Question Possible virus, need to wipe system?

[muddysoap14]

As I said in the title, I might have a possible virus on my computer, and it’s a sneaky virus and proving hard to find so i’v come to the conclusion of completely wiping my computer as things have gotten a little bit messy on it anyway over the several years I’ve had it.

OS; WD 250gb ssd
main drive: WD hard drive 4tb
nvme; 2tb Samsung 970 evo plus

for the most part I only really have games on here, lots of mods, some personal picture, videos and the like. So nothing is really going to be completely lost (just the annoying matter of having to download EVERYTHING again 😰)
but that said, just to be on the safe side it would be best to nuke everything (as I don’t know where this virus is)

so my question is, how do I do that exactly?
oh and when I say everything I mean everything, fresh start.

thanks muddy.

 

[Lafong]

The "clean all" command from Diskpart comes to mind.

One drive at a time.

 

[Lutfij]

You can use Malwarebytes if you haven't tried that. If you do want to do a complete wipe, it should be all drives.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Also if you decide not to do a complete wipe, windows defender now includes a scan that will intercept the boot up of the pc and scan before things all load up.

 

[muddysoap14]

You can use Malwarebytes if you haven't tried that. If you do want to do a complete wipe, it should be all drives.

Tried it won’t install? Gets to 5% and then I get a error message.
this is why I was wondering on how to best do a complete fresh install of windows as a bunch of other programs are just not working right. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Lafong]

1; boot from your 250 OS drive

2; use Diskpart to wipe the 2 TB and the 4 TB. Shut down afterwards.

3; boot from some other source, such as a Windows installer USB flash drive

4; use Diskpart to wipe the 250 OS drive.

That should work. You need to select each drive individually in Diskpart and then use the "clean all" command after the drive is selected.

It will likely take hours to clean the bigger drives. Not sure exactly how long. "Clean all" is tedious.

 

[punkncat]

Another method that works pretty well...

Use a known clean PC and download the installer of the OS you are using. Open the case side on the infected PC. Insert the installer and start the install process. In advanced options you will be able to see each disk and its partitions. Use that advanced option to blow the partitions out on each of the storage drives back to 'unallocated space'. Go inside and pull the power or SATA connection to each storage drive leaving only the OS destination drive as powered. Enter the installer again and do that same delete process then hit 'next' and the installer will put a fresh install on only that drive. If you leave the others hooked up the installer may well put aspects of the install onto those other drives.

 

[muddysoap14]

1; boot from your 250 OS drive

2; use Diskpart to wipe the 2 TB and the 4 TB. Shut down afterwards.

3; boot from some other source, such as a Windows installer USB flash drive

4; use Diskpart to wipe the 250 OS drive.

That should work. You need to select each drive individually in Diskpart and then use the "clean all" command after the drive is selected.

It will likely take hours to clean the bigger drives. Not sure exactly how long. "Clean all" is tedious.

How exactly do I boot from a usb drive to run the clean all command in diskpart on the OS drive?

 

[Lafong]

How exactly do I boot from a usb drive to run the clean all command in diskpart on the OS drive?

I'd use a USB stick that could be used to install Windows. If you don't have one, you can make one.

Boot from it by selecting the USB stick from a boot menu.

1. During Windows 10 setup, press Shift + F10 to open a Command Prompt.

2. When Command Prompt opens, type diskpart and press Enter.

3. type list disk and press Enter.

A list of all available hard drives will appear. You need to select the disk that you want to wipe. Be careful to select the correct disk. Maybe disconnect all non-OS drives before you start so you cannot select the wrong one.

for instance: select disk 0

Then type "clean all" and press enter.

It might take considerable time to finish.

Then quit diskpart and reinstall Windows.

 

[muddysoap14]

I'd use a USB stick that could be used to install Windows. If you don't have one, you can make one.

Boot from it by selecting the USB stick from a boot menu.

1. During Windows 10 setup, press Shift + F10 to open a Command Prompt.

2. When Command Prompt opens, type diskpart and press Enter.

3. type list disk and press Enter.

A list of all available hard drives will appear. You need to select the disk that you want to wipe. Be careful to select the correct disk. Maybe disconnect all non-OS drives before you start so you cannot select the wrong one.

for instance: select disk 0

Then type "clean all" and press enter.

It might take considerable time to finish.

Then quit diskpart and reinstall Windows.

When booting from the usb will it be safe/possible to then clean all the original os drive? If so I would then like to reinstall windows 10 on to it. Thanks again.

 

[USAFRet]

When booting from the usb will it be safe/possible to then clean all the original os drive? If so I would then like to reinstall windows 10 on to it. Thanks again.

Yes.
Steps for a clean install linked in your other thread.

 

[Lafong]

When booting from the usb will it be safe/possible to then clean all the original os drive?

That's what those commands will do. As you asked.

If you don't select the "original os drive", it will not be cleaned.

You'll need to choose the USB stick as the boot device using your boot menu.

You access the boot menu most likely by holding down an F key during the boot process. Which F key varies by motherboard.

 

[muddysoap14]

Thanks for all of your help, I managed to do it with no problems.
Sorry for being a little bit precious about it all, it’s just I’ve never done anything like this before and didn’t want to mess it up and as a result get stuck, Thanks again.