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I'm in the same boat. had quite a few virus for the kids. clean and quants them; but one can't be delete ot quants. I would like to reformat my drive and would like to know the step. Everything that I need to keep is either on another external hard drive or CD's.
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It will allow you the option of reformatting and reinstalling.
If you have the original Recovery CD's which are designed to reinstall the original software as it came from the factory, then simply place the first CD in the CD-Rom drive, restart the computer, then follow the prompts to do a "full" recovery which will reformat and reinstall all software.
If you happen to have the original Windows XP CD, then place it in the CD-Rom drive, restart the computer and follow the steps in the link below. The computer will be reformmatted and the operating system will then be installed. After the operating system is installed, you'll need to reinstall all of the hardware drivers from a Resource CD or possibly from the internet. After that, reinstall all the other software from your backup CD's.
Windows XP Reinstall
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdoldhdd/index.htm
Hope this helps.
Grif
Wondered if I can install Windows Me from recovery cd, same way as recovery cd of XP. I know Me is crap but thats what I got with my computer 4 years ago 
Will this installation be as good as clean installation?
machine manufacturer is Fujistsu-Siemens
With ME, the easiest way to reinstall (clean install) is to use the startup floppy. Start your computer with the floppy in place, when it's ready, type C: <enter> and then type format. It'll ask you if you're sure, and all that stuff.
After that, insert the ME installation disk (and if it's an upgrade, you'll need the older platform disk, too), remove the floppy and restart the computer. Then just answer the questions as it goes along.
Complete, clean installation.
Hi
You did not say whether you had XP on the hard drive before.
If you did then just reboot your machine press delete to enter Bios, from there change the first boot device to CDROM.
Restart your machine with XP disk in your CDROM drive and because it is set to boot from CD it will start to auto instal.
When it gets to the part it asks you to format the drive just pick quick format the hard drive for NTFS.
it will then continue installing XP after completing this format.
During instal the computer reboots, don't press to use boot from CD when asked to as it will just return you to the begining of instal again.
Once windows has been installed you go back into Bios and change the first boot device back to floppy or what ever it was before.
Hope this helps
Best thing to do is get an old windows 95 or 98 boot disk.Boot from the disk and remove all partitions on the C drive.This way you can be sure that you have gotten that virus you couldn't delete.It's been my experience when using the re-install disks that they do not completely reformat the hard drive.They always leave something.You need to wipe the disk completely clean before attempting to install the OS again.
I don't like using XP to do this. It seems the only systems I've had trouble with later were the ones formatted w/XP during the install (& it takes a while, too, on a large drive).
The drive maker's software is fast, easy, & painless- plus will do the whole job in about 1 min. Then remove that disc & pop XP in. Reboot to start the install.
When it asks, during the install, if you want to keep the current formatting (meaning, what you just accomplished w/the drive maker's software) say "yes"- & you'll be looking at XP on your system in about 20- 30 min.
Tracy
Tracy: I need to reformat my Home. I'm not real good on the pc. What do you mean by "drive maker's software"? I also have an orginal XP Professional cd, could I just put it in for the reinstall?
Thanks
The drive maker is the maker of the hard drive you have in your system.
Likely, it is Western Digital or Maxtor- there are a handful used primarily in current systems.
You would ID the drive (open the case & look at the label)- go to the site for that company, & look for something under utilities or support.
You want to download their drive utilities. It usually says, in the description, what it does. Use that to format the drive. You can also create multiple partitions if you want?
I'm probably too late on this answer to you- but there it is...
Tracy
These will have to be deleted out of the registry. If you can determine where it resides (virus information can be found ) you can locate it under the apropriate key in the registry and delete the value from there thus getting rid of it without formating and loosing info on your computer. Note when doing this you will need to shut down your system restore option to make sure you get rid of it.
that sounds dreadful!are the kids OK?how long did you quarantee them for?but please,don't delete them - the law takes a dim view to that!!
had same problem with kids and virus, etc. using original install disks i put in drive and waited and waited the drive light went off and the hard disk light did not stay on. it said it was going to start exaiming the computer or whatever was the first step but nothing seemed to happen. the indicaters of activity...time left etc showed nothing happening. i can boot the computer easily when i use the don't load anything setup however when i go to system restore and click nothing happens not even an excuse for why nothing is happening. any ideas of what i can try?
joyces
...original install disks? IN order to make the computer boot from the installation disks, (either an original Windows XP disk or the Recovery Disks provided by the manufacturer), you must place the disk in the Cd-Rom drive, then restart the computer...Upon restart, assuming the CD-Rom is set in the BIOS to boot first, then the disk will automatically bring up a screen which gives you options to reformat, etc.
Is that what you have done or are you placing the disks in the CD drive while Windows is running?
Hope this helps.
Grif
i put the orginal cd in the cd drive after i've turned the computer off, then i turn it back on and get the reformat screen which then only pretends to reformat--i waited 15 min and nothing happened, eg no indication that the program is doing it's task.
do i need to let it whril longer?
joyces
Using a set of Compaq restore CDs, the machine took 45 minutes without any indication work was underway. Yes, the drive light was on, but that was it.
Somewhere in a supplied document it noted it could take a long time, but it never said that long.
Bob
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