Question about wiping a hard drive clean

[cycfan]

So I had viruses on my computer that the antivirus could not remove. Took the computer to a shop and they wiped the hard drive clean and reloaded windows etc. and charged me $80. Is this something I could do myself since I have the original setup disc that came with the computer? I seem to remember something about "F disc" or something to wipe off the hard drive.

GO CYCLONES!!!

 

[alarson]

Yes, most people could do this themselves. Oftentimes when you boot up from the original setup disc, part of the reinstall will be wiping the hard drive clean.

 

[edr247]

Yes. You paid $80 for something you could have done yourself (really, you paid for the labor, because that's all that's really involved).

1) Backup essential files (should do this often anyway). This would be any work files, photos, etc.

2) Pop the Windows OS disc into the drive and restart. It should go to a setup menu.

3) Reinstall Windows, using the format option. This would wipe the drive (more or less) and reinstall Windows.

4) Go through and reinstall vital software, reinstall and update drivers, etc.

 

[hawkeyeh8r]

if you dont know what youre doing the 80 dollars was well spent. when i first redid mine i got help from someone that works on computers. without that help i would have been lost and probably would have screwed up my computer and had to pay that money anyway to get it reinstalled. i did mine on a dell so i dont know if they are harder to reinstall then another company so that may have made a difference

 

[edr247]

if you dont know what youre doing the 80 dollars was well spent. when i first redid mine i got help from someone that works on computers. without that help i would have been lost and probably would have screwed up my computer and had to pay that money anyway to get it reinstalled. i did mine on a dell so i dont know if they are harder to reinstall then another company so that may have made a difference

Reinstalling your OS shouldn't matter on what company you bought your computer from, really. However, reinstalling all the other stuff could be more of a pain.

 

[Cy4Patriots]

Yes, most people could do this themselves. Oftentimes when you boot up from the original setup disc, part of the reinstall will be wiping the hard drive clean.

Yes. You paid $80 for something you could have done yourself (really, you paid for the labor, because that's all that's really involved).

1) Backup essential files (should do this often anyway). This would be any work files, photos, etc.

2) Pop the Windows OS disc into the drive and restart. It should go to a setup menu.

3) Reinstall Windows, using the format option. This would wipe the drive (more or less) and reinstall Windows.

4) Go through and reinstall vital software, reinstall and update drivers, etc.

The question is, did he need to reinstall windows to begin with?

1. Boot in to safe mode
2. Download Malwarebytes on a USB Flash Drive
3. Download Microsoft Standalone sweeper
4. Download MSE
5. Run all Scans
6. Boot in to Windows.

This would have fixed it.

 

[3TrueFans]

The question is, did he need to reinstall windows to begin with?

1. Boot in to safe mode
2. Download Malwarebytes on a USB Flash Drive
3. Download Microsoft Standalone sweeper
4. Download MSE
5. Run all Scans
6. Boot in to Windows.

This would have fixed it.

Possibly, Malwarebytes is good but it is far from a catch-all, some are very tricky to remove and take some time even if you know what you're doing. Regardless, yes, this is something you could do yourself and $80 is highway robbery.

 

[Cy4Patriots]

Possibly, Malwarebytes is good but it is far from a catch-all, some are very tricky to remove and take some time even if you know what you're doing. Regardless, yes, this is something you could do yourself and $80 is highway robbery.

I think Best Buy charges like 150-200$ for something like this. Nuts.

 

[serverguy]

You also have to factor in how valuable your time is. Depending on how long it would have taken you to figure it out it could have been money well spent.

 

[hawkeyeh8r]

The question is, did he need to reinstall windows to begin with?

1. Boot in to safe mode
2. Download Malwarebytes on a USB Flash Drive
3. Download Microsoft Standalone sweeper
4. Download MSE
5. Run all Scans
6. Boot in to Windows.

This would have fixed it.

unless the virus was in the OS. i had one like that and i couldnt open any programs, even in safe mode. i had to take it into a computer place to get it done since it made it almost impossible to do anything to fix it

 

[Cy4Patriots]

unless the virus was in the OS. i had one like that and i couldnt open any programs, even in safe mode. i had to take it into a computer place to get it done since it made it almost impossible to do anything to fix it

Well before you rush to take it in read about the Microsoft tool

Microsoft recently released a rather interesting beta the other day, called: Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Tool. This is a tool designed to rescue and fix computers that cannot boot into windows. These days, many viruses, malware and what not target the boot sector of your hard drive, rendering the computer unbootable. And in many cases also unfixable to the windows Startup Repair Tool found on the Setup disk.

