[Danman1116]

Well got a call from my gf this morning and she was frantic cuz her PC froze overnight and when she rebooted got a black screen saying "OS not found" well I'm figuing its a virus thats gotten to her hard drive cuz there are quite a few other PC's on her campus that have been having a similar kind of issue. What I wanna know is, I was told to try reformatting the C drive though DOS, even tho she'll lose everything, how abouts would I do this process? Tx for your help

 

[You_Get_Vapors]

C: FDISK
Then if your gonna install the OS you need a boot disk
Then find the CD-ROM letter (D drive and put the OS disc in and
D: Format C:

I think that's how it goes

 

[AccOrDZteCh]

make sure u got a startup disk for that cd rom..

 

[kinghawk]

start up your computer with a startup disk in your A drive and run the disk ...

 

[Leprechaun]

Here's what you should do. Don't do a format c:. Do a fdisk. Format will clear everything on C: but if the problem is in the partitioning (highly unlikely) then the virus would still be there. Fdisk will correct any problems.

 

[SickAssCivicXX]

.........

If you want to completely remove EVERYTHING from the C: drive then you need to do an unconditional format.

After you delete/create the partition in FDISK, Restart your system with BootDisk in A: drive. When A: Prompt comes up

Type : Format C:/U/Q

The /U means unconditional format. A regular format does not remove everything from your system. If the FBI took your hard drive they could retrieve your data even though it was formatted.
Always use /U

/Q means quick format. Why wait an hour to format your 80 gig when you can do it in five seconds ?
note: Not all hard drives support quick format .



Hope this helps.

 

[AccOrDZteCh]

whats /u ?

usually i just do "format c:\"

i do it 2 times..

 

[SickAssCivicXX]

Re: .........

If you want to completely remove EVERYTHING from the C: drive then you need to do an unconditional format.


The /U means unconditional format. A regular format does not remove everything from your system. If the FBI took your hard drive they could retrieve your data even though it was formatted.
Always use /U

AS quoted by me

 

[AccOrDZteCh]

oO so /u rememoves everything?? cool...thanks

 

[accord 4 me]

Re: .........

If you want to completely remove EVERYTHING from the C: drive then you need to do an unconditional format.

After you delete/create the partition in FDISK, Restart your system with BootDisk in A: drive. When A: Prompt comes up

Type : Format C:/U/Q

The /U means unconditional format. A regular format does not remove everything from your system. If the FBI took your hard drive they could retrieve your data even though it was formatted.
Always use /U

/Q means quick format. Why wait an hour to format your 80 gig when you can do it in five seconds ?
note: Not all hard drives support quick format .



Hope this helps.

how many times has the fbi looked at your hard drives?! i've got nothing to hide..why in the world would i take the time to do that?

and another thing...i've NEVER heard that before...is that really true? i've worked on computers for awhile..never done that before

 

[Danman1116]

well folx...had a computer guy help her out with that last night and nothing worked...seems as tho her Hard drive is fuxored big time...i was told as a last ditch effort to take out the hard drive and let it discharge over night and see if that works...i doubt it will but its worth a shot. A 40gb HD goes for what, bout $70-80?

 

[Jumpan23]

is she running 2000. If so, you could try to repair it by puting in the 2000 installation disk and chose to repair.

To format:

make sure you have a boot disk, if not. Find a WIN 9x system. Click start-run and type copy sys A:

Then start your computer with that disk.

It will take you do DOS prompt. Type fdisk at the "C" prompt.

Chose to delete a partition(s) and logical drives. Then create a partition(s) to the size you want. It will restart. Then at the "C" prompt format the partition you just created. Just type "format c:"

You have just created a new partition(s) and formatted it. Go ahead and install the OS.

Thank you, drive thru.

 

[Danman1116]

is she running 2000. If so, you could try to repair it by puting in the 2000 installation disk and chose to repair.

To format:

make sure you have a boot disk, if not. Find a WIN 9x system. Click start-run and type copy sys A:

Then start your computer with that disk.

It will take you do DOS prompt. Type fdisk at the "C" prompt.

Chose to delete a partition(s) and logical drives. Then create a partition(s) to the size you want. It will restart. Then at the "C" prompt format the partition you just created. Just type "format c:"

You have just created a new partition(s) and formatted it. Go ahead and install the OS.

Thank you, drive thru.

yep tried that too man.. didn't work thx for ur help tho

 

[accord 4 me]

A 40gb HD goes for what, bout $70-80?

you could find an 80 gb for about 100...used to be 80 for 80 just a month ago

 

[SickAssCivicXX]

Re: Re: .........

how many times has the fbi looked at your hard drives?!.................why in the world would i take the time to do that?

and another thing...i've NEVER heard that before...is that really true? i've worked on computers for awhile..never done that before

Older versions of Windows/Dos give you an unformat feature.
this is from a web page on Formatting HD's

Format Switches
FORMAT = places a file system on the disk for storage or a operating system.

FORMAT /c - Causes FORMAT to retest bad clusters, otherwise FORMAT will mark the clusters as bad but will not retest them.


FORMAT /s = prepares a partition or disk to make it active or bootable.

FORMAT /q =this is mostly unknown but seems to work if your having problems getting the W95 setup to work (not recommended unless it's a last ditch effort).

FORMAT /U = Does a unconditional format, so do the SYS C: to get system files -- then a through scandisk to fix any errors. This FORMAT /U parameter performs an UNCONDITIONAL format, which DESTROYS every byte of data on a disk by overwriting it with.

FORMAT /U/S = Combination Format Unconditionally then transfer System Files.

WARNING: You CANNOT UNFORMAT a disk formatted using the /U option!

 

[SickAssCivicXX]

FBI

The FBI has never looked at my HD. I have nothing to hide either except a $hitload of porn and some games. If you do not us Format C:/u then your HD can be unformatted. Data Recovery firms can pull data from a formatted drive if only format c:/ is used.

If I ever had a virus or some Fugged up files I would always use /U. This way I know that Nothing and I mean absolutely nothing is left on the drive. If you have the ability to Unformat a drive then part of your data, system files, bad clusters are still on the drive.

 

[HBacura]

I'm not sure if you've resolved your gf's computer problem, but in the future to help keep unwanted viruses from potentially getting into her computer, I would make sure that when the computer boots up, it asks you to press ctrl-alt-del. This will help keep trojan horse virus from entering her system.