EvilZone
General Tech => Hardware => : lucid March 02, 2012, 05:53:51 AM
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Perhaps a noob question but does anyone have any general advice on why one would be unable to format their computer?
I imagine its a virus(not on this computer its an old one I found)and I can't think of another reason why.
Thanks
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First,
What are you formatting exactly, and for what?
Second,
Have you done a decent virus scan? A combo of malwarebytes and hitman pro should take care of most viruses. Both free and quick to use btw.
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Formatting the C drive..the computer is so full of random crap and useless applications.
What about FUD?
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I've never heard of FUD, but if its reputable, then sure. And why reformat then? I would just wipe it, maybe reimage it, if it's faulty...And what OS? I'm assuming XP?
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Try erasing the unwanted data from your C drive completely. That should give you some space and performance.
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I've never heard of FUD, but if its reputable, then sure. And why reformat then? I would just wipe it, maybe reimage it, if it's faulty...And what OS? I'm assuming XP?
FUD is fully undetectable.
So what I mean is couldn't a hex-edited virus go undetected by hitman pro.
I guess I hadn't realized a difference honestly. Yes its XP
Btw thanks for the recommendations for malewarebytes and hitman pro
EDIT: Is it a problem that I don't have the original OS disk?
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Are you trying to format it while IN windows? You can't format a partition that's in use.
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This topic should help you.
http://www.selectrealsecurity.com/malware-removal-guide
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This topic should help you.
http://www.selectrealsecurity.com/malware-removal-guide (http://www.selectrealsecurity.com/malware-removal-guide)
Quite useful thanks
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Well if you want to format the driver then...
Like XOR said you cannot format a partition that's in use within the system you are trying to format. You can easily do it with a Windows setup or a LiveCD such as Linux or Hiren's Boot CD.
If you are unable to format from live CD's then either your hardware is fucked somehow or you have a case of a BIOS virus of some sort, which is very unlikely but possible.
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Since I have no OS disk for XP I searched the computer for the proper file...winnt32.exe and couldn't locate it. I'm not sure where to go from here in attempting to wipe the computer and reinstall the OS.
EDIT: Actually a solution would simply be to download XP from another computer onto a USB and install it on the original computer yeah?
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If your main computer boots, you can download XP on that and do the same thing. You just need to download the install media, burn it, boot it and reinstall, but you'll probably want to make a backup of your data before you do that, and also download all of your motherboard drivers.... there have been a few instances where people have reinstalled and they don't have network drivers to get on the internet and shit.
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Thats probably going to be the best solution. Although right now I'm working with an ISO burner to try and burn an iso image onto my usb and for an unexplained reason the burner is telling me it simply failed to format my usb. This is frustrating
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ISO burners generally burn to CD/DVD devices. You want a live USB creator.
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I figured googling ISO burner to usb would yield some results. I found some freeware that was..questionable, and I found some that was promising. There are ISO burners out there that do burn to USBs aren't there? Or am I confused?
EDIT:I am confused apparently. LinuxLive USB creator should do the trick?
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I guess it would, but it was optimized to linux'es first, so might interfere with a windows setup and shitz.
For installing WinXP on my netbook I use the proper soft: http://wintoflash.com/home/en/
It's very good. After you install your windows with it, reboot into it's setup and and select the first selection. After your computer gets restarted (initial setup is done copying files to proceed) and you get back into WinToFlash setup, choose the second option.
Everything you need can be found on their website though.
About the drivers... if you are unsure which ones to get, then use DriverPacks: http://driverpacks.net/
Of course having the proper drivers is better than this, but it's a solution never the less.
If you want to get proper drivers and don't know your hardware, then get Speccy (free tool like Everest from Piriform - Creators of CCleaner): http://www.piriform.com/speccy
That will list your hardware, accurately enough to find the required drivers via google.
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I guess it would, but it was optimized to linux'es first, so might interfere with a windows setup and shitz.
For installing WinXP on my netbook I use the proper soft: http://wintoflash.com/home/en/ (http://wintoflash.com/home/en/)
It's very good. After you install your windows with it, reboot into it's setup and and select the first selection. After your computer gets restarted (initial setup is done copying files to proceed) and you get back into WinToFlash setup, choose the second option.
Everything you need can be found on their website though.
About the drivers... if you are unsure which ones to get, then use DriverPacks: http://driverpacks.net/ (http://driverpacks.net/)
Of course having the proper drivers is better than this, but it's a solution never the less.
If you want to get proper drivers and don't know your hardware, then get Speccy (free tool like Everest from Piriform - Creators of CCleaner): http://www.piriform.com/speccy (http://www.piriform.com/speccy)
That will list your hardware, accurately enough to find the required drivers via google.
I love your informative posts. Thanks.
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Oh by the way how come the first time I tried using ubuntu(11.10)on my usb it worked and everything went fine, but the second time i tried it it was much less interactive; no sidebar/internet/fucking anything?
EDIT: Obviously I should have downloaded a previous version, this i fucking stupid.
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Well maybe the GNOME didn't initialize properly.
Oh wait! Since Ubuntu 11.10 they use Unity, not GNOME :(
Well then maybe something was wrong with unity - tried to restart?
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Yeah. Maybe it was only fully interactive the first time around with the sidebar and internet access and whatnot because I was only trying it as opposed to installing it?
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And kulver, if you want to view your devices you should just use devmgmt.msc if you're on windows, from there you can look up the device and PCI ID which can be mapped against the http://www.pcidatabase.com/
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And kulver, if you want to view your devices you should just use devmgmt.msc if you're on windows, from there you can look up the device and PCI ID which can be mapped against the http://www.pcidatabase.com/
Ok. I didn't know this one :P
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I'd like to make a recommendation to everyone not to install ubuntu 11.10. if that was there plan. After my first problem of having the launcher disappear was fixed by going to the terminal and entering in the command "unity --reset"
Now it has a new problem of freezing everytime I try to boot. Not to mention that when it was "working" it had plenty of freezes and crashes resulting in me having to do a hard shutdown.
I'll be switching to 11.04 now
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I still use 10.04 as it is an LTS release, but I was thinking to upgrade to 12.04 when it gets released, because it will be an LTS as well, but I really hate Unity.
Never the less, you can switch desktop environments on Ubuntu like socks, unlike windows Explorer that you are stuck with it.
On Ubuntu you can choose from Unity, Gnome, KDE, AWM, X and many other, although I prefer Gnome over anything.
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I have a friend who has 10.4. Works great, I see no need to update. Is it possible that the 11.10 software is just buggy because its new?
Yes unity sucks.