because i've got one that's dedicated to MP3 and film and losing its contents would cause me to swear quite loudly. So how do i install windows to get rid of this trojan without getting rid of my mp3s?

no it won't – just make certain you pick the right drive/partition to do the install.

Of course that's if you have more than one drive or a partition. Seems a bit overkill to get ride of a trojan and keeping info on the disk may mean it very well stays anyway.

thanks

drac, there's no other way to get rid of this trojan. it's been engrained in my computer for a couple of years now. by the way if you read the original post it clearly says i have 2 hard drives. and it's in my system files, not my mp3s. Thanks for the useful info steve.

you could also unplug the drive containing your mp3's to make sure you dont choose it by mistake?

no

Are you sure there's no other way ? Have you tried ComboFix ?

Nope. not interested in any other way. I want a new clean PC so i can chill out, listen to music and edit my photos 🙂

you've had a trojan for two years that hasn't been sorted by the spybot/av brigade?
ok. if you think a re-install of windows is the way forward, all power to your elbow. if it were me i'd be doing spybot search and destroy, adaware, pccillin (SP?), and finally going to the guys who do the 'hijack this' stuff as a final resort and asking their advice ( they'd get rid of it for sure ).
good luck though.

have done all that, it went away, now it's back. Thats the situation.

RIGHT I HAVE HIT A PROBLEM!

when it asks me which partition to install windows XP on i can either choose (on the c drive) the partition with windows installed on it OR the un-partitioned space, OR i can choose my E: drive which has all my mp3s on it – which i don't want to do! So i chose the partition [ntfs] on the c drive already in use. But it then warns me about installing multiple copies on one partition. I want to get rid of the old operating system completely and start afresh. So i didn't go fully ahead with it yet. i'm waiting for your advice 🙂

i'm waiting for your advice

first back up the drive you're worried about

At the point where you are asked where you want to install it; there's an option to delete the partition (Press 'D') do that; and then when it returns to the partition list you just select the Unpartitioned space; which will incorporate the deleted bit – choose to format it as NTFS and do a quick format unless you like sitting around for ages watching progress bars….

thanks steve, i never would've seen the option to delete the partition (or had the balls to use it).

Oh and Simoan, it's a full hard drive. you might be happy watching endless data transfers but i'm not!

well there's no going back now ! 🙂

yeah feels good to finally be getting this done.maybe i can have my pc back! have been down the hijack this route with it but ended up just using my laptop which crashed a few weeks ago after i dropped it. it keeps flickering at me as if its trying to tell me something! should have a nice stable platform to edit some photos on when this is done. not to mention more ram 🙂

if i had the money i'd get myself a 24" Imac

A reinstall won't necessarily clean up the hard drive. You need to reformat the drive and then rinstall the oeprating system which is what you seem to heading towards. When I did it to put a legal copy of XP on my PC I pulled the data cable out of the 2nd drive so there wouldn't be any nasty accidents.

Don't forget to makesure you have all the drivers or know where to get updated versions. Can be worth doing as a housekeeping exercise every couple of years anyway, clean install, update all drivers (which you don't often do as a matter of course), remove all the cr*p that gets legitimately installed with genuine software. I'm at that point again with my desktop but I think I might just be better off buying a new unit.

I think bomberman has gone for a full format / clean install – though no news for 4 hours now; hmmm 😀

Unless there's something you need your PC to do that it currently doesn't I wouldn't bother upgrading – maybe stick some extra memory in; coupled with a fresh install it always makes it feel a lot faster – especially if you turn off all the animated menus and stuff that is the fashion these days ….

you might be happy watching endless data transfers but i'm not!

ALL hard drives fail sooner or later. Probably the best backup is an external drive which is only powered up for that purpose, provided you do a full surface scan CHKDSK every 6 months…

Can be worth doing as a housekeeping exercise every couple of years anyway, clean install

this strikes me as being like burning down the house to cure a mouse infestation 🙂

.

this strikes me as being like burning down the house to cure a mouse infestation

more like smoking the little b*ggers out and then having to redecorate 😉

I wonder if Bomberman is certain he has two physical drives and not just one which is partitioned as c:\system and d:\whatever? If that is the case deleting the partition has just lost him all his data.

I wonder; because he's obviously not the most technically astute of people.

say it aint so!

Yeah, my mistake.. Just read Bombermans later post talking about the e:\ drive. So I would say he does indeed have two physical drives 😳

phew!

Yeah, my mistake.. Just read Bombermans later post talking about the e:\ drive. So I would say he does indeed have two physical drives

Not necessarily, he may well have created a c: on part of the space and then created an e: with the unused space later – d: would be a dvd drive

One thing, dont do a quick format as a full one will check the surface of the drive for problems, rather than just assuming it is all ok

This strikes me as being like burning down the house to cure a mouse infestation

Great thing to do every so often, feels like you have a new machine again