[Akril]

Hello,

After a brief exchange with Muppy03 in another thread on this forum, I came to the sad realization that my computer had become infected with a backdoor trojan and the best thing to do under the circumstances was to reformat my hard drive. I had a few questions about the reformatting process that Muppy03 advised me to ask here, since the people here are more well-versed in such things.

I've never done this before, so I want to make absolutely certain that I don't do anything wrong. I have a Windows XP system recovery CD that came with my computer whose purpose, according to the text written on it, is "to reinstall the operating system, programs and drivers." Is this disc all that I need in order to reformat my hard drive?

Also, on the subject on backing up my files, I have a secondary internal hard drive (drive F: ) which I use to store backup copies of my more irreplaceable files. If I backed up all the files and folders I wanted to save to that drive, would the reformatting process effect them in any way?

Also, to keep my computer from getting re-infected, are there any files that I shouldn't copy to my backup hard drive (aside from most of the contents of C:/Windows)? Incidentally, the way, I've unplugged my computer's modem line so that it can't get re-infected immediately after the reformatting process is over.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: And I should have mentioned that my computer is a Gateway Pentium 4 running WinXP SP3.

[techkid]

Originally Posted by Akril

I've never done this before, so I want to make absolutely certain that I don't do anything wrong. I have a Windows XP system recovery CD that came with my computer whose purpose, according to the text written on it, is "to reinstall the operating system, programs and drivers." Is this disc all that I need in order to reformat my hard drive?

Yes. The disk should go through the process of formatting and reinstalling Windows. Be sure to follow the prompts, though. Some recovery CDs have a non-destructive (reinstalls Windows only, no formatting) recovery, and a destructive (formats the drive, then reinstalls everything) recovery. In this case, to make sure there is no chance of reinfection, do a destructive recovery.

Originally Posted by Akril

Also, on the subject on backing up my files, I have a secondary internal hard drive (drive F: ) which I use to store backup copies of my more irreplaceable files. If I backed up all the files and folders I wanted to save to that drive, would the reformatting process effect them in any way?

Is F: drive a separate physical drive? If you are concerned about this, you would probably be best to remove it for the time being, until after the reinstallation is done.

Originally Posted by Akril

Also, to keep my computer from getting re-infected, are there any files that I shouldn't copy to my backup hard drive (aside from most of the contents of C:/Windows)? Incidentally, the way, I've unplugged my computer's modem line so that it can't get re-infected immediately after the reformatting process is over.

Aside from your important files (documents, pictures, music etc), there is not much else you would need to backup. Basically, anything that you think is worth keeping, is worth keeping.

Hope this helps.

[Akril]

Originally Posted by techkid

Is F: drive a separate physical drive? If you are concerned about this, you would probably be best to remove it for the time being, until after the reinstallation is done.

Drive F: is an internal hard drive, and if I recall correctly, it has one connection going to my primary hard drive and another going to my motherboard. If I disconnected it, would there be any danger of losing the files on it once it is reconnected? I think I might go one step further and copy my important files onto another computer, just to be absolutely certain nothing goes wrong.

Thanks for the tips. I'm backing up my files at the moment in preparation for the reformatting process, so we'll see how it goes.

[singme2sleep]

you are probably thinking of the power cord when you say it is connected to the other hard drive. The power for the hard drive have a couple ends to them to power more than one drive. Your best bet would be to unplug anything going into your BACKUP hard drive, so there is no chance of it being touched when reformatting and installing. I have ruined a backup that way, even though i had only selected the C:/ drive to reformat, it ended up reformatting my backup also :/

[techkid]

Originally Posted by Akril

Drive F: is an internal hard drive, and if I recall correctly, it has one connection going to my primary hard drive and another going to my motherboard. If I disconnected it, would there be any danger of losing the files on it once it is reconnected? I think I might go one step further and copy my important files onto another computer, just to be absolutely certain nothing goes wrong.

Not really, no. For the amount of time it takes to do a reinstallation, you shouldn't have any loss of data.

You don't have to physically remove the drive, even. Just disconnect the lead to the motherboard (and the power if you feel like it) from the backup hard drive, let Windows do its thing, and when you have your antivirus, antispyware and firewall in place (best to be safe, yes?), you can reconnect your drive easily enough.

