RE-Instaling windows

K first off, im not exactly what we would call bright with computers... k now my question:

Ive recently had some problems with viruses and my computer is pretty trashed, so i wanted to just reinstall windows and start with a clean slate.

so i thought this would be easy, i thought i would just have to put the cd in and go to reinstall but there was no option like that to chose from

Is reinstalling windows harder than i thought? will i have to take it somewhere to get it down or can i do it myself?

thx for any help

What kind of computer do you have?  Is it a Compaq?  \'Cause if it is. . . I just re-installed Windows about 5 hours ago!

If not, what CD is it?  Is it the Window\'s CD??

Try booting up the computer from the CD drive.

If you comp. won\'t do it by itself. . . well, we\'ll get to that river if we ever have to cross it.


*W*A*R*N*I*N*G*

Just want to make sure you fully understand "clean slate."  That means re-installing your printer driver, virus program, isp, everything.

The only time i had a problem with Windows 95, i just Totally wiped my drive, then i popped the Win95 CD back in, and it went ok.     Then again i also had an OEM setup disk.

Is your windows CD a full install or an Upgrade disk?

k ya its a windows 98 se plus cd. i dont know what u mean by booting the comp from the cd drive but yes i understand clean slate i know how to reinstall all that stuff

You can enable your computer to boot from the CD instead of Floopy... then C: drive. If this is not enabled on your computer, you might enable this in your BIOS settings.

Just stick in the CD and restart the computer.  See if that works.  

If not, restart the computer and press the F8 key every two seconds until a screen with some selections comes up.  (This is the BIOS settings that Toxical was talking about : on some older computers it\'s the Del key).  One of the options should get you through it.  Don\'t be afraid to experiment.  It\'s not like you\'re gonna lose something!

k ya  the del key worked it entered a screen with many options wich do i go to and what do i do when im there?

I think it\'s something like: "Step confirmation."  I think you choose the default value for all the options, then it should boot from the CD drive.

k what will happen after that? will it just reinstall and ill be happy again? or do i have to be smart to do it?
if i still have a virus on my computer it will still work right? the virus is a b!tch it infects all of my .exe files and most of them dont work now thats the reason i cant get rid of it  because it has infected the files i need to get rid of it, i think the virus is called
w95/kaung.gr
anyone have that one?

Don\'t have the virus, but the re-installing process will either happen automatically, or sometimes bother you with questions that you will probably answer "yes" to.  Re-installing should get ride of the virus.  There are some nasty ones out there that can hide from the Windows installer.

Good Luck!

thx a lot for the info
its late here so im gonna do it tomorrow
again, thx

No prob Bob!

Wait!

I mean: as long as it\'s fine ps2gamer_59.

I think you guys are steering him wrong.  Most viruses install themselves into the boot sector of your hard drive in addition to EXE, COM and DLL files elsewhere.  If that is the case, just reinstalling Windows won\'t solve the problem.  The only way to be sure is to reformat your hard drive and really start from scratch.

I would NOT recommend setting your PC to boot from the CD-ROM drive.  Even if your BIOS has a switch that would seem to enable it, not every PC can actually do that.  In addition, not ever CD-ROM drive can do it either.  It\'s much easier to make a floppy boot disk (with format a: /s) that contains your CD-ROM driver, format.exe, and fdisk.exe, and boot from the floppy.  If you\'re uncertain about the virus inhabiting any of these files, then copy them from somone else\'s PC.  In fact you ought to do that anyway to make sure the virus isn\'t copied to the floppy\'s boot sector.  Once you make sure the PC boots with this floppy properly, AND you can access the CD-ROM drive in this configuration, then you can proceed to reformat and/or repartition (if desired) in dos mode.  After that, insert the windows cd, and run setup.exe (or whatever).  

Before you do any of this, you might want to make sure you have all the drivers you need for your hardware, expecially if any of it is old or no longer supported by the manufacturer.  Good luck ps2gamer, I\'m not sure if you\'re ready for this.

We already said that it may not get rid of the virus CoreDweller!  (See my post 4 up.)

Plus, most computers with Win 95+ (unless you built it yourself) boots from the CD ROM.  Notice that the light of the CD ROM blinks when you turn your computer on?  Many computers, especially pre-packaged ones, only supply a CD for Windows re-installing.  They don\'t even make floppies, and if you can\'t make a floppy (i.e. you have a virus or something worse) the CD is the only option.  The CD will boot up, then call up a program to re-install Windows.

If re-installing Windows does not rid you of the virus, then you have to re-install the BIOS, which to most people is not an easy task (not to mention riscky).  So if the Windows re-installing doesn\'t work, get a professional to help.

Don\'t reformat your Hard Drive, and the install windows. Thats like burning down the forrest to kill the bird!