[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

Ah yes I've been sent here to receive help on reformatting my computer from harrythook.

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Glad to see you made it here, someone will be along to help you out.

Harry

[harrythook]

Glad to see you made it here, someone will be along to help you out.

Harry

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

:] can't wait to start out fresh and protected

[SRX660]

I read the thread in the malware forum.

One thing you need to do is find the 5 sets of 5 letters and numbers that is your registration product key. If there is NOT a sticker on the case with this you will need to find them in the system. Read this website on this.

http://www.dagondesi...t-key-recovery/

If you can still run XP, the easist method i know to save any data is to buy a cheap flash drive larger than all the files you want to save. Transfer the files thru windows explorer to the flash drive. You can drag and drop if you use the right click my computer > click explore > method.

Saving emails is a pain because if you save the mail as a DBX file and transfer it to a new computer it may corrupt and you lose them anyway. This usually does not happen but it has on occasion to me.
The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.
After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V.
To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:

a.. Select Tools | Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.
b.. Choose File | Export | Other Address Book...from the address book's menu.
c.. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.
d.. Click Export.
e.. Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button.
f.. Give your backup copy a meaningful name.
g.. Click Next.
h.. Select the fields you want to include in your backup.
i.. Finally, select Finish.
j.. Click OK.
k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, I hope).

(CHIDE)It seems you are not backing up everything you want to save off your computer on a regular basis. I hope you can get out of this habit. All the stuff you have downloaded, made yourself, and saved from friends can be lost in a minute. I have programs i backed up from 1986 that i still run on my newest computers. Yes, i have 100's of CD's and DVD's of data including over 50 gigs of MP3 music i made from my CD collection. I backup bi-weekly when i am lazy and sometimes daily when i deem it important enough. Yes, i constantly move files around in the computer so i only have to backup certain folders. You need to get a system going of backups so you don't lose your whole lifetime of computer data. (END CHIDE)

You have a Emachines recovery CD that you can insert in the CDrom drive and restart the computer to restore it to factory settings. The computer should ask you if you want to restore. you should click yes. Follow any instructions that pop up. It should then restore the computer back to the factory settings. You will need to reinstall all the updates on the computer afterwards.

A alternative to the recovery is to hit the F10 or F11 key. This restores the computer back to factory settings, if the computer had a hidden partition, although it may ask you for the recovery CD. Many times i have found it does not even ask for the recovery CD.

If neither of these things work you can usually take a regular XP( oem?) Cd and do a reinstall of XP on the computer. You will have to find a Media center version of XP to install on your computer. You can then go to the emachines website and download any drivers you need. I make a habit of downloading all the drivers for any computer i buy, from the manufacturers website. I usually burn them to a CD and keep the CD in a safe place. So i do not have to worry about spending days looking for drivers if i need them. A CD only costs 10¢ and maybe a half hour of your time to have 650Mb of backup.

If you need more information, please ask before you attempt a restoration. There nothing worse than a botched attempt and then trying to recover from that. Any questions at all that you can think of gives you more information so you can make good decisions on the steps you need to take to get your computer back up and running good.

SRX660

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

How would I check if I'm still infected after using the System Recovery CD?

[SRX660]

By using the same tools ( programs) you have already been using to try fixing the computer you should be able to tell if a problem still exists. The likelyhood of malware surviving a recovery restore is very small, but it has happened before. In that case finding a media center CD would be the route to go. You could then use the hard drive makers utility's to wipe the drive and do a low level format of the drive. After cleaning the drive you install the Media center OS the same as if you had built the computer yourself. Then would be the good idea of having all the e-machines hardware drivers on a CD that you could install after installing the OS.

I love a computer that i reinstall the OS clean. It is back to being fast and has no glitches for a while.

SRX660

[SRX660]

One of the first things you must do is install a AV on the computer before anything else except Microsoft updates.
If you are in doubt about installing any data on your computer first try checking the CD with a virus program. There are online malware checkers you can try also. Any data that you may think could be a problem just do not put on the computer.

SRX660

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

Is it possible for you to give like extremely detailed instructions on how to reformat because I am a total newb at doing this stuff :/

[SRX660]

I need to know what you are planning to do here. Do you just want to reformat the hard drive or are you thinking of doing a low level format that writes all "0"s to the drive. If you want to do a low level format you will need to download the drive makers low level formatting tool and burn it to a bootable CD. Since i usually buy hard drives retail i usually will get a utilities CD with the hard drive.

If you just want to Fdisk and Format the drive the easist way, if you have a floppy drive on your computer, is to download a win 98 boot disk setup and make a floppy that you can use to format The drive.

You can download Win 98 boot disks here.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Instructions on how to use a Win98 boot floppy is here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867

http://www.5starsupp...l/partition.htm

After you fdisk and format a drive as Fat32, you can then use a windows XP CD and reformat the drive with the NTFS File system that XP uses. It is recommended to do this. You can then reinstall windows XP on the computer.

Have you tried using the recovery CD yet. When you start your eMachine, press either del, F1, or F2 key to enter setup (BIOS). Make sure it's set to boot from the CDRom 1st, HDD 2nd. Then press ctrl|alt|del to reboot (make sure the CD is in the drive before you do), and you should be on your way.

SRX660

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

I found my system recovery CD/DVD and on it says Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. It also says To re-install the operating system, programs, and drives: Insert this disc, close all programs, restart your computer, then follow the on screen instructions.

[SRX660]

By doing what the recovery CD says you should have your computer back to what it was when you first bought it. All data you have put on the computer will be lost so make sure you have CD backups of anything you really want to save. Again run the files on a CD in a AV program to make sure you do not reinfect the computer. If in doubt do not install the data off the CD's.

SRX660

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

What's a good program to use to burn files on to CD's?

[SRX660]

First, are you sure you have a CD burner in your computer? If you do not then you won't have any programs to burn CD's anyway. If you do have a cd burner in the computer there is usually a program you can use to do so. Sonic, Nero, Roxio, and other burning programs can all burn data to CD's. I prefer using Nero software. I will usually buy NERO from Ebay.

Heres a few listings.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...1QQcmdZViewItem

The price will usually be around $40 to buy from Ebay, which is cheaper than anywhere else that i have looked. I also prefer Nero 7 to nero 8 right now. I have had a couple of problems with Nero 8 so i switched back to nero 7.

SRX660

[INNEEDOFHELPPLEASE]

Today I tried to reformat or use the CD that came with my disc because a friend of mine said it included drivers. I got it to Boot from CD first and when I restarted it asked me to press R for System Recovery. I did so and it took me through for 5 seconds but I got a blue screen before it loaded. It said something about Fatal Error x0c000 or something and terminated etc.

[SRX660]

It seems you are using a microsoft Xp cd and NOT a recovery CD. If this was a recovery Cd it would not have asked you to "Press R" for system recovery. I may be wrong but every recovery CD i have used just states you will lose all data when it installs XP back to the computer. Usually with a recovery Cd you hit a certain key or combo of keys to start the recovery CD. What make of computer do you have?

Heres the way a Microsoft XP CD works,

XP REPAIR INSTALL

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the
boot order in the system BIOS. Check your system documentation
for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.

2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the
options below This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R", (you do not want to load Recovery
Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP
installation using the Recovery Console, press R".
4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing
Windows installations.
5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and
press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options,
read Warning #2 below!!
6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot.
Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears.
Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your
applications and settings will remain intact.

SRX660