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General discussion

Will reformatting the HD remove the following viruses?

by ArturoTech Oct 28, 2005 8:40AM PDT

Will reformatting the HD remove the following viruses?

Trojan.cmapp,
Trojan.Elitebar
Hacktool

I?m doing a clean install of XP Home on a PIII 500MHZ, 256MB ram with 16GB HD running Windows 98. I?m asking because I?m aware there are certain viruses that persist even after a HD reformatting. I?m unfamiliar with the viruses mentioned above (this is a 3rd party?s system) and haven?t been able to reliably verify whether these fall into that category. As always any information is appreciated and, as always, genuinely funny comebacks, wisecracks, putdowns or overall ?user-surliness? will be appropriately rewarded. Thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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YES, In Addition...
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Oct 28, 2005 10:19AM PDT

..Trojans are basic files that phone home and as such a reformat will clean the drive of their presence.

Still, here are a couple of addition steps that I do which cleans out every virus that I'm familiar with..Since you're doing a clean install..First, I would shut down the machine with the Windows XP CD in the CD-Rom drive, then remove the CMOS battery for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes reinstall the battery and reboot the computer. As long as the CD-Rom drive is set to boot first in the BIOS, the XP installation process will start. At that point, make sure that you delete the current C partition and recreate a new one, then reformat and reinstall the operating system.

It's just a little more work to remove the battery but it helps clean out any memory resident viruses that might be there...The viruses you mentioned are NOT such viruses but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Will FDISK/mbr help?
by Hyperspace Oct 28, 2005 11:29AM PDT

Instead of removing the CMOS battery, would the DOS command fdisk /mbr perform the same function?

Just wondering.

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Two Different Things...
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Oct 28, 2005 12:33PM PDT

The Fdisk /mbr WILL rewrite the master boot record much like deleting then recreating a new partition but the Fdisk /mbr command would be performed on an "existing" operating system not a newly reformatted one..Removing the CMOS battery clears all items that might be stored in the RAM memory. It performs a different service than Fdisk /mbr..Doing both procedures is required to be "sure".

Since the original question was about reformatting, there should be no reason to perform the /mbr step. On the other hand, if the user wants to leave the operating system on the machine, then your suggestion would be worthwhile.

Still, for most viruses and trojans, it's NOT necessary to do either one..A simple format and reinstall will generally do the job.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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