Format Hard Drive

[stops81]

I want to format my harddrive and start over. There's too many spyware and registry problem on my system right now. What is the most thourough and efficient way of formatting c:?

 

[johnjkr1]

If it is windows xp or 2k, just boot to your cd and format your drives like that, quick and easy. I also like to destroy then recreate the partitions. But be sure you are not connected to the net at all before applying the critical updates or you will get infected by one of the several worms making the rounds.

If it is 98/Me, boot to a dos boot disk, format c:

 

[stops81]

Yea its XP. I think thats what happened to me before(with the worms). So the first thing I should do when connected to the web is get the updates?

 

[amdskip]

Yes, get windows updates immediately and some form of virus protection, heck avg is better than nothing at all.

 

[stickybytes]

Thats the problem with these new worms. Things like Sasser come right in even though you're not doing a high risk activity ie irc, downloading, etc. They just come right in if your not protected. My computer got infected but luckily it wasn't able to do any damage because my av caught it in time.

 

[LoneWolf1]

If you don't already have SP1, download it from HERE and also download AutoPatcherXP to get all of the windows updates from one place.

 

[johnjkr1]

"So the first thing I should do when connected to the web is get the updates? "

No, see, this is where you have it wrong. If you connect at all before getting the patches you are likely to get infected. You need to get the patches BEFORE you connect. Or you must have a router or some firewall software installed first. Or you can just enable XP internet firewall and that should be good enough untill you get the updates.