Stupid question, quick answer - please help

gt123

Im sick of computers...it seems that if you dont do everything perfect from the start, by protecting it against viruses and spyware, and all that other good stuff, trying to manage a computer is HELL.

Ive only had this one for a few months and its got so many problems already...i know what they are, and i've tried to get rid of them, but every step i try to take to fix something only takes me right back to the start, because half the time the things i need to fix things dont even work, because of the things i need to fix. Its a vicious, frustrating, annoying cycle, and i just want it to end...and i have tried everything.

So, what i want to know is is there a way to just start over fresh, like on a new computer, without buying one? Im at the point where im ready to just clear everything from my computer. All of it, registry, programs, settings, everything - except downloads. I havent done any major tweaking or anything, and the only thing i'd really be losing are the programs - all i really use this computer for is music, DVDs, internet and a game, so if i could just keep the DLs, erase everything, then install again that would be perfect...is this possible?

I know this probably sounds like an idiotic question to all of the computer pros...but i've wasted so much time and energy just trying to fix this computer, most of the time accomplishing NOTHING, and i dont want to do it anymore. I want to start over fresh and just do everything right from the start. ill probably never download anything from that p2p BS every again.

So, if there is a way, please tell me, im desperate.

GutterPunk

Alright sir you have to watch the p2p stuff u d/l in the first place (the program and the host you d/l from) Aight, next yes youc an start all over! You can reformat your HDD and Install your operating system start from scratch. What I would do is first backup all of the d/ls you would like to keep put them on a dvd/cd or a 2nd drive. Make sure the files you backup are clean and do not contain spyware adware viruses trojans worms or any other malicious sort of file. Next I would put your OS disc in and reboot, thus bringing up a screen giving you options to A: Fresh install or B: Repair the install. Do not repair, do a fresh install and format your drive with for windows 2k and up NTFS or anything below fat32 hopeing ur not on anything really old. I am not too sure for linux as i havent installed as many OS's. I would do the full format instead of the quick one as it will better clear your HDD. After you reinstall all your goodies, put up your firewall and anti virus first. Then connect to the itnernet and download all the critical updates from windows update (assuming ur using windows). Then you can start using your computer you will notice it is much faster and you can install all of your goodies once again. staying away from the malware. After you get everything updtated drivers installed games installed programs and what not, I recommend you do a scandisk or error-checking run, and then defrag the HDD. After the installs you will gain some fragments (well I did, and I just did a fresh install.) I hope this helps any other questions ill be glad to help

gt123

Man, that was a heck of a lot better response than i was expecting, thank you! That's exactly what i wanted...but one thing im not clear on - you said

"Do not repair, do a fresh install and format your drive with for inwdows 2k and up NTFS or anything below fat32 hopeing ur not on anything really old."

Were there some typos in there? What did you mean exactly

and i've got a lot of downloads, probably more than a few gigs worth, it wouldn't be easy backing them up on a CD...where should i put them? D: drive?

Oh and one more thing, this would default all my settings, right? and would it take care of the registry too?

TwistedMetal

Here are some programs to help you out...

Ad-aware Personal SE (Adware/Spyware)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Spybot Search & Destory (Adware/Spyware)
http://www.safer-networking.org/

SpywareBlaster (Prevents Adware/Spyware)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

AntiVir Personal (Anti-Virus)
http://www.free-av.com/

ZoneAlarm (Firewall)
http://www.zonelabs.com/

All of these programs are free and will surely help you out. I use all of them and they are very good. Just check for updates atleast everyother day to insure everything is up to date.

GutterPunk

Well umm it'd be easiest to just tell me what Operating System you are going to be installing with?

gt123

yea sorry, XP - i was editing that other post, but i'll just post it here again - Would this take care of my registry, and default all my settings too?

Thanks twisted metal, i've actually already tried most of those programs, except the firewall...they can't fix the problems i have.

TwistedMetal

He means don't repair your current Windows, format your hard drive and install Windows brand new. NTFS and FAT32 are filing systems Windows uses. There are older filing systems, but he's not sure what version of Windows you are using. Personally I would use FAT32. What version of Windows are you using?

If your hard drive isn't split up into two or more parts, like D:- Z: drive, then your only option is to back up to CD.

