Cleaning Windows (permanently)

[Bub, Andrew]

I'm not very good at this and "wipe/reinstalls" scare me. I found myself with a CMD.exe virus and it was affecting my computer in bad ways. Anti-virus couldn't fix it so I figured it was time for a reinstall. I backed everything to my F drive and reached for my Windows XP disc.

I grabbed the Professional Edition MS sent me for a project I did last year... not the home version I had originally used.

Because I'm dumb I didn't pay really close attention to what it was doing. It loaded onto the F drive, not the C drive. It left everything intact (thank god). I noticed this on reboot. I opened the case, switched F to Master and C to Slave and then tried to format C (using Windows). It wouldn't complete the format... it says it can't.

Now when I reboot it asks me which Windows XP (pro or home) to load. I don't want a dual boot. Can anyone tell me how to nuke Windows off my Drive C for good? Do I need to use a boot disk and do a DOS wipe? I thought with XP, DOS was over with?

EDIT to ADD:
No partitions. C and F are seperate hard drives who love together in sin.

What I'm asking, basically, is how do I wipe C: completely. I'll leave F and XP Pro as my boot hard drive and use C as the backup. Should I do it with a boot 3.5 disc then? I'd heard with Windows XP you could format without a 3.5" disc and DOS

[Stroker Ace]

I'm glad I'm not you, Bub :o

[Aleck]

Andrew,

You can probably use fdisk to delete the partition, then create a new partition. This should wipe windows off your old C:\ drive, and make it ready for a nice, fresh reinstall.

If you run into issues with the master boot record trying to dual boot, fdisk /mbr cleans the master boot record. Do this ONLY if you're sure you want to nuke the mbr, though!

If you need a bootdisk, you can get one (easily) from www.bootdisk.com.

[Bub, Andrew]

No sorry, no partitions. C and F are seperate hard drives who love together in sin.

[Bull]

Andrew, the problem is the C drive has all the boot files on it. This is why you can't format it in Windows. When you do manage to dust the C: drive, you will no longer be able to boot to the F: drive.

Here is what you must do:

Install Windows on the C drive. Use the CD and pay attention to the options you get. You don't want to upgrade you want a new install. You will get a chance to format during setup. If you're worried about a virus, you should take this opportunity to format the drive. Choose NTFS.

Once you install on the C drive, you will just have a single boot system. The files on F will still be there, but you won't be able to boot to it anymore. At that point, just move your data back to C: then format F: to get rid of all the mess.

[Bub, Andrew]

Great! I'd prefer to do it that way actually.

[Bull]

Great! I'd prefer to do it that way actually.

Just in case you missed it, you'll get a chance to format during install if you ask for a new install. Do the format. Choose NTFS.

[Jason McCullough]

Since you're reinstalling anyway, don't do anything as Administrator. It's a lot harder to catch viruses when you don't have administrative privledges. I've got two batch files on my desktop that let me install and whatever when I need too:

runas /u:Hronk\Administrator cmd
runas /u:Hronk\Administrator "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore"

You'll probably have to give full control permissions to your games directory for the Users group, but that's it.

[marxeil]

Just in case you missed it, you'll get a chance to format during install if you ask for a new install. Do the format. Choose NTFS.
Why NTFS? It costs more resources.

[Bull]

Why NTFS? It costs more resources.

Better security, bigger files, more options. You're not going to realize any performance difference.

[Guido Jones]

Also my favorite: More Stable.

[Jason McCullough]

Also "how often are you limited by hard drive speed, anyway?"

[marxeil]

I did some search to strengthen my argument and came back reformed.
Choose NTFS!
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

[Murph]

And that comes from a nice, impartial site like NTFS.com! ;)

I prefer NTFS, myself.