Wiping the HD

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Ok i have a laptop with a virusin it so i want to wipe the whole HD but my question is i have a windows re-install disk but wont my DVD Drive not work again due to the fact i wont have the drivers. Is there a free program that will wipe everything fromt eh computer but still allow the computer to work.
 
Before wiping the drive entirely you may want to try and remove the virus itself. One other thing to add if you are seeing a problem with browsing the web errors with Internet Explorer can give the appearance of a virus infection. Have you been alerted by an antivirus program of this? A tool for a complete but takes forever tool to wipe a drive is called a "zero filler" that writes nothing but binary zeros to a drive. Nothing, no data recovery tools or anything else can retrieve data by that method. Depending on the size of the intended drive it can easily take 8hrs. to totally wipe a drive.
 
Ok so whats zero filter and yes i was allertd by a program virus protection tha ti have virus how can i do this can u guys help.
 
What virus protection are you currently running for one? And what type of message is seen there. If the virus is readily identified locating instructions for removing a specific one are found fast on a quick search. I regularly use the free version of Grisoft's AVG 7.1 that will alert you to more then just viruses. It also points out where and what files are infected even if it can't quaranteen or remove them totally. You can download that at http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
For a free spyware remover to go along with that for added protection Ewido has been a good one. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/ewido-anti-spyware-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
 
Ok well i found the Operating system disk and wit xp professional i have the restore console program wiull this restore the whole computer?
 
The recover console is not going to remove a virus unless only a few system files are infected. A repair install would obviously overwrite/replace those. If you run AVG and the location(s) are pointed out you can then manually expand the exact same system files from the cd at the recovery console to overwrite the ones infected. But other files on the drive are likely to have been contaminated. A repair install would be needed if Windows wouldn't run normally enough to use a removal program. After a repair the drive could be swept with a few different removers.

If you are interested in saving the bulk of your programs and files that are now stored on the drive a repair install would be one method right off. But if you want to clean the virus off totally you need to ID what one it is. The "last" resort can usually be done with the installation disk by deletion of the current partition usually the XP installer for that. If you have a complete bought out of a store with a recovery partition a zero filling utility that writes binary zeros to all sectors of the drive totally wipes everything. But it takes hour after hour to run depending on how large the drive is. It is also referred to as a "low level" format of a drive. For a variety of definitions, http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_is_zero_filling
For a slightly faster means of wiping a drive totally this little gem called Active KILLDisk runs from a floppy that you boot from. http://www.majorgeeks.com/Active_KillDisk_d4791.html

To avoid this try downloading and running AVG to see if it shows what files are infected and where they are located. If you need to a repair install can be performed by closely following the instructions seen at http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
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