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How To Low Level Format In XP? (Title Edited)

olds

olds

Elite Member
Looks like I have a virus that survived a format and re-intasll of XP.
I need to do a better wipe of the hdd. How do I do a low level format in XP?
TIA



Original Post
We bought our daughter a new computer and took her old one. It was full of virus' and spyware.
I formatted it and re-installed XP Pro.
It won't run windows Update (hangs @ 46%) or even load some web pages (Trendmicro HouseCall is one, AT is another).
CDs won't launch and if I try to install the programs manually, I get an error about a .dll handler.
I have formatted and re-installed twice.
From the cmd line I have run:
chkdsk /p
fixboot
fixmbr
I was suspecting a boot sector virus but the machine boots fine.
Any ideas?
 
Have you run any anti-virus at any point? Or Adaware [from Lavasoft]? Or Spybot? Did you enable the XP Firewall [not the best, but better than sfa]?
 
Can't run any AV as I can't install it or run the online scanner.
Can't install Spybot or Adaware.
It has no firewall as I can't download SP2 from Win Update.
 
Try booting into DOS, and use an anti=virus that you can use in DOS. do a search in g**gle to come up with one. I am sure that AVG used to do one, and F-Prot too.
Also, in XP, if you have SYSTEM RESTORE enabled, the virus can hide in there and be safe from any Antivirus.
Always turn it off if you suspect a virus
 
If you really want to zero-fill the drive, you'll need to get the appropriate utility from the drive maker's website.
 
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Looks like I have a virus that survived a format and re-intasll of XP.
I need to do a better wipe of the hdd. How do I do a low level format in XP?
TIA



Original Post
We bought our daughter a new computer and took her old one. It was full of virus' and spyware.
I formatted it and re-installed XP Pro.
It won't run windows Update (hangs @ 46%) or even load some web pages (Trendmicro HouseCall is one, AT is another).
CDs won't launch and if I try to install the programs manually, I get an error about a .dll handler.
I have formatted and re-installed twice.
From the cmd line I have run:
chkdsk /p
fixboot
fixmbr
I was suspecting a boot sector virus but the machine boots fine.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...


You can't do it in windows. You'll need a bootable floppy (the LLF proggie will load into ram, and from there write zero's to your HDD). What we call LLF is acutually a proggie that writes zero to every sector of your HDD. It;ll overwrite any virus's in your MBR.

If you have a Maxtor driver handy, go to their site and download Maxblast 3. It's got a suite of utilies, including two zero-write apps. One is a" quick" version that just over-writes your MBR and takes a couple of seconds. The other is the full zero-write proggie, it takes hours. I do it overnight.

Maxblast will work on any HDD, you just need a maxtor HDD somewhere on the IDE controller.

If you don't have access to a Maxtor, look HERE. It's a proggie for nuking your HDD. Haven't tried it yet myself, just a link I picked a while ago.

Fern
 
Thanks for the help. I just happen to have Max Blast 3 as I added a hdd to the computer we bought for my daughter. The floppy drive doesn't work on the bad machine. Is there a virus that can disable a controller?
I did boot off the Max Blast CD and it seems to be doing a zero fill.
Thanks again.
 
Is there a virus that can disable a controller?
Click to expand...

Don't know man. I hope not. I've had virus attack a mobo before (Chernobyl) and it wasn't pretty :disgust:

Fern
 
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Looks like I have a virus that survived a format and re-intasll of XP.
I need to do a better wipe of the hdd. How do I do a low level format in XP?
TIA



Original Post
We bought our daughter a new computer and took her old one. It was full of virus' and spyware.
I formatted it and re-installed XP Pro.
It won't run windows Update (hangs @ 46%) or even load some web pages (Trendmicro HouseCall is one, AT is another).
CDs won't launch and if I try to install the programs manually, I get an error about a .dll handler.
I have formatted and re-installed twice.
From the cmd line I have run:
chkdsk /p
fixboot
fixmbr
I was suspecting a boot sector virus but the machine boots fine.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

All of your problems are happening in Windows, suggesting it's a Windows virus, not a boot sector issue. Reformatting and reinstalling in Windows redoes the MBR (just watch what happens to the MBR if you had Linux boot sector on there...heh....)

