Reformatting

[Fez]

Past few days I've had some trouble with trojans and having to safe mode and system restore and clean it out with Windows Security Essentials. Today I had a "Cannot find user profile" error while trying to login so I had to go into safe mode and system restore again. I'm sick of all this bother now and I'm going to reformat, but I have two questions:

1) I've heard it's best to delete System 32 before doing so, as it's full of everything you've ever downloaded and written on (bank details). Better for whoever buys it too so they have more memory.
2) What do I need to do aside from the possible above, before reformatting.

Windows 7, Home Premium by the way.

[xxMATTGxx]

I'm guessing you have some sort of Windows disc?

[Fez]

I'm guessing you have some sort of Windows disc?

Yes, yes. I'm just wondering what preparations I should take to make it all go smoothly. Some programs like iTunes have to be deauthorized but I don't know what else I should be doing. The possibility of deleting System32 is something I'm not sure on so I'm asking here.

+rep for answers obviously.

[Stephen!]

I don't know why somebody would tell you to delete system32.. apart from being a sick joke.

[xxMATTGxx]

Yes, yes. I'm just wondering what preparations I should take to make it all go smoothly. Some programs like iTunes have to be deauthorized but I don't know what else I should be doing. The possibility of deleting System32 is something I'm not sure on so I'm asking here.

+rep for answers obviously.

If you want to keep anything on that system, then back it up. Although it may be infected but you can deal with that later.

You don't need to do anything with system32, just put the Windows OS disc in and reboot the machine. Make sure you boot the CD/DVD drive (it will probably do this automatically anyway) then go along with the installation steps. When you see the step where it lists your hard drive(s), format the actual drive and then install Windows onto it.

[Fez]

If you want to keep anything on that system, then back it up. Although it may be infected but you can deal with that later.

You don't need to do anything with system32, just put the Windows OS disc in and reboot the machine. Make sure you boot the CD/DVD drive (it will probably do this automatically anyway) then go along with the installation steps. When you see the step where it lists your hard drive(s), format the actual drive and then install Windows onto it.

Thanks for the help, I'll get to it right away.

Would it be best to just upload all my documents to Google Docs, which just copies the text and formatting and not the actual file, then redownloading on to my computer? There's generally nothing else I need except my writings folder.


I don't know why somebody would tell you to delete system32.. apart from being a sick joke.

I've heard stories.

[Chippiewill]

1) Backup.
2) http://www.dban.org/
3) Reinstall windows.

OTT but gets the job done.

[Fez]

1) Backup.
2) http://www.dban.org/
3) Reinstall windows.

OTT but gets the job done.

Will do just that, thanks.

+rep to everyone who helped.