dbleoh7

I left my desktop computer with my brother for a few months and he downloaded heaps of programs and got viruses. It is royally screwed up. I was wondering if I can "reset" my computer somehow to the way it was new. I have all of the original software. I have backed up everything important on it. It is a dell dimension 4600 that i bought in 2002.

thanks

PC eye

Hopefully you at least have a recovery disk or full installation disk onhand. You may have to wipe the hard drive by allowing the XP installer to delete the current partition after deletion of the current infected installation to simply wipe the drive without wiping out Dell's own hidden partition for the reinstallation of Windows. You would do that if you have already run a few different virus removers and feel that something else could still be on the drive. Here's a free edition of Grisoft's AVG 7.1 you can try before wiping the drive entirely.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
For added protection after a clean install and to see what adwares/spywares can be found and removed these two links may help. http://www.lavasoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

dbleoh7

I have numerous disks from dell like software and drivers along with a cd that says: reinstallation cd for windows xp professional including service pack 1. I put this reinstallation cd in and it asks me if i want to install windows xp and i hit that and it says i cannot continue because the version of windows on my computer is newer than the version on the cd. It tells me to reboot with the cd in the cd drive and then it can overwrite it but when i do that it just boots up normally like the cd isnt even in the drive.

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computerhakk

In your bios, is it setup to boot from the cd rom first? if not, switch it so that it starts from the cd rom first.

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PC eye

Actually to insure it does boot from the installation disk simply assign the first three boot devices as cd rom device and disable any other boot device listings if there are more. Once you have the installer running you would delete the current installation to start off fresh with a new copy of Windows. When the system restarts for the first time after you see the message that all needed files have been copied to the drive you then go back into the bios to reassign the primary drive as one of the active boot devices. You also can now disable the cd rom and even floppy as a boot device.

Some people prefer to have the floppy as the first for work with older OSes however. But here the first three are kept at "HD 0" or "HD 1" depending on the way the bios is setup for the single ide drive.

wasisnt

Do you have SP2? That would be the reason you are getting the newer version of Windows message since you are trying to install Windows with SP1. If you can get it to boot to the CD I think you will be ok.

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PC eye

Despite having SP2 installed the option to delete the current installation should be right there prior to choosing the partition to install Windows on. You would press the "L" key first for a new screen to come up where you would then press the "D" key. You will then be prompted if you wish to delete the current installation. The process there would wipe the Windows and DocumentsandSettings folder as well as the Program Files. This would preserve the remainder of the drive for running virus/spyware/adware removers after a new installation of Windows was completed.

way2evil

when starting try pressing ESC and see if a boot menu comes up

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PC eye

You will find on most systems that pressing the F8 key following the post tests and proceeding the initial loading of Windows will see the boot menu come up. But the use of the recovery console or last known configuration that worked probably wouldn't see results depending on the extent of damages done by the viruses and what else on the drive. Even an "install to repair" would be preferrable to gain access to the desktop. That would allow a few removers a chance to work. The BEST move if there are no important files to save from the drive however would be a complete wipe.

Without a zero fill utility you can delete the partition as well as the installation in deleting all infected files. The installer will repartiion and reformat the drive as a part of a new installation going on. But if you have a number of files you wish to save not knowing if any are infected the repair install option if not deleting the current would get Windows running again. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm is a well written guideline for this.