I'm about to format my hard drive and reinstall everything.

[name not needed]

I'll post again when I'm done.

[porkrind]

1. That's what you think

:)
good luck

[acmavm]

2. No kidding. Had to do that once. Two day fiasco. I'll just give up

the computer if I ever have to do that again.

[Trajan]

3. I can do it in about 3 hours ....

Have LOTS of experience from the old 'format c:/s' days .... and recent puter fiascos of my children, who are learning that Kazaa comes with a price ; oodles of fucked up spyware, adware and trojans ... Even with nav and ZA: its tough to keep your puter clean now ...

[Kahuna]

4. I've done it about three times on my "new" pc I bought last year...

because of a problem with my DVD burning software. It's time consuming. But if I can do it...

[Auntie Bush]

7. What brand PC was that?

[Nomad559]

8. Firmware

You should check the manufactures website to see If your DVD burner has a firmware up-date.

A firmware up-grade solved a Issue I had with my DVD burner.

[Nomad559]

5. Format and Install

It only takes me about 25 minutes to format and Install my operating system.

I burned my disk with SP1 Slipstreamed Into It, and I also have It set up for unattended installation.

It takes me about two hours to reinstall all of my other software.

[Maestro]

6. It's not that big of a deal

if you image your hard drive first. XP just walks you through it.

[BlueJazz]

9. I know it's to late now but I wish I had seen your post earlier.....

...I could have saved you a lot of hassels down the road.

[sweetheart]

10. 3 pc's in the last 2 months

I've gone down your path now a few times. It is 3 stories worth
telling:

virus/trojan horse attacks render PC useless...
1. I decide to load linux... now i have a linux PC that can't
recognize its internet card, and is totally useless. I'm humbly
being influenced to reloading microcrap on that one. BE careful
if migrating to linux that it can get you back online, or you'll
be loving the new feature of your GNU C++ compiler and little else.

2. 2nd PC hard disk crashed... lost all my files and due to very
important work-files had to pay extortion fees to have the hard disk
"recovered" by a professional... 600 bucks... ouch... and that PC
is offline and will never touch the internet.

3. 3rd PC virus attacks again... my partner takes the helm and
goes on the offensive against the republican viruses.... and sure
enough purchases the latest most expensive norton anti-"stuff" ware
and sure enough the PC is the one i'm using right now.

Lessons:

Keep backups, like you are a business, even offsite copies.

Keep a shit-internet PC to rebuild when it gets virus'ed by the
republicans.

"PAY" for a decent anti-virus package for that PC. BTW, a good way
to defeat the trojan horses when you find their files, is to replace
their files with word documents with the same name. It trips them
up right fine... but the norton's latest gets my compliments if
you spend the bux.

Good luck and god bless you.

[TrogL]

12. So buy a different network card

Go to a used computer store and you can probably get an old network card for about two dollars. Because it's older, there's probably drivers for it. You can turn off the network card on your motherboard on a bios setting.

[sweetheart]

13. frankly i was thinking of getting another version of linux

i've got mandreake 10, that does not accept ISDN unless you are
a 1970's bell labs unix god. The telco has me on ISDN, and mandrake
won't have it... maybe its worth the 40 bux on amazon to experiment
with sesu (sp) linux that might be friendly with ISDN for non
unix bell labs administrator gods.

Sadly, ADSL is not available in this region, so i'm on a non-popular
protocol of connection.

I feel even more sorry for non-computer types who get caught up in
this microsoft-virusware nightmare, as it is a magnificent waste of
time with their bugwear... :-) God help the designers of windows
XP as they stand before god and explain why they don't belong in a
bazillion lifetimes in the darkest burning hell.

[name not needed]

11. I finished

It took a while because I used a program called Wipedrive to clear the drive. Its the same stuff the Dept. of Defense uses to get rid of crap they don't want hanging around, like somebody's military records, for example. Plus I had to find the cds for all my stuff. I still have to install firefox and zonealarm but I'm pretty much done.

[traco]

14. Glad you got through it ok

Wanna come do mine? LOL

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

15. How odd. I do it several times a week.

Of course, I have a computer set up so I can quickly put the hard drive in to back up all the files and then wipe and reformat it, and I have my network set up so I can connect any computer to my file server and install all the software over the net (faster than using the cd drive, not to mention the fact I don't have to keep switching cds...).

Oh, yeah. When I'm done, someone usually pays me for doing it... :evilgrin: