Hey everybody, my first time here. I originally came here when Google-ing (if thats even a word lol) a keylogger trojan virus I had. I of course gave up after 12 hours of trying to get rid of the trojan. So what I did was get a new hard drive and am running on it as we speak. However, I'm still trying to figure this out for the infected hard drive. I want to kill the current partition and make it into a storage only (media, school work, personal files only, etc), and use my new hard drive for all my main softwares and games.

I want to delete that partition of course, yet re-partition it as storage only. I'm not particularly interested in going to Disk Management, in concern the trojan may be capable of going from that hard drive to my new one. Is there a way to use my Windows XP disk to delete the old partition, repartition it, yet not install windows? Or is going to Disk Management the only way to do it without installing Wndows. Also note anything related to the floppy drive is outta the question, I don't have one....need the space in my tower for the additional hard drive. Somebody actually told me to partition the hard drive via-Windows XP disk, yet shut down down the computer as it goes straight to installing the OS (it's automated after partitioning is finished).

Any ideas? Advice? I'm a stumped computer geek. In fact I called Geek Squad as a last resort, and they hadn't the slightest clue how to help me.

Hmmm... I'm not sure how to do what you are asking either, but, can't you just format the old drive? And then remove the partition and repartition it the way you want it? I would think you could install the old drive as a slave and format it without the keylogger moving over, the program is on the old drive so when you format it, it will be gone... I would think...

The someone that suggested you use the XP disc to repartition and reformat is on the right track. But that partitioning and formatting is basically the same as using Disk Management.

Viruses aren't like fleas. They don't jump from one drive to the next. Usually they need the registry settings to run, which will not if it is now a spare drive.

If, however, you had a rootkit or a boot sector virus, you might be a little more concerned.

The Ultimate Boot CD, http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ has some killdisk programs that will erase the hard drive to military specs. You could also try that. It is a self-booting disk and it is free.

Good luck.

DR

I would suggest something like DBAN (free here: http://dban.sourceforge.net/ ). But be very careful to specify the correct drive!

The main reason for this is in the event that the system decides to try and boot from this drive - rather than the new one.

<<Is there a way to use my Windows XP disk to delete the old partition, repartition it, yet not install windows?>>

Yes, I've done this.

All you do is remove all drives except for the infected one and an optical drive (CD/DVD). Set the BIOS to boot from the optical drive.

Start the install process but when it reflects existing partitions...just delete the infected partition. Follow screen prompts to cancel the XP install/reboot the system. Stop the system.

Do not format the HD.

Then put the good drive in, add the formerly infected drive, and format it (NTFS) from Disk Management.

It's ready for storage.

Louis

Thanks Louis, your suggestion worked perfectly. Now when I drag and drop files from my C drive to my storage hard drive, do I need to make them archive as if I were draggin from a disc, or is it fine to leave them as a drag'n'drop without worrying about them being read-only files?

Now the fun part.....finding a black bay cover to cover up the hard drive (where the floppy drive used to be, floppy drive died ages ago, just never replaced it). I wonder if Raidmax has a parts department.

Well...you can probably easily get a replacement cover by just visiting someone with either a number of systems or who constantly upgrades/builds/tinkers.

I know that I have a ton of them and I haven't owned that may computers in 12 years. I suspect that any computer repair shop might have several lying around.

Don't worry about that attribute (read-only) thing...I haven't even considered that since Win 98 days. I find that I can change/edit/move files when I want to. You can always experiment on one and see if you need to change anything...then act accordingly.

Any file which is on a CD is, by definition, read-only. I have no problem modifying such files once I move them to a hard drive.

Louis