Any possible way of reformating without the Windows XP CD?

B

BaronBamboo

Gawd
Joined
Sep 16, 2006
Messages
795
Hey guys, I have a problem.

My father's laptop has been bombarded with spyware. I've tried every cleaner from SPybot to Adaware-SE and none of them are working. I'm afraid it is too late for any software to fight the Spyware and I'm looking into the possibility of reformatting the hard drive.

The problem is the laptop was purchased in Feb 2005 and my dad does not have the original Windows CD. Any possible way of just reformatting without the disc? Or do you guys know any other way I can remove the spyware? I'm willing to go to the extremes since this laptop does not have any important files on it.

Thanks.
 
You dont need the disc to reformat the laptop, you will need the disc to reinstall XP though, no way around that.
 
www.eset.com/onlinescan

and

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Run both of those and let them both do what's necessary for cleaning. Then go get Windows Defender and run a FULL scan of the drive also.

That should knock out maybe everything he's having issues with related to virus/trojan/worm activity, spyware, adware, malware in general.

If those three things in conjunction don't "fix" his machine and clean it, it's time to do the full reinstallation after backing up relevant personal data and files.

Hope this helps...

ps
Ad-aware and Spybot are effectively uselness nowadays and just more crap on a PC... there are better solutions.
 
run the following in safemode (with networking so you can update)

cleanup40/ccleaner
AVG antispyware
ad-aware
spybot
vundofix
hijackthis
combofix
AVG antivirus

you can pm me the hijackthis log if you need help
 
bbz_Ghost said:
www.eset.com/onlinescan

and

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Run both of those and let them both do what's necessary for cleaning. Then go get Windows Defender and run a FULL scan of the drive also.

That should knock out maybe everything he's having issues with related to virus/trojan/worm activity, spyware, adware, malware in general.

If those three things in conjunction don't "fix" his machine and clean it, it's time to do the full reinstallation after backing up relevant personal data and files.

Hope this helps...

ps
Ad-aware and Spybot are effectively uselness nowadays and just more crap on a PC... there are better solutions.
Click to expand...

I can't run the first two programs you suggested because for some reason the laptop lost all internet connection. I'll call D-Link tomorrow to see what the problem is.

Yeah Spybot hasn't helped at all.
dbwillis said:
You dont need the disc to reformat the laptop, you will need the disc to reinstall XP though, no way around that.
Click to expand...
yeah that is what I meant :D
lAciDl said:
run the following in safemode (with networking so you can update)

cleanup40/ccleaner
AVG antispyware
ad-aware
spybot
vundofix
hijackthis
combofix
AVG antivirus

you can pm me the hijackthis log if you need help
Click to expand...

Thansk for the programs, I'll run them tommorow.

Appreciate everyone's help. I'll keep you all updated.
 
Ok can anyone help me out here?

My father found the windows cd that came with the laptop. How do I delete everything so I can install Windows and start all over again?

Thanks for any help. Appreciated.
 
This is hard, so follow closely:

1. Turn the laptop on.
2. Put the CD in the CD drive
3. Configure BIOS to boot from CD if needed
4. CD will boot
5. Follow prompts.

It will give you an option to do partitioning. Remove all partitions, Put new partitions to your liking, install Windows.
 
before you stick in the CD + follow the prompts - you may want to make sure to back up his data first....
 
SuperSubZero said:
This is hard, so follow closely:

1. Turn the laptop on.
2. Put the CD in the CD drive
3. Configure BIOS to boot from CD if needed
4. CD will boot
5. Follow prompts.

It will give you an option to do partitioning. Remove all partitions, Put new partitions to your liking, install Windows.
Click to expand...

Ok a question on partitioning. I know a partition is what you want the space on your hard drive to be divided by, right? My father uses the laptop for occasional viewing of videos and web surfing, so how do I partition it the way it came with the laptop? Or is there a recommended partition for my father's use? Nothing special, just the basics. He didn't have a problem with the way it came in the laptop.

teststrips said:
before you stick in the CD + follow the prompts - you may want to make sure to back up his data first....
Click to expand...
Yeah thanks. He doesn't have any important data there.

Thanks guys for the help so far. Glad I could get the help here.
 