GutterPunk

I would personally use NTFS for win xp, when it gives you the option of a file system do NTFS and do not do the quick version. You will know what im talkinga bout when you get to that step. AND MAKE SURE TO FRESH INSTALL AND DO NOT JUST REPAIR! But before all back all the schtuff you want firsT!

gt123

k i'll use NTFS, thanks a lot for your help

And twistedmetal...ive got about 3 or 4 gigs of downloads not very many, just a lot of big ones, demos and games and junk...am i really supposed to back all that up on CDs?? It looks like all i have is a C: drive, its the only one listed under "hard disk drives" in my computer...D: is my DVD drive...is there really no other place i could store it?

TwistedMetal

Well, if you don't have a DVDRW or a CDRW then you won't even be able to back them up. Just have to download them all over again, I know it sucks, but I have done it before.

gt123

No, i have both of those, it just seems like a lot to put on CDs...how many CDs would that take??

GutterPunk

DVDS you can put it all on 1 probably, it took me like 15 to back up all my crap (including movies and stuff) which was ending up to be like 13 gigs of stuff or so

gt123

Alright i started setup and got to the screen that asked me which partition i wanted to install on...i did NTFS with my C: drive already on it, and it said i was installing ontop of the OS i already had on there and that there would be 2 OSs if i continued...

Should i delete the C: NTFS partition first then install? the other two partitions were FAT and unpartioned space, FAT was only like 39mb big and unpartitioned was 8mb

GutterPunk

wow thats ummm weird i havent seen that b4, it should just over write it, delete it yes i guess

gt123

alright, i tried to do that, now i got a new problem - it says it can't delete it because it contains temporary files needed for installation...what should i do? im looking around google but i haven't found anything yet.

TwistedMetal

When you put in the cd what all options do you have?

gt123

The first time i put in the CD i did it while windows was running, so i started installing in windows...i got a little ways then the comp restarted and took me to a reinstallation setup right from the startup.

From what i've seen on other forums with people havin this problem, it says that it can't delete the partition since "it contains temporary files needed for installation" because i started it from windows that one time. It created some files or somethin, and now even if i start the reinstallation from startup by changin the bios settings, it still won't let me delete it...

The options i have at startup are the basic...fresh install windows, repair or exit, there's nothing wrong there

TwistedMetal

In BIOS can you have it boot from cd, then the hard drive? Also, do you have a floppy drive?

GutterPunk

Put ur win xp disc in and reboot, dont install from windows let it auto load the disc from the boot up

gt123

That's exactly how i have it...its set to boot from something with CD-ROM in the name, then hard disk drive, so it looks like
1.CD-ROM
2.HDD
3.diskette drive

and yea i have a floppy

gutterpunk - that's what i've been doing, over and over.

I also tried to format C: from the recovery console, but that isn't even working either...i enter all the commands and it says "formatting C: drive will remove all of its contents, continue [Y/N]?", i type Y and hit enter, it pauses for maybe...5 or 10 seconds and the computer does something, then the little C:WINDOWS> prompt comes up like its finished. i type exit and reboot, and C: and everything in it is still there.

It did NOTHING, what the hell is going on?? I dont see how the hell a command directly from the recovery console could fail like that, this crap is really starting to get to me...i can't even fix the computer by erasing it?

TwistedMetal

Download this: http://www.mirrors.org/archived_soft...1/boot98se.exe

Then RUN it, it will ask to insert a floppy. Once that is done...

Boot from floppy, (Set 1. to Floppy) you do want CD-ROM support.

From a:\>format c: /s

WARNING ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED!

Once that is done, reboot and set it back to boot from CDROM.

gt123

thanks twisted, but that didn't work either. I did everything and rebooted and typed in the command, and it said "cannot format drive C:, that drive is not supported" or something like that.

Right before it was done loading everything i got some message, not sure what it was, but it listed 3 reasons for why it might have happened...one of them said "THe C: drive is being blocked by viruses", another one was something about 3rd party partition software and to disable it if i was running any...so maybe it couldn't access the C: drive or something.

any ideas? I really appreciate all your guys help, i know you don't have to be sittin there tryin to figure this crap out, so thanks...i've fried my brain over the last few months just constantly trying to fix and figure out whats wrong


EDIT: alright, see if you can wrap your head around this:

I know i've got a ton of viruses, i don't know how the hell i got them, apparently a lot came from emails, trojan horses and about 15 other kinds, i think the virus scanner spotted about 250 infected files, i just scanned the other day. I used an online virus scanner, but it couldn't clean any of the viruses off. I have what's apparently a trial version of McCaffee that came with the comp and expired a few weeks ago, so it hasn't been updated in awhile. I can't even scan with it anymore though, because the ActiveX settings were disabled when i tried to remove a hijacker spyware that was screwing everything up, and i haven't been able to fix ActiveX since, so that it can't even display its online virus scan window. And it definitely can't clean the viruses. It can't do anything.

