Format to get rid of a nasty virus

[Solarsteve]

I picked up a nasty virus: Sality that creates new malicious registry lines, blocks antivirus programs and does P2P transmissions of copyrighted materials without my knowledge or permission. I want to completely wipe the hard drive, reformat, and upgrade to Windows 10.  What is the best way to do this to erase and reformat and upgrade to  Windows 10 from Windows 7? I now have a C drive and recovery disk D drive. Should I not worry about a recovery drive?

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can delete the recovery drive as it is not needed and Windows 10 has many recovery options. So, what you can do is:

Download media creation tool from Microsoft on PC (different PC), run and create a bootable pen drive with the OS on it. (there is an explanation on the Microsoft web page on how to create the pen drive). Create the drive with Windows 10 Home 64-bit edition (or Pro if you had Windows 7 Pro installed). You can use the Windows 7 product key to activate once you have installed Windows 10.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you choose this option you will need to use the pen drive to perform a clean install of Windows 10. So, insert the pen drive in the PC and press the power button and immediately keep pressing ESC until the startup menu appears and then press F9 and choose the pen drive in the boot menu. Once it boots from the pen drive follow the procedure to install Windows. Choose custom install and delete all partitions, install in unallocated space.

When finished installing allow Windows to completely update and find all or most drivers. You can follow this process by going into settings > Security and update > click on Verify for updates. You might need to reboot a couple of times.

 I recommend installing HP support assistant which will help keep your drivers up to date and much more. You can download the latest version from here.

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/hpsupport.html

You could also opt to install a 2.5" SSD in the desktop and then install Windows 10 on it. It would give a great boost to the everyday performance of the PC.

Hope it helps,

David

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[Solarsteve]

I picked up a nasty virus: Sality that creates new malicious registry lines, blocks antivirus programs and does P2P transmissions of copyrighted materials without my knowledge or permission. I want to completely wipe the hard drive, reformat, and upgrade to Windows 10.  What is the best way to do this to erase and reformat and upgrade to  Windows 10 from Windows 7? I now have a C drive and recovery disk D drive. Should I not worry about a recovery drive?  

I have bought the Windows 10 CD. Should I wipe the hard drive clean with WipeDrive?

[CherylG]

Boot with the Windows dvd, click Install Now, enter your license key,  choose "Custom Install", when it asks where to install and shows your hdd, delete each partition leaving the entire drive as unallocated space. Let Windows create a new partition on the unallocated space. It will format the drive completely before installing.

[Solarsteve]

Thanks for the suggestion to get an SSD drive.  It performs much faster!

[iomare]

You're welcome. Yes, SSDs make a big difference to the everyday performance of a PC, like using a new one.

All the best,

David