Giantitp: providing more effective tech support than tech support forums since 2003

[JeffreyToTheMax]

I'm typing this from my future mother-in-law's computer, on an internet connection gained from tethering my Droid. I am telling you this because, a) I want it to be known that this situation is not my fault, and b) please help me.

This computer has endured a lot in its time. It went for years without any form of antivirus software, unless you count the kind that installs itself without your permission just to tell you that you have a lot of viruses and therefore should give it money. My later attempts at patching it up amounted to not much more than putting a Band-Aid (tm) on cancer. So, finally, after a lifetime of struggle, it has been brought to its knees.

I also happen to know it is possible for a hard drive to be completely wiped, allowing you to basically start over. That is the thing I need to do with this computer. Problem is, I don't know how, because when it happened to me, it was sort of against my will. I lost my whole C drive, but it was reborn anew. It was extremely irritating then, but it might be just what I need now.

Finding the original XP disc (yeah, it's Windows XP) plus product key might be a problem. The disc, being a physical object, might potentially be found, but I don't see the same happening with the product key.

My question to you, Playground, is how do I go about doing this? Or, alternatively, is this a thing I should be doing? I am definitely open to other solutions for a computer loaded down with more malware than any program I have seen can handle.

[KuReshtin]

One very effective (and free) way of wiping your hard drive completely is to download Lenovo's Secure Data Disposal application.
It's available for free, and you can either do it using floppy discs or by burning it onto a CD-ROM.

Easiest way to find it is to just type in TVAN-SDD into Google and click on the first link there.

It will give you a choice of several different levels of erasing the hard drive, with the top one being approved by the US government for their use (so I guess it's pretty thorough).
It's only 12MB to download the installer and once you've installed it, you can create the Boot CD by starting up the application and go to the 'ISO-Directory' in the File menu. You can install this application on any computer and create the Boot CD from there.

The XP CD issue might be a bit of a problem though.

[Anima]

The term you are looking for is formatting a hard-drive. And it`s relatively easy to do, if you have a windows copy with a key, that is.
The first problem is that you need an other medium to boot from then your hard-drive. Otherwise you can`t format the drive.
The second problem would be that Windows will be erased as well.
Since your copy is pretty much unusable you need a operating system. Either get your copy back in working order, buy another one or try a linux system like Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/).

[lesser_minion]

I'm pretty sure it's possible to find out your product key in
Windows XP -- possibly by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing Properties.

If your computer came with Windows XP installed, then you may be able to get away without looking for your product key -- the disk that ships with the computer should install the copy associated with that computer, if I recall correctly.

If you bought the copy online, then you may have an e-mail floating around containing the product key.

As far as formatting is concerned, anything with the ability to install an operating system can also format a drive. If you can't get windows XP set up again, then you may have to go back and learn to use a Linux distribution.

Fedora is a reasonable choice -- you can get a copy here (http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options#formats).

That page also explains alternatives to downloading the operating system.

[Force]

You might want to see if the system contains a "system restore" function that would reset the computer back to factory condition. To my knowledge part of the process is an hard drive format, which should fix any problems you may have.

If the computer in question is more than five or six years old, though, I would begin to expect parts failures. Eventually it'll be more efficient to just upgrade to a newer computer.

[factotum]

Magic Jelly Bean (Google for it) will give you your XP product key, IIRC, but are you sure the product key isn't on a label attached to the computer itself? If it came with XP pre-installed then that's usually where they put it!

[742]

you could probably find a windows 2000 key and a version of that that could maybe function online.

[Zeb The Troll]

What factotum said. They usually put your OEM key right on the Microsoft sticker on the case somewhere.

Also, and this depends on who made the computer and what's been done to it since, but many manufacturers put a small "Reset to Factory" partition on their hardrives and it then becomes more a matter of determining how to access it and set it to work.