formatting/partitioning....

[xmas]

hello.

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

it has xp on it, and he got the xp disc with it.
he wants it to have about 4 partitions (its now only got one) each being
20gig.(hd is 80) not being an xp person, and he not knowing much
about computers, i have a question.(and task has fallen to me.)

1)will i need to use a boot disk to fdisk the drive in order to wipe it clean?
2)will this ensure that any virus has now disappeared? (well, at least 98% chance)
3)will a win98 boot disk be sufficient should a boot disk be needed, or ......

more to the point, what would one of you guys do given this situation?

tia

santa

 

[Malke]

hello.

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

it has xp on it, and he got the xp disc with it.
he wants it to have about 4 partitions (its now only got one) each being
20gig.(hd is 80) not being an xp person, and he not knowing much
about computers, i have a question.(and task has fallen to me.)

1)will i need to use a boot disk to fdisk the drive in order to wipe it clean?
2)will this ensure that any virus has now disappeared? (well, at least 98% chance)
3)will a win98 boot disk be sufficient should a boot disk be needed, or ......

more to the point, what would one of you guys do given this situation?

A clean install will remove the virus. I would not recommend
partitioning such a small hard drive like that. There is no point in
putting programs on a different partition since they will all need to be
reinstalled after a clean install anyway. If your friend wants to create
a partition for saving his data, a scheme of half the drive for Windows
and half the drive for data would be better. Of course, having the data
on the same hard drive will not protect it if the hard drive fails. It
would be best to have a single partition on the drive and purchase a
second internal or external hard drive for data.

All XP CDs are bootable. See these links for how to do a clean install
of XP:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand


Malke

 

[SteveL]

I agree with malke, since you do not know much about computers I would also
do a clean install, remember the CD is not enough you must have the Key code
as well, XP will ask for this during the installation.
If you do not have the key and can boot the PC then run this utility to
retrieve it;
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml
If you have tried to remove the virus and was unable to, I suggest these
steps below before you install XP,

Clean install:

In order to do a very clean install you may want to download and create a
(FKA) Low Level Format diskette. You should be able to get a LLF (HD format
utility that writes 0's to the drive) utility from your HD manufacture:

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

The reason is that some viruses and even Windows OS can leave traces of
itself on your HD, I have formatted numerous systems, set specificate
settings, re-formatted the unit using Windows XP OS and there it was most
settings where already set, this LLF utility will insure that the hard drive
be wiped clean for XP or any OS install. Be advised that this utility will
wipe all partitions from your drive so you will have to re-create them, no
biggy this is part of the OS installation process.

Insert XP CD into your CD-Rom drive (the BIOS must be set to boot from the
CD-Rom 1st), power down the PC. Before powering the PC on, unplug the
Internet connection, scanners, printers, any peripheral attached including
modems, wireless cards.

Power on PC, when windows starts create your partition(s) as desired
(example below), format your primary partition and install XP. Once the OS
has installed do not connect to the Internet, install your anti-virus and
firewall, connect to the Internet and do your live updates for your
anti-virus, firewall, then windows, after this has completed install the rest
of your SW and perform your updates to these.

Download the latest drivers for your peripherals, then install your
hardware, (note: some peripherals require that you first install the SW prior
to installing the hardware, consult your manufactures manual for
instructions).

Note: Partition creation suggestions, this example is for a drive of 80GB’s.

C: (20 GB), D: (60 GB), Install the OS to the D: drive.

Why 20 GB initial partition? It is because you may want to place your
pagefile on this partition most Windows OS’s work better when the pagefile is
on a different drive and since Windows accesses this file every time it is
used this would speed up file access, or file swapping. Another would be that
if for some unforeseen reason you have to format your PC you can place your
Data on this drive then format your boot partition drive safely. I have had
great success by doing so, it is just a preference.

Good Luck,

 

[smlunatick]

hello.

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

it has xp on it, and he got the xp disc with it.
he wants it to have about 4 partitions (its now only got one) each being
20gig.(hd is 80) not being an xp person, and he not knowing much
about computers, i have a question.(and task has fallen to me.)

1)will i need to use a boot disk to fdisk the drive in order to wipe it clean?
2)will this ensure that any virus has now disappeared? (well, at least 98% chance)
3)will a win98 boot disk be sufficient should a boot disk be needed, or ......

more to the point, what would one of you guys do given this situation?

tia

santa

As stated previously, 80GB hard drive is way too small to place 4 x
20GB partitions.

As for re-doing the hard drive partitions, XP does not use FDISK. If
you have the original XP install CD and the CD install key (aka COA)
then just set up the PC to boot from the CD. The setup process will
guide you thru the complete install.

 

[Dave Cohen]

As stated previously, 80GB hard drive is way too small to place 4 x
20GB partitions.

As for re-doing the hard drive partitions, XP does not use FDISK. If
you have the original XP install CD and the CD install key (aka COA)
then just set up the PC to boot from the CD. The setup process will
guide you thru the complete install.

