virus after formatting?

I recently formatted & reinstalled windows XP home on a friend's PC. After reinstallation, we tried to install McAfee....but couldn't......because there was a strange window popup that said the system would shutdown, and even provided a backward-counter indicating how many seconds remained before shutdown. So after reboot, I googled the name on the offending box and it turned out to be caused by a virus. I can't remember the name that I put in the Google window, but the top hit identified a program caused by 3 possible viruses.....one of them being "sasser". Now here's my question: After formatting & reinstallation, is it possible for a virus to lurk somewhere in the system & then reinfect windows after reinstallation?

pjblevin

 

http://forums.techguy.org/t110854.html Follow this link to Security Tools . You have a choice of a few free online virus scanners Choose one and do a scan .

 

Dust: I tried to run an "online virus scan" but couldn't get any of them to function. Then, in desperation, I put the installation disc in the PC and attempted to reinstall windows (again). This time, though, I couldn't even do that, getting an error message before setup even loaded the initial files. So I told my friend to call Dell & tell them what happened; it's still under warranty, and she should be able to get a replacement. My question in the initial post was: Can a virus survive a clean instll and live on to infect the new installation? It's mostly a matter of personal curiosity.

pjblevin

 

Hi pjblevin,

Yes, it's possible if your boot sector is infected. When you reformat a hard drive, you reformat partitions and not the boot sector of your hard drive.
Have a read at this page : http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_huuv.asp

 

Fascinating, Chicon. But if the boot sector gets infected, will McAfee (or other anti-virus programs) be able to detect/delete/quarantine? What if that's not possible.....can it be hunted down & neutralized after Windows reinstallation? Are there special anti-virus programs to fight this kind of thing? It's a very interesting subject, to me at least.

pjblevin

 

During the reinstallation of XP, the virus may copy itself. And when you install McAfee, it's already too late ! And I am not sure the installation wizard of XP rewrites the boot sector if it's already present for the startup of XP.

 

Also, before reinstalling XP, you must repair your boot sector :
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_huuv.asp