I suggest disconnecting the NIC, and then reformatting/reinstalling, then taking a CD containing SP2 and installing via CD, then enabling the firewall, then enabling the NIC and networking cabling again.

If you'd like, you can find and run MPSREPORTS (setupPerf version) from the MS website, and then send me the resulting .cab file (if you can run it - you might try starting in safe mode to see if anything different happens).
 
One last q.

Is the win cd an original, or is it a copy?
I'm not going to go into the merits of piracy or copyright, but if it is a copy, has that been checked?
 
Well, a low level format didn't solve the problem so I assume it wasn't virus related.
The OS CD for that machine doesn't have SP1 or 2 on it. I do have one with SP1 on it but MS said that the key for one won't work with the other. I have 1 other machine with the straight XP Pro (no services packs) on it. I will try that CD and the correct license number for the broken machine.
 
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Well, a low level format didn't solve the problem so I assume it wasn't virus related.
The OS CD for that machine doesn't have SP1 or 2 on it. I do have one with SP1 on it but MS said that the key for one won't work with the other. I have 1 other machine with the straight XP Pro (no services packs) on it. I will try that CD and the correct license number for the broken machine.
Click to expand...

Install any XP you want. Then copy Service Pack 2 onto a CD and install it onto this machine from that CD.

Keep this PC off of the network (ALL networks - home or internet or office) until it's at SP2 and has antivirus software installed on it.
 
Originally posted by: dclive
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Well, a low level format didn't solve the problem so I assume it wasn't virus related.
The OS CD for that machine doesn't have SP1 or 2 on it. I do have one with SP1 on it but MS said that the key for one won't work with the other. I have 1 other machine with the straight XP Pro (no services packs) on it. I will try that CD and the correct license number for the broken machine.
Click to expand...

Install any XP you want. Then copy Service Pack 2 onto a CD and install it onto this machine from that CD.

Keep this PC off of the network (ALL networks - home or internet or office) until it's at SP2 and has antivirus software installed on it.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no CD will run except if I boot from them.
 
I don't have a clear picture of exactly how this machine is behaving once Windows XP has been installed on it, but I' kind of getting the feeling that there could be something other than malware causing the browsing problems. IE exercises the heck out of some video subsystems. Could there be a hardware or driver problem in the video subsystem?

Just something to think about if other roads lead nowhere.
 
After I get windows installed:
No program on a CD will launch. I get .dll errors and "handler" errors. I get the same errors if I try to install them manually.
I can't run windows update, it hangs at either 46 or 19%.
If I try to run an online virus scan, the program hangs up.
 
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
After I get windows installed:
No program on a CD will launch. I get .dll errors and "handler" errors. I get the same errors if I try to install them manually.
I can't run windows update, it hangs at either 46 or 19%.
If I try to run an online virus scan, the program hangs up.
Click to expand...

But when (and before) you reinstalled, you kept the machine completely off of the network(all of them), and the XP CD is genuine, so there is no malware at this time. So, it's a hardware problem. Replace the CDROM drive, and see if the issue persists.
 
This thing is just not worth the time.
I disconnected the DVD which it was booting off of and used the CDRW in it's place.
I formatted with MaxBlast 3.
I re-installed XP from a different disk.
I get 3/4 of the way through the install and get blue screens about page faults and memory errors.
I am going to try a different video card and pull a stick of RAM after Xmas. If that doesn't do it it going to the trash heap.
Thanks again for the help.

 
Originally posted by: Praetor
Why not try the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)? it has all the utilities you would need to test out a hard drive as well as memtest to check the memory? Also, download knoppix and see how well the system works with that......
Click to expand...

Dang, I have knoppix . I should have thought of that.
I'll check out the link too.
Thanks.
 
I am posting from Knoppix and the bad machine.
I still can't launch or run anything. It was worth a try. Thanks.
 
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