So, i go and look for more online virus scanners - i try 6 or 7, and find out they don't work on mozilla FireFox browsers, which im using cuz internet explorer was so jacked up by spyware and viruses that couldn't be removed, and i wanted to use a browser that wouldn't infect my computer with adware everytime i got on the internet.

So then i give up and use internet explorer to try the scanners. Again, i try about 6 or 7, none of them, save the one that i used to scan my computer, but couldn't clean, worked. On a couple of them IE just closed after it "encountered a problem", and on others several things went wrong, i can't remember everything, but i know on one i made it to the scanning part, clicked "scan my PC", and the button was dead. Tried refreshing, did nothing, none of the scan buttons worked.

So online scanning was out, McCaffee scanning was out, everything was SCREWED. Several other problems i was having were: every time at startup "appik32 has encountered a problem and needs to close", my monitor is constantly resetting itself to default for no reason, and Microsoft Small Business Edition 2003 tries to install itself any time i start ANY program, or click ANYTHING on the internet. Thats when i decided to reinstall windows, since this was a hopeless situation.

Now i'm here, and it appears that i can't reinstall windows...because i have viruses. about 250 of them. what happens now

eggs420

Ensure you are booting from the CD. If you are booting from the CD, you WILL be able to repartition.

When the XP install asks for which partition, hit D to delete the partion, then follow its instructions to verify you really want to delete it. Once that is done, (C)reate a new one, pick the lower NTFS one (without the (quick)).

Before you do that, if you pick up Partition Magic, you can split your drive into two drives if it is large enough. Then you can back up everything to the new empty partition (D and delete/recreate the primary partition as above and install XP fresh. Then just browse to your D: drive and ding! There's your stuff. It's a bit of a hassle, and there is no assurance it will work out OK seeing as your system isn't stable/is infected, but it may be worth a try next time at least.

You can also take advantage of the partition screen after you delete the origional one, and make two - If you have a 60gb drive, it can't hurt to throw 15gbs to another partition to store stuff on. If you need to format again, all of the stuff on D: is safe.

Delete that FAT partition too..Make the drive totally empty. If you are running XP, and have one drive listed in My Computer, and using NTFS, there shouldn't be another FAT partition sitting there for nothing.

eggs420

Ooohhh I bet you are using a boot loader! I bet your system is somewhat older, right?

Good luck - Boot loaders cause problems all over the board. Grab yourself a new motherboard and safe yourself the pains if this is the case. You can tell sometimes by looking what appears right when the computer starts up, after the bios messages and before the windows logo pops up. You could also try hitting esc to get rid of the logo, but it may not be displayed anymore. Also, virus removal on these setups has always been a pain in the ass for me. Not worth the hassle usually..You'd have to reinstall the boot loader or something to get your drive wiped me thinks..Knowing if you have one for sure and hopefully which one would help.

Boot loader sounds like the wrong term..Its very late and I am thinking it should be drive overlay instead..Either way, it resides on a small FAT partition the bios can see correctly which then sort of emulates access to the drive for windows, so the rest of the drive's usable space can actually be used. This is NOT common anymore, only to get around the old bios's limitations.

gt123

Im not sure what a boot loader is, but i don't think i'm using one. I got my system around january 2004 brand new from Dell, so its not that. And, i'm POSITIVE that i am booting from the CD. I set the Bios to -
1.IDE CD-ROM
2.Hard Disk Drive
3.Diskette drive

and the screen asking if i wanted to Windows Setup or go to Windows XP Home Edition comes up right after the very first screen on startup. So i go to windows setup, get to the partitioning part, press D to delete it, and it says it has temporary files and can't be deleted.

Windows XP isn't involved anywhere in there, im booting from the CD.

TwistedMetal did show me a program that i loaded onto a floppy, to try and format my C: drive from there, and it still couldn't do it. I had already tried formatting from the recovery console, and that did nothing. Im gonna go back and try the floppy again so i can be clear on what the error message it gave me was and try to fix it. I got most of the viruses off with that f-prot scanner (THANK YOU whoever recommended that).

But now when i start up...i get about 100 messages saying various files in WINDOWS can't be found, i think f-prot deleted a lot of infected ones.

I'll try that Partition Magic, I didn't even know that was possible. Handy stuff. And i'll delete FAT.

so you have to pay for partition magic...i'll just backup to CD.

gt123