Recovering Old HD Without the Viruses...

R

rolltide21

New Member
My friend's mobo just died, and she bought a new Dell. She handed the old one over to me. She had XP Home on the 80gb HD, but also a lot of viruses.

I already have a HD with Vista but I might use this one separatley for XP. Could I put the old HD into my new computer and clear everything but the OS?
 
Well

It would be dependent on the infection level and what kind of viruses those are. Some integrate themselves deeply into the system and deleting them from Vista could render the OS useless. That said, you should reformat and start from scratch since you have a different HW configuration. You would be very likely to run into problems such as BSODs etc. Your best shot would be to reformat the old HDD and just use it for files, or to install XP on again.

JAN :D
 
best is not to take te risk, is too high a risk to take. if anythin happen it will also effect your own computer
 
Well

Well, basically, you would be using the Windows installation CD upon bootup, and format from there, just as you do when you install Windows. You would then abort the installation, after deleting the partition and formatting it. Make sure you select the correct HDD and not your current one.

JAN :D
 
Is it viruses or simply adwares? The type of virus is another thing to look at since some pose as system files while others will change the structure of files being stored on the drive even in non MS folders. I-Worm type viruses fit the last catagory there where simple overwrtiting or deletion on the infected files usually takes care of that fast in XP. Vista wouldn't be effected unless you copy files from that one drive to the Vista host drive you run.

For XP the fast way to wipe the drive and see a new partiion fully use all drive space available is to boot the system would a GParted live for cd version and delete the partition seen on HDb1 if both drives are in one case. But you shouldn't even need to pull the drive from the other for this. Simply delete the current primary and create a new NTFS type and then let the XP installer format it when installing a clean copy of Windows. The XP installer seems to leave small pieces of drive space vacant when used to create a new single primary. Linux does have better hardware detection.
 
since you are going to remove the HDD from your friend's PC, why dont you just buy a enclosure and hook it up as a external HDD and from there you do a 100% scan and see are you able to save it rather than install it in your own PC.
 
Throwing AVG and a few other tools on can also show if any viruses are even present or just some bad installs seen on softwares. Everyone rushes to point at viruses first without finding what the problems actually are. If you ran a scan already then you would have something to work with. Most viruses are geared to go after system files not others being stored in separate folders. Spywares and adwares will hide in other places.
 
Even if he got the drive completely safe, there is almost no way he could use it on his computer. All of the hardware is probably different in some way, XP just wouldnt boot.
 
Ok, so...if I hook the HD up to my computer to run a scan and just check things out, would it try to boot XP or just boot Vista and see it as more storage? Another thing, PC eye...the viruses/spyware wouldn't infect my current hard drive if and when I hook it up to my computer now, is that what you're saying?

Thanks guys...
 
why not you just make a 100% scan and see what is the result first, it can be virus or oher issue. is no point of talkng and you dont perform the scanning, is will be never ending, scan it and let us know what is the problem. filter down the problem frst and than solve it later, ok
 
For using it as a second drive in order to dual boot XP along with Vista you would first plan a good wipe of the drive and allow XP to install on a totally new partition. Simply slaving the drive in the case won't infect the Vista primary as long as you are not copying files from an infected drive onto the one you have now.

Another thing to remember is that most viruses still floating around were geared for XP and earlier versions of Windows. To avoid problems you can also unplug the Vista primary and try to reinstall XP to run scans with the drive totally isolated and if none are found you can later recover files from it before giving it a good wipe. From there you will probably end up reinstalling Vista to add XP into it's own boot loader unless you have the option to choose boot devices at post while still having the other one set as the default.
 
after you had completed just list your problem here and see can it be resolved. good luck buddy
 
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