Reformatting Hard Drive and Reinstalling XP

Question

So awhile ago I had this virus, or something, that was messing with my internet connection. I decided that this was a good excuse to clean things up, reformat the hard drive, and reinstall WinXP. Since doing this, I've had all kinds of trouble. Everything from problems with my laptops standby mode (the computer would just become unresponsive when coming out of standy) to my hard drive not being completely wiped. I've since done both a repair reinstall and another complete reinstall where I repartitioned and format the hard drive. Everything seemed fine then for a day or so, then I started getting some kind of fatal error when I reached the Windows desktop. I believe it claimed an RPC (or something...) file failed to load and windows needed to restart. It would then do a minute countdown and restart my laptop, only for the same thing to happen again in an endless cycle.

I've been in contact with support people, but haven't been getting clear answers. One email actually told me to buy a new hard drive from them.

What I'd like to do is completely start over. I'd like to reformat everything, probably using a boot disk I guess and completely cleanse my hard drive. I'd like to then repartition the space so that there is one large partition so I can take advantage of all my hard drive space. I noticed when reinstalling before that there was a small amount of unpartitioned space and also another very small (8 MB) partition that wasn't part of the large main partition XP was installed on. Once I have the whole thing clean and partitioned, then I'd like to put a clean copy of WinXP on the drive.

My main question, is how do I do this? I've been reading some conflicting info and am a little confused. I want to make sure I COMPLETELY clean the drive this time so I can make sure everything works correctly (like it used to...) when I get things working again.

Thanks!

jmwills · Answer

The link listed below is a pretty comprehensive resource: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

Denny Denham · Answer

Donegal,

It sounds as though you did a proper clean install (including reparitioning and formatting) but you failed to activate the Internet Connection Firewall before going online and got the Blaster worm (evidenced by the RPC error requiring shutdown).

When you do the reinstall, the first thing you should do before going online is to activate the ICF (Start|Control Panel|Network Connections, right-click on your connection icon and select Properties, check to activate the firewall on the Advanced tab) and the next thing to do is to install all Windows Critical Updates, which will also protect against Blaster.

You do not need to use a boot disk to clean your hard disk. When you do the clean install, delete then recreate C:\, then partition it, you have done a thorough format. To use a boot disk you would first have to run FDISK, then FORMAT and that's a lot of unnecessary work on your part.

Donegal · Answer

Man, I must say this is great to hear--thanks for the replies! I was really in a poor mood after the support guy mailed me telling me I needed a new hard drive. I'm not exactly a computer guru, but I know enough and did enough research that I thought I could reformat my hard drive without ruining anything. Good to know I did it alright and can do it again now just fine.

I can't believe I picked up another virus. I had no idea. Until that first one I got last month I didn't even have any anti-virus software and had been fine for like a year. I'll be sure to activate that firewall I guess, though will this screw up my ability to download stuff or anything? I've heard firewalls can do that. I'm also running a McAfee anti-virus thing from my university now, so hopefully that prevents any problems.

As for windows updates I'll do my best, but I've only got 56K access and those downloads take some time...

Thanks so much again, hopefully I can fix things up now. Though I still wonder about that problem I was having with standby mode that started this whole thing... And this last time I reinstalled the standby option was greyed out, like I couldn't even use the feature, or it wasn't there. Strange...

gryjhnhpe · Answer

If you have a small FAT partition with less than 2 MB used it can't be accessed by XP & can be deleted.
(was created by DELL install)
You should also have a 8 MB unallocated space created by Windows XP installs & reserved for Windows partition info. (thats what Recovery Console DISKPART says when I try to create partition on unallocated 8 MB space)

Message Edited by gryjhnhpe on 11-15-2003 11:30 AM

Denny Denham · Answer

Donegal,

The firewall will not affect your ability to do downloads.

An inaccessible (grayed out) standby function on a portable system is cause for concern, but you may find more worthwhile help in the conference for the model of laptop you are using than here in Windows XP. With luck, the standby problem will be resolved by a clean install and therefore not an issue.

redwolfe_98 · Answer

in case you are using aol, win xp's built-in firewall in not compatible with aol.. since i use aol, i have another firewall downloaded onto floppy disks so that it can be installed before connecting to the internet, when i reformat.

Evanryan · Answer

I had that same RPC countdown then shutdown thing right after I formattd and re installed winxp. In fact so did a buddy that had also just bought a new dell and had to format and re install. I can tell you that the RPC countdown then re start thing is a virus. Dell e mailed me a link to a patch at the symantic web site. First they made a couple of settings changes to stop the shut down so that I had time to download the virus fix.

Is it just me or are a lot of new Dells requiring the format reinstall thing? hmmmmmmm

If you click on control panel, go to administrative tools, go into services, scroll down to the "remote procedure call" icons. There will be 2 of them. right click on each and go into properties. select the recovery tab then in the drop down box select take no action. Do that to both of the rpc items in the list. This will stop the re start thing. You may end up with a constantly disconnecting modem and I can't recall that fix! then you should be able to get the fix. I think, but not sure its called the w32blaster.worm??

Wes

Message Edited by Evanryan on 11-14-2003 09:57 PM

Denny Denham · Answer

Evanryanl, That's the name of the thing. Details are here.

Donegal · Answer

Thanks guys for all the help! I have done another complete format and reinstall and everything seems just great now. The first thing I did was recreate my internet connection and activate the firewall, as well as install my other anti-virus software and update its definitions. I then hit the Windows update site, which I think is what cost me before. I've downloaded upwards of 100 MBs of security updates, fixes, and service packs. Everything seems to be working great now.

I have yet to test my standby mode, but the option is there and one of the fixes I downloaded is supposed to solve a problem with the computer coming out of standby. Hopefully that does it. My other power options are fine and I really wouldn't even need Standby mode if it doesn't work.

I must say I think the windows updates were very important and I overlooked them before.

Anyway, thanks and things seem as good as I hoped they'd be now.

Windows General

Reformatting Hard Drive and Reinstalling XP

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