Episode #102
Formating Your computer

My question is how do i format my computer! i was thinking of bringing it in to MDG but apperantly it costs $50 and i’ve heard its fairly easy to do by yourself. The reason i want to do this is because i think i have a couple of viruses and i just cant shake ‘em. I use AVG free version and it detects them but i dont think it detects them all. i get about 3 warnings a day. Or maybe i have spyware i really dont know but i think it would just be better to start from scratch. Also my games are being affected. i play mostly a game called Garrys mod (a mod for the source engine), it is known to be buggy sometimes but with this computer it is insane, i get freezes and wierd computer crashes. I am using Windows XP Professional. So i am wondering if i have to buy any software or even download free software to help me. i dont trust the internet to much because i could be downlaoding more trojans, and i know that you guys can help me out. Thanks

Roger, Holland Landing, ON



If you have a Windows installer CD or your computer’s recovery CD, the process of formatting is very simple — you simply reboot your system with the CD in the drive (making sure your computer’s BIOS is set up to boot from CD) and then follow the installation process. A recovery CD should automatically format the drive as part of the recovery process; if you’re running Windows install, it will give you the option of which drive to install to, and one of the options will be to format the drive.

My number one piece of advice to those who are planning to reinstall the operating system from the Windows CD is DOWNLOAD ALL THE DRIVERS YOU’LL NEED BEFORE STARTING THIS PROCESS…it will be hard to download them if you don’t already have the drivers on your system. Burn them to a CD preferably, because sometimes the USB ports don’t work until you reinstall the chipset/INF driver.

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