 

[cytheguy]

Yes. You paid $80 for something you could have done yourself (really, you paid for the labor, because that's all that's really involved).

1) Backup essential files (should do this often anyway). This would be any work files, photos, etc.

2) Pop the Windows OS disc into the drive and restart. It should go to a setup menu.

3) Reinstall Windows, using the format option. This would wipe the drive (more or less) and reinstall Windows.

4) Go through and reinstall vital software, reinstall and update drivers, etc.

As someone who's not computer savvy, how do you backup files? Save them to a disk? Other?

 

[whirlybirds]

External Hard Drive. They're worth if you download music or are a hardcore gamer.

 

[hawkeyeh8r]

As someone who's not computer savvy, how do you backup files? Save them to a disk? Other?

ya you can go out and get an external HD. we got a 1TB hd for 70 or 80 bucks last year. just put whatever you want to save (photos, documents, etc..) on there and then you can transfer them back when reinstall your computer

 

[IowaStateClones]

You also have to factor in how valuable your time is. Depending on how long it would have taken you to figure it out it could have been money well spent.

Doing this really doesn't take much of your time at all. Yeah it may take a couple hours to complete but most of that is installation time. This guy pretty much got ripped. If it is your first time doing it google really helps (if you have access to another computer).

 

[drednot57]

The question is, did he need to reinstall windows to begin with?

1. Boot in to safe mode
2. Download Malwarebytes on a USB Flash Drive
3. Download Microsoft Standalone sweeper
4. Download MSE
5. Run all Scans
6. Boot in to Windows.

This would have fixed it.

Don't forget about rootkits; incredibly difficult to remove and usually requires a clean re-install of any OS including Linux and Mac OSx. Google rootkit to read about it and find out why it's so hard to remove via software. There is software available to detect rootkits (e.g. rkhunter), but they're like 50%, or so, effective; not exactly confidence building.

 

[Cyclones2]

If you can't boot your computer or you want to wipe the hard drive completely and start fresh you can get this program for free DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke, all you do is burn it to a cd and put it in your pc and it walks you through a couple steps then you sjut let it sit and do its thing, Its called Boot and Nuke. We use it at work to get rid of medical info off of old pc and laptop hard drives.

 

[Cy4Patriots]

Don't forget about rootkits; incredibly difficult to remove and usually requires a clean re-install of any OS including Linux and Mac OSx. Google rootkit to read about it and find out why it's so hard to remove via software. There is software available to detect rootkits (e.g. rkhunter), but they're like 50%, or so, effective; not exactly confidence building.

I think Avast! does a good job with Rootkits

Avast!’s GMER technology gets top score in rootkit detection tests

If you can't boot your computer or you want to wipe the hard drive completely and start fresh you can get this program for free DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke, all you do is burn it to a cd and put it in your pc and it walks you through a couple steps then you sjut let it sit and do its thing, Its called Boot and Nuke. We use it at work to get rid of medical info off of old pc and laptop hard drives.

I have used this many times. When they say Nuke, they mean nuke. Haha, it does the job really well.

 

[Rickybaby]

Doing this really doesn't take much of your time at all. Yeah it may take a couple hours to complete but most of that is installation time. This guy pretty much got ripped. If it is your first time doing it google really helps (if you have access to another computer).

Right. Have you ever done this? Try downloading 219 MS security updates plus one or more service packs and rebooting about 12 times. This is AFTER you install windows the first time. And hunt down all the drivers you need. And install them one at a time and reboot in between.

$80 is NOT getting ripped and is actually a pretty fair deal. Many places would charge you a lot more than that. What is your time worth? Do you have 5 hours to blow babysitting your old computer while it downloads/reboots? In case you don't know it already, sometimes with an old computer its actually more efficient to just buy a new one. Why blow $200 reloading an old piece of **** when you can get a brand new one for $400 that is 3x faster.

 

[jdoggivjc]

ya you can go out and get an external HD. we got a 1TB hd for 70 or 80 bucks last year. just put whatever you want to save (photos, documents, etc..) on there and then you can transfer them back when reinstall your computer

I tend to keep all those "important" files (photos, music, etc.) on the external hard drive and network it so that all of my computers have access to the external in the first place. I really do need to get a new one soon because it's now 7 years old and is only 120 GB. Not that its capacity nor its performance is in question, it's more of an age thing - I don't know how long these external drives are supposed to last, and if it were to die tomorrow I'm out a LOT of files.

Sounds like a project for when I buy my new laptop - at the same time I'm likely installing Win7 and more RAM on my tower, which means I'll need to move all my files off my tower onto an external, which is probably the time I should buy the new external.