formating an infected hard drive

[telimar]

hi

I want to format and re-install winXp on a drive that has a virus.
the thing is, this virus seems so nasty I'm afraid to even plug in it to my other computer in order to format it.

is there a safe(r) way to format that disk?

 

[drescherjm]

linux livecd / usb. Just delete the partition table using fdisk.

 

[chinesepiratefood]

Boot into the XP setup disk, delete and/or format the partition.

 

[Elf_Boy]

Well, they beat me to it, same diff, was going to suggest using a mac to format it.

The linux live and using a windows install disk are also both good ideas.

 

[Malecoda]

UBCD is also pretty handy. For this and other things.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[brutalizer]

Use another operating system to format the disk. Linux liveCD.

 

[dustNbone]

Every dork should have an Ubuntu CD.

 

[jojo69]

Every dork should have an Ubuntu CD.

Well

some linux anyway, very useful for this sort of thing

a lot of us are moving away from ubuntu now what with unity and all

google #! its the real deal

 

[MrGuvernment]

you dont need a linux disk, windows set up cant be infected and you can format the drive during the set up.

Now to scan the disk so you dont have to format it, yes a livecd would be useful but i would then say get hirensboot cd instead.

 

[jiminator]

there used to be viruses that lived in the FAT table. Not sure if there is anything similar in the current windows world, but I'd say to delete the partition and not just format it.

 

[dustNbone]

Well

some linux anyway, very useful for this sort of thing

a lot of us are moving away from ubuntu now what with unity and all

google #! its the real deal

Actually yeah. I do not recommend Ubuntu 11.10 as a recovery tool, should have specified that. Unity is a disaster. I like the older GNOME 2 based ones just because it's a very robust LiveCD environment, I guess xubuntu (XFCE based GUI) is probably still a pretty safe bet.

LiveCDs are great for isolating software/hardware problems. If it's acting hokey in Windows and you think it might be hardware failure, booting up Linux to see if it works there can save alot of frustration. The amount of hardware supported out of the box in Ubuntu is huge, it's amazing what you can just plug in and have work.