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July 15th, 2005 02:00
How do I erase my C Drive memory?
I would like to know, is there a way to erase my computer's memory without having to reinstall Windows XP. I have a lot of spyware and possibly virises. And my dell didn't come with an antiviris or reboot disk.
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rickmktg
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11.9K Posts
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July 15th, 2005 02:00
If the Symantec PC Restore utility won't work, but still resides on your computer, a Dell customer has figured out some ways to get it to work again. Note - If you removed this partition, it is not recoverable, cannot be downloaded from the internet, and cannot be shipped from Dell. Click here for ways to fix Symantec PC Restore. Users have also reported that the partition can be restored with Ghost 2003, and Ghost 9 using the '03 capabilities of it. If you boot to the Ghost 9 CD, select Advanced Recovery Taks, select Utilities, then Restore Legacy IMage it should work - but you want to verify the image before attempting the restore. It's in a folder called IMG.
Systems that shipped beginning in early 2005 may ship without Windows XP. There SHOULD be (but sometimes isn't) a utility on your computer to run and create the Windows XP CD. This is a RUN ONCE utility. Click here for instructions to create your Windows XP CD. Some users have reported needing to reboot a few times to get this utility to show up on the menu. You can also call Dell and request a CD and wait for it to ship.
WinterLion
24 Posts
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July 16th, 2005 11:00
You do realize Howdy, that your memory cleans itself everytime you reboot. Memory only holds information, good or bad, when the pc is up and runnng. Shut it off and the active apps using the memory all shut down and that balloon called memory collapses and is gone until next time.
What you may be asking is, how do I reformat my hard drive and not have to reinstall windows, as my OS is way too contaminated by malware and spybots to save at this point. Does that sound about right? If it does, depending on your version of windows, with XP anyways, you can boot from your cd as though you were installing xp fresh and when prompted as for a system restore install or dynamic install. As long as you are not asked to verify having two operating systems on the same partition, you are working from the proper place on set up disk. If you are asked that, you are about to have two operating systems on your drive or taken further it will have you replacing the entire os with a new one, sans data.
That's not what you want by your post, you want a system restore, which replaces any and all damaged system files without touching the data files. The problem is, malware will also be infecting your data as well as backups in windows restore and this is not an efficient way of dealing with terminally ill Os. Consider backing up your data onto whatever means available to you, and replacing the OS. But remember to run virus and spybot programs on your data before reinstalling it, but I presume you have that much experience, right?