can someone tell me how to re start a pc from scratch? my daughters has a virus, and she wants to re install?

Question

she has windows xp start up cd. but pc is running very slow..taking 10 mins to get to programmes. we are not clued up on this ... hence the question. would love an answer asap please not too technical or we will be lost.... thanks

Answer 1

whats the pc as dell has a factory setting when the dell logo shows at the start you press ctrl and F11 and the pc goes to the way it was when you bought it,if its not Dell your daughter should look for a factory restore cd or info from the maker on how to do this.
email me the brand and model and i can find out what she can do just click on my name and u can email me from there.

Answer 2

XP only.....Restore or reformat.
1. Restore .... switch on and press F8. If the bios screen appears then press Esc to continue.... and then press F8
2. Select 'safe mode with networking'
3.Administrator will be included on the screen. Select to include the administrator.
4. Choose the option to restore
5. Select from the diary a date for which the computer was know to be virus free. Restore to your selected date. Follow shut down and reboot.

Format. [will wipe the hard disc and install a fresh XP program]
1. Switch off
2. Switch on and immediately press F2.
On the bios menu find the sequence for boot-up. Read the screens instructions and change the boot up sequence so the CD is the first in the list. Exit and SAVE the changes. Now put your XP disc [note its serial number onto a piece of paper] into the CD drive and shut down your computer.
3. NB you must have a genuine XP disc and its serial number. Now boot up your computer.
4. Follow the screen's instructions. Reinstalling XP will reformat the drive and copy a fresh XP program to the C drive.
5. Next problem will be installing drivers and internet connection. If you are on broadband an Ethernet driver is needed .... or use the disc from your supplier.
6. Connect to the internet. When connected XP will search the internet for drivers and self load each. If any can't be automatically found you will need discs which should have been supplied when you bought the computer.

Answer 3

Have you got the factory reset disc, This will totally clear it of everything, then reinstall your windows xp disc. Please dont just try to back everything up on a disc and install that or you will just put the virus back in. You could always try system restore in tools and that is self explanitery. Dont think that spelt correct but you know what I mean. Just thought of something reading netthief's answer. Windows do a free 90 day trial of their product that will search the virus out and clean it up.

Answer 4

Formatting or re-installing is unlikely to get rid of the virus, so it will clean up all her hard work and still the problem persists.

It is your easiest option to simply download or otherwise use a virus scanner as is, sometimes that's all that is needed and there are several free ones available. Yup, just run it with resident virus and all, I've had this work on several occasions.

Beyond that, you may have to read through the process of making a bootable CD on a clean computer and installing a virus scanner on said CD, but I would try the first option and take it from there.

Answer 5

no need to wipe the whole thing!!! you will lose everything, word files, explorer favourites etc, what virus?? are you sure its not spyware ?? research the matter first using CTRL ALT DEL look at the processes running and google every 1 I know it will be pain staking but your will learn so much!!! I had to do this a year ago and am now a computer geek!!

Answer 6

First place the cd in the computer, and start it up. If the computer is set to boot from cd rom win xp will start the setup program by itself. If not whhen in windows start the program
by clicking on the cd rom icon in my computer. You might want to try letting it repair the windows system first before reinstalling the whole thing.
Joe

Answer 7

Just reboot the computer with the cd in the drive, and follow the instructions...If the computer doesnt recognize and start the install, I will turn on messenger, just im me...

Make sure you have the serial number wrote down......

Answer 8

hi, put your windows disk in, it should start automatically reinstalling for you, just click on the prompts.

Save your daughters files first though because it will write over them all.

If it doesn't start automatically reboot the machine and that should do it.

(Important) it will reinstal and ask you whether you want to overwrite or create a new partition. Choose overwrite or things will get confusing and your virus will still be in your registry system. IM me if you have any problems its ok I'm up for a while yet.

Answer 9

It probably won't fix the problem.
Switch off System Restore as back up files may be hiding in there, and it will just restore itself. Go to Start - programs - accessories - system tools - system restore.
Run your anti virus and anti spyware in Safe Mode. To get into Safe Mode repeatedly press the F8 key after the bios screen loads but before Windows loads. You'll know if you made it because the screen will be at 800 x 600 and your pc will be slow.
Finally, run Ccleaner, use the Issues tool then the Cleaner.

Its easier to prevent malware getting on to your sytem in the first place rather than trying to remove it. All the following programs are free for home use;

You need to install one firewall.
The Windows firewall doesn't stop malware on your pc from dialling out.
http://www.zonelabs.com Zone Alarm firewall OR
http://www.comodogroup.com/ - Comodo firewall.

You need to install one anti virus;
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ -AVG anti virus or
http://www.avast.com - Avast Antivirus

http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/site/Main/view/Download-Free-Products.html - Bitdefender 8 doesn't run in the background and can be used as a second back up anti virus.

You need all these anti spyware programs;
http://www.ewido.net - AVG(Ewido) anti trojan.
http://www.safer-networking.org - Spybot Search and Destroy anti spyware. Use the Teatimer settings to protect Internet Explorer, and the Immuniser to stop malware getting on your pc.
Spywareblaster works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. It won't uninstall spyware that is already on your pc, but it will prevent hijacks and other malicious changes to your browser.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com
Plus;
http://www.lavasoft.com - Ad-Aware SE Personal anti adware

And these are useful utilities;
http://www.mozilla.com/ - Firefox web browser.
https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q=ad+block&type=A&app=firefox - Adblock Plus
http://www.ccleaner.com - Cr*pcleaner Registry cleaner and privacy tool
Winpatrol is a handy utility that manages cookies on your pc and stops unwanted changes to your startup folder.
http://www.winpatrol.com
http://www.siteadvisor.com -MacAffee Site Advisor warns about malware on sites you are about to visit.

http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm - The Spyware Warrior site identifies fake anti spyware programs.
https://www.grc.com - Shields Up security site, check your firewall works.

Answer 10

whatever you do dont put that disc in,its a last resort and she probably has loads on it she doesnt want to lose.it doesnt sound like a virus,there will be a simple solution.i could tell you how to go but it gets technichal so get a local pc doc to look before it all gets lost