i've been fighting an ornery combination of trojans and hijacker (not to mention other malware, viruses, and dialers). My question is, when do you just say "give" and reformat your hardrive? i have not read any post advising this.

seems like reformating would just be quicker and easier overall - besides of course the PITA associated with having to backup and reload everything on your hard drive.

Reformat as a last resort.
Continue working with Grinler, on your HJT log.
Be patient, he'll help you get all of the "nasties" cleaned up.
It just takes time.

And once your clean, follow his directions to keep your computer clean.

May i ask why reformatting is a last resort?

If the actual reinstall is something you want to attempt then it really is a matter of personal choice whether to clean your system or reinstall. If you haven't done it before make sure you do a little research first. A reinstall of the operating system will take a couple of hours which is probably about the same amount of time you'll spend removing malware.


If you format you need to be prepared. You would have to determine which files you want to save and have a means of saving them. This would include your address book and favorites. You need your operating system cd along with service packs and the motherboard cd and the drivers for any peripherals. You should also have a copy of your anti-virus and firewall of choice to install before you get on the net. Then of course if you don't have copies of your favorite programs you will need to find, download and install them.


The bonus to reinstalling is a clean OS and a computer that hopefully will operate a little better than one which has been used for a time and then repaired.