[Akril]

Well, the reformatting process seemed to go okay, but when I got everything installed and started tinkering around with things, I discovered that my computer's sound drivers were missing -- in fact, the Sound Recorder and Volume Control applications were completely absent from the Entertainment folder.

I have no idea why this is. The disk I reformatted my hard drive with said that its purpose was "to reinstall the operating system, programs and drivers" (emphasis added), but I have no idea why the sound drivers weren't installed when I reinstalled the OS.

To make matters worse, my computer started stalling during the boot process and none of the monitors I hooked up to it worked, so I had to take the computer into the local repair shop. I just recently got a call from the shop informing me that these problems were due to a faulty video card. I suppose this might just be a freak coincidence, but it was a bit distressing nonetheless. I was also informed that the network drivers were missing, and again, I had no clue why this happened.

I still haven't gotten my computer back yet, but I assume that aside from the numerous setbacks, the reformatting was relatively successful. Does anyone here know why the sound and network drivers weren't installed when the OS was reinstalled, though?

[flavallee]

Akril:

You've learned something the hard way.

Never do a hard drive format and fresh install of XP until you identify the devices in the computer and then obtain the current XP drivers for them and burn them off to a CD-R.

A fresh XP install rarely installs all the device drivers. That's why you want to have them available before you start.

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[bbearren]

The drivers are probably in a separate folder on the installation disk. Check it out with Windows Explorer.

[Akril]

Originally Posted by flavallee

Akril:

You've learned something the hard way.

Never do a hard drive format and fresh install of XP until you identify the devices in the computer and then obtain the current XP drivers for them and burn them off to a CD-R.

A fresh XP install rarely installs all the device drivers. That's why you want to have them available before you start.

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*Sigh*...if that is the case, it sure would have been helpful if someone in this thread had told me about that before I reformatted my hard drive. I stated in my very first post that this was the first time I'd attempted something like this and wanted to make sure I didn't mess anything up. I guess it's too late to do anything about that now, though.


And bbearren, I'm getting my computer back later today, so I'll take a look at the Drivers folder on the installation disk and see if there's anything there that isn't in my computer's C:/windows/systerm32/drivers folder.

[flavallee]

Originally Posted by Akril

*Sigh*...if that is the case, it sure would have been helpful if someone in this thread had told me about that before I reformatted my hard drive. I stated in my very first post that this was the first time I'd attempted something like this and wanted to make sure I didn't mess anything up. I guess it's too late to do anything about that now, though.

Unfortunately, I didn't see your thread until today, or else I would've advised you.

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[itsjusme]

Windows xp has native drivers that will at least get you basic functionality for most hardware, but it doesnt have drivers for anything you throw at it. To get full functionality it`s best to go to the mfgs website and look for drivers for your specific machine, download the manual and drivers for it and keep them safe. You can use a program like SIW, or similar to get info on your system, but the mfgs website will usually have all the info if you know make and model. If not you can use SIW, or get the numbers off the motherboard and get most of what you need from the mfg.
http://www.gtopala.com/
I also suggest that once you get it up and running, set up like you want and get all your programs installed, to make a disk image of your installation with a program like Acronis True Image or similar, and there is open source software that works well, i use "Clonezilla" and it works well. Saves alot of time over reinstalling everything individually.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis...ion=clonezilla

[flavallee]

I never do a hard drive format and fresh install of XP on a computer without first identifying that computer's devices and then obtaining and burning off the current XP drivers for them.

I consider the driver for the network adapter the most important one because you need a functioning connection to get on-line and activate XP and obtain necessary updates and programs and get the computer up and running properly.

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[techkid]

My apologies for not supplying information about the drivers. After a while, the things you consider as the "the basics" tend to slip one's mind (my teacher in college forgot this once. No power to the computer because the wall switch was turned off ).

Go to the Gateway Support site (http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/dlcenter.asp), and do a search for your model computer (for most accurate results, use the "Search by serial number" function provided).

Generally, you would need these drivers (with the first two in that order):

Chipset
Network
Sound
Video/Graphics

Let us know how this goes.

[Akril]

Thanks for the tips, everyone.

Sorry if I forgot to mention it earlier, but when my computer was in the shop, all the necessary drivers were installed on it, so I don't have any more problems driver-wise (which is just as well because I've stumbled across some more problems to worry about).

Thanks again for the help. I think I can consider this problem solved now.