I believe separating the os and installed programs from data and
settings makes sense. You can image the os and programs occasionally
then keep a more frequent backup of data. Unfortunately, the design of
winxp is very poor in this regard and buries application data in the
stupid 'documents and settings' folder with it's non-intuitive confusing
web of nonsense only exceeded in design confusion by the registry
itself. If anybody isn't following, familiarize yourself with the Linux
layout and concept of a home folder, which holds all user settings and
data in one dedicated directory.
Having said that, first, it is possible to clean a machine of viruses
even if not always easy. If you want to do a clean install and
partition, download a trial of bootitng from www.terabyteunlimited.com.
You can make a boot disk, shrink the partition and add new ones without
installation (for which you would need to register - very worthwhile).
Depending on the particular machine, recovery cd's often offer no choice
and simply restore the machine to what it was when sold. This is
simplest for the non technical. Best to keep images of the system.
Dave Cohen

 

[Patrick Keenan]

hello.

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

it has xp on it, and he got the xp disc with it.
he wants it to have about 4 partitions (its now only got one) each being
20gig.(hd is 80)
Why?

not being an xp person, and he not knowing much
about computers, i have a question.(and task has fallen to me.)

1)will i need to use a boot disk to fdisk the drive in order to wipe it
clean?

You use the XP install CD for this. It has the partitioning tools; select
and remove existing partitions, then create new ones as needed.

2)will this ensure that any virus has now disappeared? (well, at least 98%
chance)

If you've created new partitions and formatted, the disk is clean.

3)will a win98 boot disk be sufficient should a boot disk be needed, or
......

Entirely unnecessary, and won't allow you to format the disk to NTFS. The
XP Install CD is bootable and has the tools.

more to the point, what would one of you guys do given this situation?

I would wipe the current partitions and create one partition the size of the
disk.

For backup purposes, you're generally going to be backing up the Documents
and Settings/ Account / My Documents structure, and a few other spots near
it. Most apps now use these areas for user data, and many current backup
apps are aware of this and make it easy. There is little benefit from
creating a separate partition for data.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

hello.

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

it has xp on it, and he got the xp disc with it.
he wants it to have about 4 partitions (its now only got one) each being
20gig.(hd is 80) not being an xp person, and he not knowing much
about computers, i have a question.(and task has fallen to me.)

1)will i need to use a boot disk to fdisk the drive in order to wipe it clean?

No. Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

2)will this ensure that any virus has now disappeared? (well, at least 98% chance)

Almost certainly.

3)will a win98 boot disk be sufficient should a boot disk be needed, or ......


None.


more to the point, what would one of you guys do given this situation?

First of all, four partitions, except for those running multiple
operating systems is more than almost anyone needs. His desire to do
this is very likely based on one or misunderstandings of what's good
to do. What does he want to use each of the partitions for? Hardly
anyone needs more than two partitions--one for data and one for
everything else; for some people, a single partition is best.

Moreover, *especially* with such a small drive, having four 20GB
partitions is overkill, and will likely soon land him in trouble, as
he runs out of room on one while still having space left on others.

 

[Plato]

friend bought puter cheap because it has virus(s); was a good deal $$wise.

Wipe the drive first. Then partition it, format it, then install the OS
you want.

 

[xmas]

Wipe the drive first. Then partition it, format it, then install the OS
you want.
http://www.bootdisk.com/

yes, this is what i want (he wants).
i will heed advice about perhaps only making one other partition,, maybe two so he has somewhere to
keep personal stuff. (but will keep them small)

thanks.

santa

 

[xmas]

Note: Partition creation suggestions, this example is for a drive of 80GB's.

C: (20 GB), D: (60 GB), Install the OS to the D: drive.

Why 20 GB initial partition? It is because you may want to place your
pagefile on this partition most Windows OS's work better when the pagefile is on a different

drive.


why put the o/s on D? why not put it on C and use D as pagefile?
(not that i have ever done this, or would know how-to.)
most puters i know of always have o/s on C.

thanks

santa

 

[xmas]

first,, thank you to all, plenty of reading material but no doubt worth the trouble.

i noticed nobody mentioned the drivers for the motherboard, am wondering when this part of the
process comes in?
when i did my computer, iirc; first i patitioned, then formatted, then put in the disk that came
with my computer that had mother board drivers.. but this was a long time ago.

can you help me in this area too? (i think we will be having a go at it this w/end and i want to be
ready and sure).

thanks

santa
(everyone gets xtra jelly-bean in their stocking for helping me.)

 

[xmas]

I believe separating the os and installed programs from data and

settings makes sense. You can image the os and programs occasionally
then keep a more frequent backup of data. Unfortunately, the design of
winxp is very poor in this regard.

i have heard about imaging,, what is it and how does it work?
(is it like a mirror? someone once said that)

thanks

santa

 

[SteveL]

Remember that when partitions are created it start with the inner part of the
disk to the outside of the disk. by putting the page file on the C: drive it
will make access to this faster allowing your system to run faster,

I have done numerous tests both ways and found the system to be faster on
the C: drive.

 

[SteveL]

If the system is a Dell/IBM/Compaq and so forth, you can download the drivers
directly from the manufacture, otherwise you will have to look up the model
of the board you are using and download the information from them.

I would do this before you start to the re-installation this will save you
some time, I would do it from a non infected computer.

Good Luck