HELP starting over! Formatting HD help.-------

[firebirdude]

I have a hard drive that is over-run by viruses and malware. I have tried everything. There's nothing on there I even want, so I'm wiping it clean and starting over. Ok, #1. What's the best way to format my hard drive? (I only have 1) And what's a low level format? #2 I have an XP Pro w/SP1 disk. I need a firewall before I can connect it to the internet. (To get drivers and such) I have looked through the microsoft website for SP2, but it just trys to scan my computer and tells me I already have it (which I do) and no updates are needed. How can I download it and burn it to a disk? Like in an install package? I am now also using Mcafee virus/firewall, but again, it won't let me download it again because it says I already have it. I have also thought about just downloading Zone Alarm and burning it to disk..... but I'd rather just have SP2. Any thoughts?

AMD XP 3200+ (Barton Core)
Asus A7N8X Ver2.0
2 X 512MB Mushkin RAM
Sapphire ATI 9800PRO

 

[Tufnel]

You didn't know that your a network administrator did you? This will get you SP2 on a disk.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

 

[Crashman]

I'd order the XP SP2 update CD. It's free.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[firebirdude]

Yes, I did see that download on there.... but it said for IT professionals and not to download if you're only updating one computer. I thought it was something else....? And I just may have to order the CD, thanks Crashman.

AMD XP 3200+ (Barton Core)
Asus A7N8X Ver2.0
2 X 512MB Mushkin RAM
Sapphire ATI 9800PRO

 

[Tufnel]

Well, I appointed myself as an IT tech so i could just download it straight, burn it on a cd for a clean install. Honestly, it doesnt matter one bit. They just don't want to distribute the update as an executable in lieu of the windows update center.

 

[firebirdude]

Ok cool. Got the firewall thing sorted out. Now, what's the best way to format my HD? Keep in mind, I'm not running a RAID or I don't have a "storage" drive of any kind. I want to COMPLETELY wax this thing. A "low level format" was mentioned to me....what is that?

AMD XP 3200+ (Barton Core)
Asus A7N8X Ver2.0
2 X 512MB Mushkin RAM
Sapphire ATI 9800PRO

 

[firebirdude]

Ok cool. So I have found out all about a low level format and realized that no matter how many viruses are on it, a high level format will clear them. Unless something is actually wrong with the hard drive itself, a high level format is enough. Correct? So I should be able to wipe my HD clean by booting off the XP disk. Correct?

AMD XP 3200+ (Barton Core)
Asus A7N8X Ver2.0
2 X 512MB Mushkin RAM
Sapphire ATI 9800PRO

 

[Codesmith]

Low level formatting is something you did to drives that existed prior to IDE and EIDE standards.

Back then you could actually reformat your drive to change the sector size's and layout.

Not that information is hard wired into the drive curcuitry.

You can use the manufacturers utlity to that completely erases or "zero's" the drive returning it to factory condition.

Some people like to call that a low level format, but it isn't.

 

[firebirdude]

Thanks for your reply. I have recently been told that a manual debug through Bios/DOS is the way to go. What is this?

AMD XP 3200+ (Barton Core)
Asus A7N8X Ver2.0
2 X 512MB Mushkin RAM
Sapphire ATI 9800PRO