
Click to expand...

First, try to eliminate the virus. Buy the most recent anti-virus software at
your nearest office supply or computer store. You should be able to run it
directly from its CD (or floppy disk) and clean your computer. This should
work. Then make sure you get updates from the AV company's website at least
once a week, and run the AV software.

Second, W2K will not allow you to reformat the drive on which it resides. You
must boot from a floppy disk and run Format from the command line. You need
either a DOS disk, or an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

With the DOS disk (make sure it's write-protected) boot, the run FDisk, and
delete the C:. Then reinstall W2K from the CD. It will find a "blank disk",
and partition and format it for you. You may have to ask a few questions
before it does this, but selecting the defaults is OK.

You can make an ERD by following the instructions in W2K. But in your case,
that would be risky, as the virus may be the kind that inserts itself onto
the disk. AFAIK, an ERD from another system will not work, since the ERD
includes information specific to your hardware, but it's worth a try. Even if
all you can do is FDisk and/or Format, you will have succeeded. (You can do a
lot more than that with an ERD, actually.) Once you have a clean system, make
an ERD and store it in a safe place. I always make at least two copies of
such essential disks, BTW.

To use Fdisk, enter fdisk on the command line. When the onscreen menu comes
up select Delete Partition, and follow the instructions. You can also Create
Partition, etc. All information the HD will be lost.

To use format, enter format C: on the command line. This will format C:, and
all information on C: will be lost..


HTH&GL
 
I need to know how to reformat my hard drive.
-----Original Message-----


1) You LOST ALL YOUR information after reformating
2) Boot from w2000 CD, select system partition, select format (as
NTFS or FAT)


.
Click to expand...
 
put your win2k disc in your cd, reboot. Watch close for the "Hit any key" to
activate the bootable cd. Once that is started, read the directions
carefully. You will have the choice to delete all partitions. Then build new
partitions and reformat and install windows.

Back up any files you need or want. And get yourself a good Anti-Virus
program!! Any data you have backed up can then be scanned before you
transfer to your HD.

I've always had good luck with Norton AV 2002, but when I upgraded to NAV
2004 I had irresolvable problems and ended up uninstalling it and getting my
money back.

Do a search on google, "how to reformat and reinstall windows 2000"... I
know there are lots of sites out there that can offer you help, something
perhaps you could print before diving in and wiping your drive!!

good luck
 
What virus(es) did you get?

There are very, very few infections that warrant
a complete reformat. In fact, none I can really think of
offhand. This is mainly a suggestion perpetuated out
of ignorance.

You want to first use a scanner and/or the
appropriate removal tool to get rid of the detected
viruses. This can, upon occasion, leave you with
a bit of damage to your configuration. Usually not,
but sometimes.

In most of these cases an O/S upgrade-reinstall will restore
any missing files and registry problems you have
after removing the virus, and this will not result in
any data or configuration loss. In a few cases (Code Red
for example), you may want to reinstall the O/S clean
to eliminate trojan vulnerabilities left behind,
but this is a far cry from reformatting the entire drive.
The A/V vendor's notes on the particular virus will usually
tell you if this is the case.

At any rate, you reformat simply by booting from the
Windows CD to do the setup, and deleting and recreating
the partition during the initial setup phase when prompted
for the partition to install to.

If you don't care about what's on the drive, or have other
reasons for doing it, that's fine of course, but otherwise for just
a virus infection it's like taking a hammer to an unfastened
safety pin.

Steve Duff, MCSE
Ergodic Systems, Inc.
 
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