Developer Forum

Hi Galen, thank you again for your help.
Since I got into trouble by doing things that I was not familiar with, I do
NOT want to get into trouble again and would like to insure that I understand
what I need to do to get my system "Up and Running".

I believe that the first thing that I need to do is place the Recovery /
Resourse CD in the CD-ROM Drive, turn on my Dell 8300 computer and select the
Boot from CD option (NOT boot from Hard Drive).

That will bring uo the Dell ResourceCD Main Menu / Selection Page, and I
should choose the DOS Option.

When I am in DOS, I type FORMAT C:\ and Press Enter (to Reformat the "C"
Drive)

After the "C" Drive is ReFormatted, I place the WindowsXp Professional SetUp
CD in the CD-ROM Drive, restart the system and hopefully, the WindowsXp Pro
Setup routine will begin (and I will have a USABLE system again)

I would appreciate if you would please advise / confirm that these ARE the
steps and I need to take and if NOT (or I am have skipped / forgotten
something), what should I be doing to resurrect my system?

Thank you for your ALL your help Galen.

Bob

n news: XXXX@XXXXX.COM ,
Boblink < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:


It's MUCH easier than that... If you have the recovery CD just boot with the
CD in place and it should pop you the question about booting from CD. Then
follow the on screen prompts. No typing of format or the like any more. It's
all done quickly and easily though the CD itself. No special hidden
commands.

To keep your system up and running don't activate immediately when prompted.
Instead turn on the firewall. Then download and install SP2. Then
activate...

Here's some canned stuff with some links to give you some free security
software:

Virus:
www.grisoft.com - AVG
www.antivir.com - AntiVir
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/index.cfm - CA eTrust

Spyware:
www.lavasoft.de - AdAware
http://security.kolla.de/ - Spybot
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx -
Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta

Trojan:
www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ - a Squared
http://swatit.org/ Swat It

Before cleaning download this:

LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Use that should cleaning out your PC remove or damage your in-place winsock
and you can't connect to the internet.

From the virus and trojan category pick one application, they're all free,
download it and install it. Make sure that you update it. From the spyware
category pick all three, download them and update them to the latest
definitions. Reboot, press the F8 key over and over again, from the menu
select Safe mode without networking. Do your cleaning in there. Reboot to
regular mode and run the scans again. This isn't going to be quick or easy
but it might just solve your problems and it should prevent you from further
problems so long as you keep them updated and scan often. Most of them can
be enabled to update and scan automatically.

You can skip the whole scanning bit as you shouldn't be infected if you've
done a destructive recovery (is that what Dell calls it???) re-installation.

Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.