Nasty Virus

[Woodboy]

I have been fighting a nasty computer virus on my home PC that won't go away. It creates files and also affects external drives. After letting my very computer savvy son work on it and try to clean it manually and running several commercial anti-virus programs, I resorted to calling my company PC contractors (NexusTech). They needed download capability to run my machine remotely, since we lost network internet access and could not restore it, the alternative would be to bring my machine to them at $50/hour. After trying a few things, they believe some key files are corrupted and that necessitates a reformat. This is a 2003 machine, so a cost / benefit reality exists. The data is probably worth more than the machine, but in these times, I have decided to fix it myself, if possible.

How hard is it to reformat a hard drive? (Win XP) I understand that I will need to backup data files and reload programs. I am concerned about the virus being copied with my backed-up data files. Dell has a system built in called "system restore" - has any one out there ever used it? I would have to define myself as having average PC skills for a 53 year old, but I am always up for a challenge, and I get occasional get good support from a very computer literate son.

Thoughts, suggestions?

[gsmittle]

Let me state right from the top I'm an unabashed Mac fanboy who used to support Windows machines when I worked in Corporate America more than six years ago.

In my experience reformatting a hard drive isn't too difficult, just dig around in the Utilities folder to find the disk utility. (Again, I'm coming at this from over six years ago.) DO be concerned about transferring malware from your backup, depending on how recent it is. If it's from before the trouble started, you are probably safe. If it's from after the troubles, be very cautious.

I'm sure some of the ultra-geeky-sometimes-forget-to-eat-and-bathe experts here will chime in soon with some good info.

g.

[stormdog74]

You would be better off posting this in the "coffee pot" forum - that seems to get a lot more traffic and lots of computer people chime in there.

[dbhost]

If you were running Linux you wouldn't be worrying about viruses at all...

[Daryl]

I have been fighting a nasty computer virus on my home PC that won't go away. It creates files and also affects external drives. After letting my very computer savvy son work on it and try to clean it manually and running several commercial anti-virus programs, I resorted to calling my company PC contractors (NexusTech). They needed download capability to run my machine remotely, since we lost network internet access and could not restore it, the alternative would be to bring my machine to them at $50/hour. After trying a few things, they believe some key files are corrupted and that necessitates a reformat. This is a 2003 machine, so a cost / benefit reality exists. The data is probably worth more than the machine, but in these times, I have decided to fix it myself, if possible.

How hard is it to reformat a hard drive? (Win XP) I understand that I will need to backup data files and reload programs. I am concerned about the virus being copied with my backed-up data files. Dell has a system built in called "system restore" - has any one out there ever used it? I would have to define myself as having average PC skills for a 53 year old, but I am always up for a challenge, and I get occasional get good support from a very computer literate son.

Thoughts, suggestions?

I just re-formated my Dell 2350. It was pretty catawumpus and I was trying to pull my hair out figuring out what was wrong. I had lost all administrater privliges and couldn't do the system restore. I suggest you give the restore a try, it is in acessories, system tools. I have used it before and it was helpful, I always went back as far as possible.
To re-format, after you remove everything, you will need the restore disc Dell included with your machine. Finding it was the hardest part of the task. Also, you will find that there has been a LOT of XP updates since you first got your machine and they will likly take longer to load than the entire restore. Go to Dell Support to download the instructions on how to do the re-format.
About the possibilites of virus in your saved documents, install a update virus protection before re installing anything.

[OpaDC]

Quite a simple thing to do actually. Either you have restore cd's or you need to create them. Once you have them, boot from the cd and follow the instructions. At one point you should be able to partition the hard drive then reformat it. As someone stated you will have to do numerous updates, but don't do ANYTHING until you install virus software and have it completely uodate also. Then before you copy the saved files back, scan them all before reinstalling them, the exception being software programs you need to install. Your antivirus program should do this for you but it may depend on which one you are using. PM me if you need better explanation of this.

Opa

[crokett]

Reformatting is easy. As part of the XP install when it finds the partitions on your drive it asks if you want to reformat. If you do, tell it yes and it reformats. As far as the virus being part of your data that is highly possible. To back up your data you need someplace to put it. What I would do is go get an external USB drive. You can get a 500GB one for 60 bucks or so and you'd have it to back up to in future. Back up your existing system to that drive, then reformat the system, reinstall XP, get all the updates - SP3, etc on it. Then lock it down with Spybot, Adaware, anti-virus, etc. Then hook the USB drive back up and scan it to make sure the data is clean.

I believe the 'system restore' will restore you to the fresh install so the machine is like it was when you got it. I don't know enough about Dells to know if it wipes the drive when it does it. If it does, that will be easier than a reinstall.

[stocktr8er]

I had to use the Dell restore. As near as Icould tell was that it completely reformated the hard drive and reinstalled the software to factory new. It wiped everything extra off the hard drive. Only problem with this is that you are back a few years (depending on the date you bought your pc) on updates. Took awhile to reload all the software and update it.

[Daryl]

Use the onboard restore first, this will return your computer to an earlier date. Also it is reversable in case there was an oops. You also do not loose recent documents of favorites and email. If it works it is less aggravation than doing the re-install. You will find it in acessories, system tools, system rrestore.

[Ed62]

I'm just about computer illiterate, but I've used the system restore a number of times. Any time my computer acts goofy, that's where I go. It's very easy to use. Just pick a time to restore to, then click OK or restore or whatever it says. Pick a time prior to the time when you began having problems. As was already stated, you can "undo" the restore if you want. You can do the system restore in minutes.

Ed