scrub hard drive

**Davewav** · 10-02-2004, 05:35 PM

Anyone ave any instruction on how to wipe my hard drive once you have XP - the methods I used to use no longer work (ie fdisk etc)

Thanks

**Marc Peters** · 10-02-2004, 05:39 PM

Boot from the XP CD. After the start of the install, you'll be asked to format.

**Davewav** · 10-02-2004, 05:57 PM

Iam helping a friend reformat his computer and I did that twice - but it still goes crazy - all we have done now is install xp and when you boot up it automatically connects to the internet and starts opening porn sites.

He had some nasty viruses that's why we did this in the first place - should this have take care of that too? I am looking for a complete kill at this point

**p4ocer** · 10-02-2004, 06:05 PM

y dont u just boot into safe mode and run some av

**Davewav** · 10-02-2004, 06:26 PM

Ok I will try that - we ran av before the reinstall but did not try after the format Marc mentions above

**mrlipring** · 10-03-2004, 02:02 AM

ok, you should always do a completely fresh install where you can.

Download the newest working drivers for everything, download the patches for your os, service packs, av software and updates, firewalls, spyware checkers, the lot. Everything you need to get a secure system up and running.

DISCONNECT from the net, then install everything. Make sure your firewall is running before you connect, then as soon as you connect, update the virus checker, the spyware checker, anything you can update. It's a pain, but you can get viruses literally within seconds of letting an insecure pc onto the net.

Oh, and ditch IE as well.

And outlook express.

**Mike Thorpe** · 10-03-2004, 07:37 AM

Another thing - see if you can get Service Pack 2 (full dowload) onto a CD from another person's PC, then run it on the infected box before you connect.

Oh, and if you've got the "your PC is shutting down in x seconds" message, go to a command prompt and type:

shutdown -a

and that will stop it shutting down. Which is ok for a temporary measure.

Download

ad-aware free edition ( www.lavasoftusa.com )
spybot search & destroy ( www.safer-networking.org )

**Davewav** · 10-03-2004, 03:25 PM

Thanks so much to all of you all of this stuff is the problem - now I only need a couple of hours to do it all

I am getting the shutdown in x seconds almost every time right after the porn starts!

Thanks all - will post what I did and what resolved it for the records later thanks