I like setting up 60GB for OS and programs and the rest for media. That way if I format I don't have to backup media, and I can save anything I want to keep to my D: partition. I only have to reinstall programs
 
BaronBamboo said:
Ok a question on partitioning. I know a partition is what you want the space on your hard drive to be divided by, right? My father uses the laptop for occasional viewing of videos and web surfing, so how do I partition it the way it came with the laptop? Or is there a recommended partition for my father's use? Nothing special, just the basics. He didn't have a problem with the way it came in the laptop.
Click to expand...
If you don't understand partitioning, you may want to Google it. (www.google.com)

If his CDROM drive is D:, he has one partition.
 
There's no legitimate reason for this person (the OP or his Father, either one) to mess with partitioning. You're complicating the matter unnecessarily.

To the OP:

Put in the XP CD, boot the computer off it. After you select to install Windows (not Recovery or repair), you'll press F8 to get past the EULA agreement. On the next screen will be a list of currently available partitions on that hard drive. It should be one partition (the original one) and then about 8MB of empty space. That empty space is where XP stores some important files when it first boots and starts the installation process.

Simply highlight the C: partition, the original one, and press D to delete it. Windows will warn you about doing so, then you press Enter. It'll warn you again and say to delete the partition press L. It does this (multiple confirmations) so you don't accidentally delete the entire system partition or any other with a careless keypress.

Once you press L it'll jump back to the partition list - but now there won't be any. It should say "Unpartitioned space" and then it'll list the amount of total available space - don't worry about the actual math, it's accurate.

Press C to create a new partition, and let Windows use it ALL - this is the most efficient setup for your Father's machine and causes no unnecessary complications later on with a bunch of drive letters that would make him think he's got more than one hard drive. It's simply not necessary in this situation.

Press Enter to accept the figure, then it'll go back to the partition list again, and the newly created C: partition will be there, as well as that 8MB of space I mentioned earlier, press Enter to install XP on that partition.

On the next screen choose to QuickFormat that partition with NTFS and press Enter.

You're done, now sit back and let XP install. That's it, in a nutshell. XP will copy all the necssary files, reboot once, do the actual setup, ask for the key (if this is an OEM machine with the OEM XP CD it should not ask for a key), and then reboot again when the installation is done. You can remove the CD from the drive when it says "1 minute left, removing temporary files..." at the very end of the actual setup. You can handle it from that point on, right? :D

Good luck...
 
Also make sure you grab the drivers you need before you go over there if you don't have another computer with internet access to download stuff.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
There's no legitimate reason for this person (the OP or his Father, either one) to mess with partitioning. You're complicating the matter unnecessarily.

To the OP:

Put in the XP CD, boot the computer off it. After you select to install Windows (not Recovery or repair), you'll press F8 to get past the EULA agreement. On the next screen will be a list of currently available partitions on that hard drive. It should be one partition (the original one) and then about 8MB of empty space. That empty space is where XP stores some important files when it first boots and starts the installation process.

Simply highlight the C: partition, the original one, and press D to delete it. Windows will warn you about doing so, then you press Enter. It'll warn you again and say to delete the partition press L. It does this (multiple confirmations) so you don't accidentally delete the entire system partition or any other with a careless keypress.

Once you press L it'll jump back to the partition list - but now there won't be any. It should say "Unpartitioned space" and then it'll list the amount of total available space - don't worry about the actual math, it's accurate.

Press C to create a new partition, and let Windows use it ALL - this is the most efficient setup for your Father's machine and causes no unnecessary complications later on with a bunch of drive letters that would make him think he's got more than one hard drive. It's simply not necessary in this situation.

Press Enter to accept the figure, then it'll go back to the partition list again, and the newly created C: partition will be there, as well as that 8MB of space I mentioned earlier, press Enter to install XP on that partition.

On the next screen choose to QuickFormat that partition with NTFS and press Enter.

You're done, now sit back and let XP install. That's it, in a nutshell. XP will copy all the necssary files, reboot once, do the actual setup, ask for the key (if this is an OEM machine with the OEM XP CD it should not ask for a key), and then reboot again when the installation is done. You can remove the CD from the drive when it says "1 minute left, removing temporary files..." at the very end of the actual setup. You can handle it from that point on, right? :D

Good luck...
Click to expand...

