I need some help answer my questions...

[Discusman]

Hi All,

I spent almost half day fixing my pc today due to a possible virus/worm attack. My Dell was running Windows XP Home Edition and with all SP installed on the machine. For some reasons, the machine started acting weird after I upgraded IE 7.0 to 8.0 which it came with Windows XP SP 3. HijackThis started picking up things during scanning. I couldn't start Window in Safe Mode and Window started shuting down by itself.

So I had to format the hard drive and do a fresh Windows XP installation. But the system couldn't copy some of the system files to the hard drive.

However, I was able to install Windows to another hard drive. Could anyone tell me why? Originally I thought the hard drive must be toasted or damaged by virus/worm. I almost threw it away.

But the system could still recognize the hard drive and displays the correct size.

What am I missing here?

 

[KSoD]

2 things.

1. Did you do a full format when you tried to install to the original drive? If not there is why. The quick format stinks.

2. Have you run chkdsk /r /f on the drive?

Between those 2 things it will scan for errors, fix the errors and format the drive properly. Quick is just like moving the data to the Recycle Bin. You really need to do a full format.

 

[Discusman]

2 things.

1. Did you do a full format when you tried to install to the original drive? If not there is why. The quick format stinks.

2. Have you run chkdsk /r /f on the drive?

Between those 2 things it will scan for errors, fix the errors and format the drive properly. Quick is just like moving the data to the Recycle Bin. You really need to do a full format.

I didn't do a full format on the disk. My HD is 80GB and I tried to format it with the full formatting, but it took half hour just to finish 4% of the total space. So I chose the quick format. I really didn't know the difference between a full and quick format in terms quality of the formatting process. Is there any short cut to do a full formatting? It just takes too long.

Anyway, I swap the two HDs, so I use the slave HD as master and the master to slave this time. Window can still recognize the problem HD (80 GB). How can I do a full format to the HD again in Window?

Thanks Mak, you always have answer to questions.

 

[KSoD]

The quick way to get a full format in less time is to use GParted. Other than that you will have to wait for Windows to do it.

 

[Discusman]

The quick way to get a full format in less time is to use GParted. Other than that you will have to wait for Windows to do it.

Is Gparted a free program? How can I use it when I couldn't even load Window?

 

[KSoD]

Gparted is free and it is a bootable LiveCD. So you would boot your system with it in the tray and format.

Browse GParted Files on SourceForge.net

Get the ISO and burn it with ImgBurn.

Burning ISO Images with ImgBurn - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

 

[Discusman]

Gparted is free and it is a bootable LiveCD. So you would boot your system with it in the tray and format.

Browse GParted Files on SourceForge.net

Get the ISO and burn it with ImgBurn.

Burning ISO Images with ImgBurn - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Mak, thanks for the links.

I've created Gparted livecd (0.3.4-9.iso) I'm assuming this is the latest version.

So in case I need to format my HD and couldn't boot into Windows. What should I do?

1. Insert the Gparted-livecd in the CD tray and run it?
2. Insert Windows Installation CD?

 

[KSoD]

Insert the GParted tray in and run it. As i said it is bootable and a LiveCD. It will run right from the CD. Nothing else is needed.

Just insert the GPArted disk, go through the menus till you get the screen that shows the drives, right click it and select format to>NTFS.

All done. Shut down the system, replace the GParted CD with the Windows CD and restart. Install Windows.

 

[Discusman]

Insert the GParted tray in and run it. As i said it is bootable and a LiveCD. It will run right from the CD. Nothing else is needed.

Just insert the GPArted disk, go through the menus till you get the screen that shows the drives, right click it and select format to>NTFS.

All done. Shut down the system, replace the GParted CD with the Windows CD and restart. Install Windows.

How quick can this program format a 80G HD? I know the formatting speed would increased dramatically.

 

[KSoD]

I have formatted a 320GB HDD in about 2 minutes. GParted is quick and it is effective.