complete reboot HELP!

[Guest]

My computer has been running slower and slower, because it has lots ofviruses
and spyware on it. I have tried so many siffernet antivirus softwares from
online, and nothng helps my problem. The same thing happened to our old
family computer, and in the end, once you atrted it up, ti froze, and you had
to start it up again. My mom brought in a guy from her work to fix it, and it
he completely rebboted the computer. He svd everything to disks, and he
started the entire computer up again. I worked for a while, but then the
computer crashed, because it was was about 8 nyers old anyway. I want to
completely reboot my computer, because it is only a year old, and i need it
to type papers and things for school. i'm starting high school this year,
and i really need it. Also, i would never give it up becasue i spent five
months saving my allowance and other money to get this, so i want to
completely reboot it without it doing something else to mess it up, or
waiting for it to get to the point where i can't use it anymore, and pay
hundreds of dollars that i don't have to fix it.If anyone knows how to
completely restart my computer, or if you have a better idea, and you think
that rebooting it entirely is bad, then PLEASE tellme!

Thank you to anyone who can help me in any way.

Lionking 88

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

There comes a time when spyware and virus problems get too much and the only
way out is to start again. This is relatively easy but can be costly - but
that's really the cost of looking after the computer in the first place.

You need to start with a fresh hard disk. If, as I suspect, you don't have
your work backed up it would be best to get another hard disk and install
Windows and all your software on that. Doing it this way all your work
(warts and all) is preserved on your original hard disk. It would be best
also at this stage to get some threat prevention (something like Norton
Internet Security) which will give you reasonable security against spyware
and virus threats. This could be considered to be an investment against you
having to go through all this again. You should update Windows and threat
prevention before re-connecting your original hard disk and scanning that
for threats before you do anything else.

The alternative of re-formatting the hard disk is not a wise move as you
would literally loose absolutely everything on the hard disk and there's no
practical way back!

However, before you even start it would be wise to make sure that you have
all the necessary software CDs and product keys.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Check here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm and here
http://www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm

Make certain you have your important data backed up first as the above
processes will wipe the data off your drive.

You must install antivirus software. Many new computers come with trialware
versions of antivirus software that will stop working after awhile unless
you pay to keep them updated. There are freeware antivirus programs that are
good if you can't afford to purchase a program. Many people use AVG which is
free from here http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ There are also
programs that will block spyware from installing itself. Here is a program
that does that http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Of course these programs are only good if you use them and keep them
updated.