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"How do I format my hard drive on a Windows XP system ?"

some of you have already read about my woes on the msblast topic;

I have a Samsung laptop with a XP Recovery disc, my system has msblast, even after ending process and deleting the two programs in System32 it is still there after rebooting, I have re-installed XP but to no avail. MSBlast shuts down my system before I can download the Mircosoft patch, so I can't get rid of the bug*er, sounds over the top, but I think I need to format my drive which is OK as everything is backed up, and I can install XP and all drivers etc in 50 mins, but .... can't seem to get to the format drive bit from my XP recovery disc, reading the info that came with it, I should get the option to persoanlise my installation which will allow me to format my drive before installing if I wish, but this doesn't happen, can someone help please. Or can I format from DOS ? tried but couldn't do it.

Thanks

I'm all sorted now, didn't need to format in the end, "shutdown -a" stopped the system shutting down and game me time to do everything I needed.

Thanks for your help

I got a way to instant format (i think... i'm not gonna try) which this guy told me. You put something in a word document and save it with a special ending... then when you try and open it... everything gone!

But he's not online now and i don't have the stuff to type.

If you want to do do 'clean' boot of your PC, which will remove all malicious code, put your XP disk in the drive and boot up your computer.

On startup, you should see the two options 'hit F1 for Setup' 'hit f12 to boot from another disk'

Hit f12 and select your cd drive.

The windows installer will appear, and the first thing it will ask is if you want to create partitions, and then if you want to format these.

Then carry on installing windows.

However, formatting your drive is quite a drastic thing to do. Why don't you just get someone to download the patch for you, I'll send it to you if you want.

Valentino Rossi wrote:
> weel thats alright then :'), I've got so paranoid I keep looking over
> my shoulder ...., anyway, how am I going to format my HD ?

Miserableman wrote:
> If you can get to DOS, format c: should do it.

I have 41 processes running! :(

Can't help with that I'm afraid.

What about Safe Mode ?

Try looking here

http://securityresponse.symantec.com /avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

This information is from there and MAY help;

Because of the way the worm works, it may be difficult to connect to the Internet to obtain the patch, definitions, or removal tool before the worm shuts down the computer. There are at least two known ways to work around this, although neither solution works 100% of the time.

If you run Windows XP, activating the Windows XP firewall may allow you to download and install the patch, obtain virus definitions, and run the removal tool. This may also work with other firewalls, although this has not been confirmed.

In many cases, on both Windows 2000 and XP, changing settings for the Remote Call Procedure (RPC) Service may allow you to connect to the Internet without the computer shutting down. Follow these steps:
Do one of the following:
Windows 2000. Right-click the My Computer icon on the Windows desktop and then click Manage. The Computer Management window opens.
Windows XP. Click the Start button, right-click the My Computer icon, click Manage. The Computer Management window opens.

In the left pane, double-click Services and Applications and then select Services. A list of services appears.
In the right pane, locate the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service.

CAUTION: There is also a service named Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator. Do not confuse the two

Right-click the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service and click Properties.
Click the Recovery tab.
Using the drop-down lists, change First failure, Second failure, and Subsequent failures to "Restart the Service."
Click Apply and then OK

CAUTION: Make sure that you change these settings back when you have removed the worm

There is a good few pages of info so have a read and maybe save yourself some time :)

weel thats alright then :'), I've got so paranoid I keep looking over my shoulder ...., anyway, how am I going to format my HD ?

svchost should be running !

Miserableman wrote:
> If you can get to DOS, format c: should do it.
>
> Alternatively if you know where msblast.exe is located, you can cd to
> that directory and delete it.

Just using format c: - get drive in use blah blah blah so can't format (XP has loaded by this point)

I have deleted msblast.exe (and the other file with it) but it keeps reappearing after rebooting, haven't got laptop with me but I'm sure I have the svchost program running as well, so will have to check it out tonight.

Thanks anyway.

If you can get to DOS, format c: should do it.

Alternatively if you know where msblast.exe is located, you can cd to that directory and delete it.