[extatic]

My sister was having problems with her computer.. so today i went over and tried to fix it.. after not being able to remove the spyware/viruses she had on her computer i naturally assumed.. it'd be best to just format the computer completely.. So i grabbed her windows XP reinstallation cd.. formatted the c drive through the setup.. (Not the quick format).. So after doing that i go through the process of reinstalling her windows XP Home.. i downloaded the free version of zone alarm and also installed the free trial of nortons that initially came with her dell so she'd atleast have some security.. Things seemed to be working fine.. computer was running good.. then out of no where it started to run like $h?t again.. so i downloaded spybot s&d and ran a scan after updating it.. and found that all the spyware she had on it previously was now back again... And checked the C drive and it was 2.4Gigs full.. I find it hard to believe that windows/zone alarm/AOL and nortons takes up 2.4 gigs of space.. Is it possible that the drive was not completely formatted?.. and if so what is the best way to get a good clean format so i can reinstall windows again without having to deal with this again..

Another thing im not really sure of but it doesnt hurt to ask.. Is it possible that the spyware was still stuck in the computers memory or does the memory flush when the cpu is shut down?

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Hi,

I've been through this exact same problem before. I ended up having to completely reinstall XP. Not a repair install but a fresh install. A fresh install may be the only answer, I'm afraid.

Hopefully some others here can chime in with their opinions as well.

Best of luck,

Jeff

[jdm]

Hi,

I've been through this exact same problem before. I ended up having to completely reinstall XP. Not a repair install but a fresh install. A fresh install may be the only answer, I'm afraid.

Hopefully some others here can chime in with their opinions as well.

Best of luck,

Jeff

[extatic]

I actually did a fresh install.. i put the cd in the room rebooted then formatted the HD.. then reinstalled windows.. not repaired.. installed a few progs and bam they were back again the computer was runnning all crappy..

maybe my problem was that i had the computer hooked up to the cable modem and somehow before i got the firewall and antivirus up and running it got redownloaded to the cpu.. once i got the firewall up i got hit with about 10 msg's saying someone was attempting to connect to the computer on a udp connection.. and i believe also a ftp connection.... Im going back on saturday to attempt another reformat and reinstallation of windows but this time im bringing a CD with antivirus and firewall software.. and im not gonna plug the cable in until i got it up and running... Just wanted to get some feedback on wether or not its possible for something to remain on the drive when using windows format feature when installing a fresh XP.. or a possible idea on how they actually remained once i got it back up and running.

Edited by extatic, 11 April 2005 - 10:12 PM.

[austin_o]

yep, that is exactly what happened. I suggest you repeat the process but remove the internet connection first. I had a similar problem a couple of years ago trying to upgrade a computer from Win98SE to W2KPro. I did the format and install ok, but before I could go out to the internet and download the updates and SP4, I got a worm (like a virus) that hosed the computer, slower than frozen pond scum. I ended up using another computer with Win98 to download SP4 to a CD, then installed it from there. Once I did that, I was able to connect to the internet and get the rest of the windows critical updates, update antivirus etc. There are so many infected machines out there just searching for a computer to connect to the internet with any vulnerability to infect. They will get you as soon as they detect you and that is darn quick.....

I would suggest format, install Windows XP, install anti-virus. If you can get SP2 on a CD, do that and install from there. You can download SP2 network version from M$ but it is a huge file.

download SP2 to CD, then install...this is the one I mentioned above

http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en

Edited by austin_o, 12 April 2005 - 07:10 AM.

[Rico750]

Is she visiting the same websites?
did you do a data backup and restored it?
how many partitions does the HD have?

I run spysweeper... i love that little thing it gets rid of 90 % i would say

Rik

[jdm]

Is she visiting the same websites?
did you do a data backup and restored it?
how many partitions does the HD have?

I run spysweeper... i love that little thing  it gets rid of 90 % i would say

Rik

Yes, these 3: Spysweeper, Adaware and Spybot with Tea Timer. Spysweeper tends to all-too-often get swept under the rug, in terms of the best anti-spyware software out there.

Jeff

[starjax]

Before installing sp2 you have to be sure the system is clean of spyware.

Read this post

what this sounds like is that your system is not update and there for she is getting spyware and such on the system. once you follow the steps in the link above you can download xp Service pack 2 to the local system and install it. after its installed please run windows update.

[jdm]

I second what StarJax said.....

Spyware Can Foul Up SP2 Deployment

SP2 is all about security. But SP2 itself cannot do much if a machine is already polluted with spyware -- and that shows to be a problem in some cases. Redmond is warning XP users to clean their systems and remove spyware before downloading SP2. Barry Goff, a MS group product manager, said some spyware could cause computers to freeze up upon installation of the update.

There are many categories of spyware, depending on who you talk to. It often comes as an unwanted parasite with file-sharing programs, starts tracking behavior and then triggers pop-up ads. And that's only one relatively harmless category of at least three dozen.

There are several freeware and for-pay products on the market to clean systems and remove these pests. Redmond recommends that you clean workstations of spyware and make backups before turning on the SP2 auto update feature. IDC estimates that by now, about 260 million copies of WinXP have been sold.

source

[extatic]

I didnt even get to the point of installing any windows updates.. let alone SP2 although i do have it on cd for myself..

Thanks for the responses.. One question left unanswered.. Through the windows format feature where it gives you the option to format quick or regular.. i chose regular.. is it possible for whatever reason that it DID not delete the whole hard drive?.. Like i said when i finished installing windows and a few minor programs i checked the drive C properties and there were over 2 gigs allready used.. and i mean basic programs like Nortons, zone alarm, aol and spybot were the only things i installed.. ALSO.. One other thing which also leads me to believe the whole drive was not formatted.. When i finished installing XP after the format.. And it booted off the hard drive.. it asked me whick OS i wanted to boot to..

Windows XP Home Edition........
Windows XP Home Edition........

I had to go into msconfig and delete one of the boot up options so it wouldnt ask

So is it possible that the drive was not completely formatted? or maybe the virus/spyware was hiding in system memory during the format/reinstallation?

Do you think it would be better to get a boot disk 3.5 and format it that way ?

[starjax]

well, your quite possibly right. if you wanted to start over again you could use

http://dban.sourceforge.net/ to wipe your hdd and go from there.