BleepingComputer.com: reformatting my computer

Hello, new to this site. I want to reformat my computer and would like to find step by step instructions on how to do so. I already backed up my comp with Carbonite and a stand alone back up unit as well. Its a Dell laptop,AMD Sempron, Processor 3500+, 1.58 GHz, 896 MB of RAM/ Windows XP Home Edition 2002. What next? Any assistance would be appreciated!

This post has been edited by turizhere: 27 September 2010 - 11:55 AM

Are you just looking to format or format/reinstall windows?
The easiest way to do it is just insert your recovery discs, or other windows installation disc, and go forwards as if you were going to install windows.
Microsoft provides a guide to do so http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978307

When you get to the point where it tells you that it is checking the drive you can eject the disc and shutdown the machine, or go through with the install if that was the plan.

There are other programs to format as well, but if you were going to reinstall windows this is the easiest way.

You say you did a backup or two, do you plan on restoring this backup to the system once it's formatted? If you to a full restore, you will still have all the problems you may now have with your current installation of Windows.

So, let me ask you this. Why do you want to format?

Precisely what I was going to ask myself.

You could be just putting the problem right back out there
Please pose more info on the problems you are having

Most of the system I see are infected. Sure, formatting and reloading will take care of the infections, for a while.
Have you run any antivirus or antimalware programs recently?
If so, please post what they are.

I have a virus or malware or something BAD. I am being redirected when i click links from search engines. I had two "dummy" sites come up from some of my longtime used bookmarks. One of them was for my bank account, thank god I was observant enough to notice it before entering my sensitive info.

I have run adaware and AntiVir several times and each time they find multiple items and remove them but it never goes away. They find worms, trojans, spyware, you name it. I have uninstalled firefox several times, still there every time and it is of course rampant in IE. I have done system restore to previous points, still there.

I've never done a reformat myself but i'm pretty good at figuring things out or researching myself. I removed a massive malware earlier this year with the help of the instructions from this website. I am backing up my comp with Carbonite now. I have included my documents without and download files and the C drive as well.

Also, I have backed up my documents to a Passport, I am scared to death i will lose my kids pics and such. I am fearful I will reload my "problem" when I restore my stuff back into newly reformatted comp though and am unaware as to how to prevent this as I have run everything I know of to detect infection in the files I am backing up. I dont know if Carbonite has a detection that it runs as well as I am new to its service and have had no response as of yet to that question.

I also got some instruction to reload windows that stated I was to enter to boot/setup screen and have my comp boot from the cd-rom drive. I attempted to do this but I could not get it to boot from it.

So as I am now waiting for Carbonite to finish its backup I wanted to get detailed advice and instruction to reformat when I can.
Just in case this info is needed to assist me, I have Windows XP Home Edition and all my Dell installation files as well.
Thanks for any help!! I need it:)

My concern here is that the viruses you have encountered may have been copied over to the backup you are creating.

Can I ask, before you format your hard drive, have you tried running the above mentioned antivirus programs in safe mode? The reason I ask is that many viruses that are not removable in normal mode are removed when your run the same scan in safe mode.

This is because many of the resources that windows uses in normal mode are not used in safe mode, therefore giving the virus less places to hide. I've gotten rid of loads of trojans, malware and spyware in this way.

Hope this helps

Jacob

This post has been edited by hamluis: 29 September 2010 - 01:39 PM
Reason for edit: Removed unnecessary quote ~ Hamluis.

After you finish your backup, you should start a post in Virus, Trojan, Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs. These guys are highly trained and can usually remove malware that even scanners aren't picking up yet. Follow the instructions for preparation, post the requested .txt files and someone will be along shortly to help.

Thank you both, I will be doing both shortly!