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Author Topic: won't let me format c drive - due to virus?  (Read 6339 times)

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binker

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    won't let me format c drive - due to virus?
    « on: April 11, 2009, 10:30:39 AM »
    Hi - my XP OS computer got a nasty virus that has cut me off the internet - some kind of backdoor trojan thing.  so my anitvirus is out of date. I was told by the geek squad i needed to wipe my hard drive and start over - I have the OS disk and know how to get a ms-dos prompt - when I asked it to format the c drive it told me i couldn't because "the volume is in use by another process"  (I'm doing the ms-dos prompt while in windows because I don't know any other way) - can someone tell me - step by step because I'm kinda slow - how i can format my c drive so I can get rid of this nasty virus?  Many thanks.

    BaRR



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      Re: won't let me format c drive - due to virus?
      « Reply #1 on: April 11, 2009, 10:55:28 AM »
      Put your OS disk in, and reboot your computer. Up in the right-hand corner, there should be a message of what keys to press to enter the boot options menu, usually F8 or F12. Press the key indicated (the "F" keys are in a row at the top of your keyboard) until you get to the boot options menu. Then, select to boot from "CD/DVD drive" or a similar option. A blue screen with a grey bar at the bottom should come up, showing the various files it is loading. After it finishes this, it will show the options to format your drive, and to install windows. First, use the format option on the partition that windows is installed on, (it should be marked as having the windows installation), then select to install windows when it is done formatting.

      binker

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        Re: won't let me format c drive - due to virus?
        « Reply #2 on: April 11, 2009, 10:57:50 AM »
        awesome - thank you so much - am going to try it now  :)

        BaRR



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          Re: won't let me format c drive - due to virus?
          « Reply #3 on: April 11, 2009, 11:45:57 AM »
          I'm actually a little surprised the "Geek Squad" didn't do it for you. My local repair guy is only too happy to wipe my disk and make a clean install instead of fix the actual problem.

          Broni


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          Re: won't let me format c drive - due to virus?
          « Reply #4 on: April 11, 2009, 11:57:27 AM »
          Quote
          I'm actually a little surprised the "Geek Squad" didn't do it for you.
          They would. For some ridiculous price...