im looking to completely erase my hard drive, i want it completely deleted. i got a virus on it that even when i use the recovery cd, its still there and it just eats away at my memory. can someone please tell me how to complety erase my hard drive? i have windows xp home. if that helps.
Be very careful. If you format your hard drive, you MUST have the XP installation disc, also, have you got a back-up of all your programs? The installation discs for your internet and anti-virus programs etc. Come back to me and I'll tell you how to do it.
i have a windows xp pro installation cd, i also have my computers recovery cds which also includes an installation cd for windows xp home, and i have everything, programs etc, back uped to my network drive
http://www.iolo.com/ds/ EDIT: Drive Scrubber doesn't care about the OS (Windows/MAC/Linux/Unix) or file system (FAT/NTFS/EXT2) used. It will erase any drive. Including floppies.
viruses are easy to get rid of. ever since i figured out how to do it, iv been manually removing my own for 1+ year now. All you have to do is figure out what the culprit process(s) is in task manager (the 1 using all ur ram cpu), locate it(them) on the hd (a simple search with "search hidden files" and "search system folders" enabled will do this)use safe mode (if possible) to delet it, remove any registry keys ascociated with it, and your done. unless this is adware that doesnt suck up ur cpu. in that case your gonna have to research ALL the processes until you figure out the most likely 1.
True. Doing research on the virus and it's support files will help you get rid of the virus, it doesn't always get rid, or fix the damage that it caused. If the virus overwrites protected OS files, the damage can only be repaired by a new installation. System Restores are NOT a good idea...as most all virii these days copy themselves to your restore points. So, if you use SR, shut it off and delete all stored points before beginning your virus removal. Windows protects this area from AV programs, none of them will be able to remove a virus from restore points. (you would think that if a virus could get it, so could the AV) If that virus copies itself to the boot sector (MBR) that sector needs to be wiped, which a low level format or "scrub" will do.
The best way of doing this (which I was going to mention) is go to this site: www.answersthatwork.com - one of the best and most informative sites that I have found, its also fun. When you've found the site, click on the task list - on the next page you will see two rows of letters (the alphabet) now, open up your task manager either by right clicking on the blue bar at the bottom of the screen on your computer and selecting task manager, or simply press and hold contol, alt & delete. Click on the processes tab, there you see every process running on your computer. now drag that across (it will always stay on top of all windows open) now go down your list and check all your processes by clicking the appropiate letter on the answers that work page - a seperate page will now open showing all processes for that letter. For example click the letter i and when that page opens up, scroll down and look for isass.exe and read that explanation (i and l) This will all take some time and you'll have to keep clicking your back button. Sometimes they give a full explanation of a process and even how to close it down. Watch out for 98 2000 xp etc.