Wow thanks for all this. But I have one queastion, what do you mean by boot the computer off it?

I just turned on my laptop, waited for all the load screens to come up, etc, and then popped in the disc. Then after about 6 secs it said the disc is for the wrong machine and that the disc could only be used for M35x models. When I looked underneath my laptop, I saw it was indeed a M35X model. So could you clarify more on that? Sorry I've never done this before.

Again guys thanks for all your help.
 
put the disc in and restart your computer.

Instead of starting windows now it will go into whatever program you have on the disc, in this case it is the windows install/repair program.

You may have to press a key to boot using the cd/dvd rom or may have to press a Function key to bring up the boot menu where you can choose whether to load the OS or the Install CD.

For such a small drive just use one partition. This way is a lot easier for most average people I have found. It may be cool now but a year from now when they ask you to merge everything back in because they don't have space for more pictures and so on you will remember this.
 
i would suggest finding all the drivers first. i would look in control panel to see what hardware you have and get the drivers for them. otherwise with such a old pc, xp may not have all the drivers and you would have to look inside at the hardware to see what you have.
 
If it is a laptop from feb 2005 then most likely the manufacturers website will have all the hardware drivers listed by model number so OP look there if you need.
 
You aren't done until you've run:

SuperAntiSpyware
and
SmitFraudFix
 
Ok I know how to boot off the disc. I'd just like to know how can I find all the necessary drivers in the control panel?

Thanks again.

EDIT:

I'm on the Toshiba site right now and so far I only one driver that I need for my laptop, which is for the optical drive.
http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=ServicesSupport/DeviceDrivers
^The first one there.

Are there any other drivers I need, such as sound or other ones? I can't find any other drivers on the site.
 
BaronBamboo said:
Ok I know how to boot off the disc. I'd just like to know how can I find all the necessary drivers in the control panel?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...


If it is a laptop from feb 2005 then most likely the manufacturers website will have all the hardware drivers listed by model number so OP look there if you need.

Download the ones you need only as they will give you a whole bunch of drivers and software. Read descriptions and it will tell you what is what. Search via the model number of the laptop as it is easier.

Am I to assume that you have managed to get a fresh install of windows onto the laptop? Nice.
 
blendingnoise said:
If it is a laptop from feb 2005 then most likely the manufacturers website will have all the hardware drivers listed by model number so OP look there if you need.

Download the ones you need only as they will give you a whole bunch of drivers and software. Read descriptions and it will tell you what is what. Search via the model number of the laptop as it is easier.
Click to expand...

O ok, alright thanks.

Am I to assume that you have managed to get a fresh install of windows onto the laptop? Nice.
Click to expand...

Not exactly, I just realized that the CD my dad found is the recovery CD. It says on the front Recovery And Applications/Drivers DVD Satellite M30X/M35X Series

When I selected boot from CD/DVD, it said am I sure I want to do this, I said yes, and then it said in a large font size Wrong Machine.

Does this change anything? I have no clue why it keeps saying wrong machine.
 
As I Lay Dying said:
o______O, ad-aware and spybot in my experience have been more effective than windows defender.
Click to expand...

I don't like Window Defender myself. Spybot is still useful to an extent, Ad Aware has gone downhill. SuperAntiSpyware and AVG Anti Spyware are both effective and if you want to spend some money so is Spy Sweeper and Spyware Doctor.
 
I is possible you have a bad dvd. do you have and serial code on the bottom of your laptop? If you do any win xp cd will boot the machine and start installation and then maybe you can get the drivers off of the dvd.
I hope it helps also as a last resort you maybe able to still get a replacement dvd.
 
Look under Start Menu and then Programs and see if you have something that will let you reburn the recovery cd's. Yes your dad would have only had the recovery cd as that is all they ship with.
 
Is there any other reason why the cd won't work besides a bad cd drive? I've already had my fair share of non-working optical drives and don't need anymore.

I just really want to know why the recovery disc that came with laptop will not work on it. The laptop is the correct series (M35) and the CD says it is for M35 models. This cycle of bs has to end somewhere :( The best part is if I call tech support, I will be charged $35.

Sigh. Again just need this laptop working. Thanks.
 
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