[Caine]

I've been advised by Metallica in another thread, from where I've moved the following question; that reinstalling windows on this machine, which has several unfixable little niggling problems would be a bad idea. And rather, I should go for a reformat instead, if I read it correctly.
If so, any advice here please? Such as how to reconnect dvd-rom/cdr drives, and gaining access to the internet again. Not only how to reformat itself, but regarding starting up with a "clean" system; what's the best way to create a "restore point" that can be reset in case of future infection, while running a win2k which doesn't have the winxp system restore feature? The only other programs I can think of which have related features are Spybots "system snapshot" feature. Is there any more I'm missing? Also, what programs is it essential to have backed up on disc, which should be installed before anything else is done, for security sake?

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My addvice would be to to bye Norton Goast an make a backup on to DVD to act as a restore point in case you need it (Norton Goast will do this very easly and you can boot form it later if all goes wrong, the back up will be your intire system including your setings). Then all you will have to do is insert your XP intallation disk (or that of what ever operating system you have) and restart your computer an press what every buton brings up the boot options (in my case F12) and chose to boot from a CD. When the setup starts chose to format you hard drive before installing the operation system (one of the options that it will bring up). Reconection to the internet should be a matter of installing the drivers to your modem and runing the internet setup wizad (this wizad opens up if you try to open Internet exploer or Outlook express and do not have an internet conection).

Good Luck

[Michael]

My addvice would be to to bye Norton Goast an make a backup on to DVD to act as a restore point in case you need it (Norton Goast will do this very easly and you can boot form it later if all goes wrong, the back up will be your intire system including your setings). Then all you will have to do is insert your XP intallation disk (or that of what ever operating system you have) and restart your computer an press what every buton brings up the boot options (in my case F12) and chose to boot from a CD. When the setup starts chose to format you hard drive before installing the operation system (one of the options that it will bring up). Reconection to the internet should be a matter of installing the drivers to your modem and runing the internet setup wizad (this wizad opens up if you try to open Internet exploer or Outlook express and do not have an internet conection).

Good Luck

[Caine]

Several things to add/ask here:

Firstly, I guess I'll have to shell out for a dvd-r then yes? Because my pc only came with a dvd-rom and a cd-r drive. And when you say it backs up EVERYTHING, you don't mean all the music/movie/work/data files too do you? Surely you just mean the system info, like a registry back-up or something, because my HD has something like 65GB used, and that's a lot of DVDR's, and a [bleep] of a lot of CDR's!

When you say "if all goes wrong" what do you mean when you say "boot from it later". Do you mean; just pop the dvd with the old HD in the DVD-ROM drive and press F12(or whatever) like you mentioned if the win2k CD doesn't complete the format properly?

And sorry, I'm grateful for the effort and help, but...

Reconection to the internet should be a matter of installing the drivers to your modem and runing the internet setup wizad

could this be elaborated on a little please? How do you "install the drivers to your modem" etc...

Bear in mind I haven't re-installed/reformatted this before, and I won't be offended if the more tech-savvy, that call this stuff their bread and butter, resort to a blackboard and coloured chalk.

Oh, and last (possibly dumb) question; I've just wondered if there's a difference between the CD required for a reinstall and that for a reformat?

[Kat]

I've been advised by Metallica in another thread, from where I've moved the following question; that reinstalling windows on this machine, which has several unfixable little niggling problems would be a bad idea. And rather, I should go for a reformat instead, if I read it correctly.

After reading your entire thread, Pieter did not recommend that you re-install, reformat, or anything of the sort. In fact, he advised against it. The false positive you are receiving from Panda is nothing to clean your entire system over!! You have a clean, Malware-free system. Why would you want to reformat at this point??

[poorak]

Hey reformatting might be the last solution.....before taking this serious step..u must try out some other utilities to fix the problem if there is any......try to fix the virii problem by using the NAV . NAV has a facility for an initial scan befoe instal....so u need not to instal but just get scanned for the virus....
If this step doen't provide you with the virii/adware/etc than this will definately be the right one to take
>>just install the New Antispyware
(microsoft released)
Other than this......iif u really wanna use the system restore in ME
click system restore in MEhere.
Even if the problem is not solved , then plz make me aware of it.....it's a nice little prob.

[Caine]

After reading your entire thread, Pieter did not recommend that you re-install, reformat, or anything of the sort. In fact, he advised against it. The false positive you are receiving from Panda is nothing to clean your entire system over!! You have a clean, Malware-free system. Why would you want to reformat at this point??

Ah right, I see! My mistake, it seems I misinterpreted the thread altogether , and you know Metallica longer than I so I'll defer to your interpretation. The way I read it initially when I asked whether I need a reinstall or reformat, and he said "I wouldn't reinstall over this." I thought he meant a reinstall wouldn't work and would rather a reformat.
Anyhoo, re: wanting a reformat; even though the machine may be free of malicious baddies, I've gotten the impression that despite this, it's still good practice to occassionally (couple years or so) backup important data and do a reformat. Even a reasonably well managed system will inevitably pick up little inconsistencies over time. Or perhaps I'm wrong here again?

Thanks for the help so far evryone thats contributed, it's greatly appreciated. And btw, sorry about the bleeped word in prev post. I wasn't aware my language was being inappropriate, maybe cultural differences here perhaps? Still it won't happen again.

[Caine]

Hey reformatting might be the last solution.....before taking this serious step..u must try out some other utilities to fix the problem if there is any......try to fix the virii problem by using the NAV .

My NAV 2004 is up to date and appears clear

If this step doen't provide you with the virii/adware/etc than this will definately be the right one to take
>>just install the New Antispyware
(microsoft released)

I may be wrong here, but I was under the impression that this program will run out in July, after which you must wait for Microsoft who will be releasing a commercial version of this software. Scam might be a bit harsh a word, but it's definetely not cricket so to speak!

Other than this......iif u really wanna use the system restore in ME
click system restore in MEhere.
Even if the problem is not solved , then plz make me aware of it.....it's a nice little prob.

I'm running a win2k here, and as far as I'm aware the closest I can come to a similar "system restore" feature is to backup the entire registry at: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup onto a CDR and restore my registry from there in case of something going wrong i think?!?!!

[Michael]

To back up I would use Norton Goast 2003 (Norton Goast 9 only works on XP)

[Caine]

I haven't had the money or opportunity to but/use Norton Ghost get, but I'll get around to it, and thanks for the help so far everyone.

I'm in the process of burning a lot of my most important stuff onto CDRs, and I wanted to make backup copies of for eg: my win2k cd, microsoft office 2k cd, NAV 2004 cd. I was trying to use Nero 6 to do this, but I'm not sure what type of disc I should be creating, if you get me? When Nero burning ROM starts it gives the option to create from the following list:
CD ROM(ISO),
Audio CD,
Mixed Mode CD,
CD EXTRA,
CD Copy,
Video CD,
Super Video CD,
miniDVD,
CD-ROM (Boot),
CD-ROM (Hybrid),
CD-ROM (UDF),
CD-ROM (UDF-ISO).

I know how to drag and drop from the DVD-ROM drive into the CDR drive in Nero btw, it's just the type of CD to use that I need to know. Thanks for any help in advance.