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  • Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

    Hi.
    I have been having severe problems with my system recently, and I know I have at least the blaster worm. I cant access task manager, regedit, or any other programs, and its running terribly slow. But I have backups of all my data, and recovery cds and all that stuff, so I just need to reformat *completly* and just start with a clean install.

    But for some reason I have two problems.
    When I try to reformat by putting the cd in the drive in windows, after it has loaded, and reinstalling, I get a blue screen error, which I guess is probably vuris-related.

    But when I change my boot device priority so that md CD drive loads before my HDD, the installer doenst detect any Hard disk, so it cant install windows...
    How do I get this fixed? I need to load my HDD so the computer "sees" it, and then reinstall from the CD. Ive done this before with WinXP home, and it works, my other system just doenst seem to see my Hard drive.
    Anybody know how to fix this, or maybe some other way to reformat and do a clean install of windows?
    Like I said, I dont need to save any data.
    Thanks :)

  • #2
    Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

    Do you know what brand of hard drive you have? There are disk utilities that you can use to write the disk completely over with 0's and 1's before installing anything new over top. Maxtor, for instance has a program know as Maxblast that can be downloaded, burned to disk, and used for this purpose with Maxtor hard drives. Maxtor also supplies a program known as Powermax that can be used to test your hard drive for problems. Other hard drive manufacturers have different tools for their products. If you have a broadband connection http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ is a great CD that gives you all kinds of tools for diagnosing and formatting hard drives outside of the Windows environment.
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    • #3
      Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

      I'd just boot with a 98 startup floppy and fdisk the drive then reboot with the XP CD for the setup to reorginize the drive.

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      • #4
        Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

        I have a western digital WD-74, I was just reading the post down from this, about the problems on startup, and removing the jumper? I tried that, and it didnt work. That problem seems similiar to mine...
        Ill try that win98 boot disk thing, thanks wayout.

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        • #5
          Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

          Ok I used fdisk on my partition, and that got rid of it. But it still doesnt recognise my HDD. It boots from the CD, allows me to select repair or a new install, shows me the blue screen and loads all the files along the bottom.
          And then it says "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
          Make sure and hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer supplied diagnostic or setup program.
          Setup cannot continue. To quit setup press F3."

          So no I cant load my desktop at all, before at least I had some limited functionality. I hope I havent damaged my Hard disk in any way... BUt then it was loading my desktop and all my programs before, so..

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          • #6
            Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

            I would suggest going to WD's website and downloading their diagnostic software to test the drive but first do check the cable connections to make sure that they're fully seated (this sounds more like a hardware problem than a virus).
            Last edited by wayout44; 11-18-2004, 06:42 PM.

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            • #7
              Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

              ok I downloaded Western Digitals Data lifeguard thing, and I set up my drive ok with it, but I still get the same problem when I try to install from the cd, it doesnt detect my drive.
              My drive is connected in RAID configuration, does that make a difference? I dont know much about the differences between that and the normal one, IDE

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              • #8
                Re: Problem with reformatting due to virus(s)

                Originally posted by Jack_Stone
                My drive is connected in RAID configuration, does that make a difference? I dont know much about the differences between that and the normal one, IDE
                Yes it very likely will. On your mainboard driver/software CD there will be drivers there for the SATA controller that will need to be put on a floppy and then during the early stages of the XP setup you'll be asked to press F6 to install SCSI drivers and this will be when you need those drivers so that Windows setup can actually find the drive on the SATA controller.

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