ZFGC
General => Boards => Archive => Other Discussion => Topic started by: araknidude on August 08, 2006, 06:11:26 pm
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I think I lost my windows xp installation CD. Is there another way to re-format?
(PS, the reason why is because my PC is badly infected and Spybot S+D and AdAware keep finding the same infections over and over, which keep coming back after each fix)
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Switch to Linux :D
Call Microsoft Help Center or whatever it's called, they might be able to send you a new copy or to help you.
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Start windows in safe mode and try to fix the adware again, look up some stuff on the net, just google it, on how to get rid of the adware. Or torrent a windows XP CD off the net, burn to disk and install. Jesus, I would die if my hardrive had to be reformated. I have so many games and other stuff thats important.
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I have an 80gb external harddrive. :P Reformatting will make my PC run like a racecar.
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I have an 80gb external harddrive. :P Reformatting will make my PC run like a racecar.
Reformating doesn't do anything exept wipe the hardrive, so if you did regular virus scans and adware scans then your computer would still be as fast as when you first got it.
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Reformatting is just resetting your HDD to be completely wiped empty. No OS, no files, nothing. IMO it should only be used as a very last resort, if then. I had a similar problem just recently which had been there for months. Both Spybot and Adaware couldn't do anything about it. I suggest getting antivirus programs like Avast! Antivirus and AVG Free Edition. Update them both and run them. I forget which it was, but one of them said that there was soemthing it couldn't delete and asked to run before the OS started. I said yes, that blue screen it shows when it does the disc check showed when I rebooted and it started checking for viruses. It found stuff, I got rid of it and now my PC runs fine. Also, it is suggested that you run them in Safe-Mode to limit what processes are running.
Also, if you want to speed up your HDD, you should defragment it. What that does is it basically cleans things up and moves them around to be more efficient. The things on your drive are stored physically on a disc. There's a little head on it (like a record player sort of, but much, much, much smaller). The time it takes to load things is partially affected by how long it takes for that head to reach it. By defragmenting you remove all of the junk that collects and move the useful stuff closer together so that it runs better.
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I just defragmented, and now my PC runs like a horse. Mooooo. You should try it.