question about reformatting/recovery

I've been having a very stubborn/mysterious virus problem here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/183881/browser-hijack/

And I'm just about to do the factory recovery because I'm stumped and I guess no one here knows anything either. The question is, I have a recovery partition, and recovery cds. Which do I use? Does it matter? I recently reinstalled Windows, but to be safe, I want to do the WHOLE recover thing, and get rid of everything on that harddrive.

Now, I also have a second hard drive that ONLY has music and videos on it. Do I need to do anything? It's a Seagate and it came with a CD and the program (drive monitor or smth) off of there runs on my main drive. Before I do the recovery, I'd like to be sure that it won't affect that other drive. It shouldn't, right?

Well, just thought I'd ask.

Well...I don't think you waited very long for any serious suggestions...and adding a post every hour on the hour (with changed circumstances) certainly doesn't lend itself to such from anyone trying to figure it out (IMO).

Regardless...that's always a poster option.

System manufacturer and model? So that someone can actually read the instructions for using this recovery partition and/or recovery CDs.

You say that you have a MS XP install CD also...or do you mean that you reinstalled Windows via one of the recovery/restore methods?

Louis

Well...I don't think you waited very long for any serious suggestions...and adding a post every hour on the hour (with changed circumstances) certainly doesn't lend itself to such from anyone trying to figure it out (IMO).

Regardless...that's always a poster option.

System manufacturer and model? So that someone can actually read the instructions for using this recovery partition and/or recovery CDs.

You say that you have a MS XP install CD also...or do you mean that you reinstalled Windows via one of the recovery/restore methods?

Louis

It's a Gateway E-Machine, Windows XP. And I reinstalled Windows via a CD, but that was due to something else, not this problem. I'm just wondering if any kind of reformat/factory recovery will affect the other harddrive. I didn't have it (the other drive) during any other reinstall. And I'm ALSO wondering if the factory recovery will have the same results as reformatting, I've read different opinions...

As for the other thing, lol, I can't keep away from the problem and rather than frustrate people by not updating my problems and having them reply to something that no longer applies, I figured I'd just update as I went along. And hey, I totally don't blame anyone if they have no idea. It seems the popular way to solve things is via HJT, and since I can't use that...I figure there probably won't be very many people who know what to do.