Is there any way to reboot my whole computer and erase everything...start new w/o a disc?

Question

My other computer has a virus on it and I am unable to access the internet at all...I think my only way around this is to erase everything.

Answer 1

If you can - restore your computer to an earlier time - like a week before. Go to your programs list - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore (this option will bring your computer to an earlier stage befor ethe harmful installations)

Final choice would be to...
Reformat the hard drive w/ a disk. That will erase everything on your computer :(

Answer 2

If you have valuable files, you could take that drive and put it into another computer as a second drive, pull the files, and maybe remove the virus. Just make sure that computer as an up to date scanner (AVG and AVAST are free).

Or, you can get an XP replacement disk for most computers at Amazon for about $10 each.

When you get the XP cd, simply boot from the CD, and tell it to delete the current partition, and it will reformat the drive and install automatically.

Answer 3

You have to boot up from an alternative device such as a CD, thumbdrive, network (if its connected to your network). Your best case scenario is that you have a DOS boot partition.

If you do, you can press F8 during bootup and select the DOS partition. Assuming you have MS-DOS7/8 (exists on Windows 98 if u upgraded from it to XP). Select the DOS partition and then you can format the PC. But then again u need a CD to install Windows.

The best way is to restore your PC with a RESTORE CD or inbuilt function (like that in IBM Thinkpad notebooks and others) that should have come with your PC (if it is not OEM).

Good luck trying.

Answer 4

You need a windows install disk to format the pc.

Answer 5

No, you would at least need an operating system disk.