Reformattig Question

[JOUPER]

If I Reformat My Computer By Hitting F10 Will It Erase Everything?Should I Stay Connected To The Internet Or Disconnect?I Did This Once Before And All My Pictures And Documents Remained Happily.Please Let Me Know!

 

[andysayshi]

Why do you need to "reformat"?

No offense, but your question implies you don't have a strong understanding of your computer. What exactly do you want to achieve? And what version of Windows are you using?

 

[AdmiraalW238]

Why do you need to "reformat"?

No offense, but your question implies you don't have a strong understanding of your computer. What exactly do you want to achieve? And what version of Windows are you using?

Re-formatting a computer should always be a last resort.

Exactly what is wrong with your computer that you feel warrants it being re-formatted? Perhaps it is something that we can assist you with, before the often unnecessary reformatting.

 

[JOUPER]

No I Don,t Know That Much About Computers.I Have Tried Everything,Ran Norton,SpySweeper And Adware Scans And I Can,t Remove A Trojan Horse.Also My HP Updates Are Not Working,What Else Can I Do?Please

 

[JOUPER]

Oh I Forgot My Computer Is HP XP

 

[AdmiraalW238]

How do you know you have a Trojan?

What Trojan do you think you have?

If Norton's did not fix the problem then there may be a specific fix that can be run for the specific trojan that you have.

More information is needed before we can offer a solution.

 

[JOUPER]

I Know It,s A Trojan,And I Know It,s Something "BTG",Big Top Games Download!

 

[Ron Apple]

If you got a Trojan then try get an anti-spyware, they seem to usually detect most trojans. Just try google for a freeware antispyware

 

[AdmiraalW238]

Try

Spybot Search and Destroy

or

Adaware

Suggest running adaware first followed by Spybot

 

[mike_n_herrin]

in general yes, "reformat" will erase everything on your computer. a "restore" or "repair" or "reinstall" probably will not erase everything though, so that maybe what you did before and not really a "reformat." it should not make any difference if you are connected to the internet or not.


i looked up BTG and that shows up as being a trogian, but i'm not sure if it's the same thing as "big top games" or not. it would seem from the letters it is, but big top games appears to be a bunch of computer games that you have to pay for.

let's try Spybot Search and Destroy to see if it can find it and eliminate it.

1. downlaod spybot: http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1
2. instructions on how to install and use it, but start after the point where it tells you to download spybot (since you did that in step 1 above): http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial43.html

 

[JOUPER]

I Ran The Scan And removed All But One Problem,Something Called "EVEREST POKER",Maybe a Game?The Real problem Is Something Has Disabled My HP Windows Updates And Won,t Allow Me To Change To Automatic Updates,What Should I Do?Back To My Previous Question If i Hit F10 And Do A Reformat Will I Be Able To Keep My Pics And Documents?AnyIs Greatly Appreciated!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

we might not have been clear and i'm sorry for that.

if you reformat, you will lose everything. your pictures, your documents, any program you have installed, you will lose everything.

give it a little more time for some more folks to reply again to see if we can figure out how to get your Window's updates to go automatically. in the mean time do you know you can go to window's web site and update manually?

http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

 

[AdmiraalW238]

I Ran The Scan And removed All But One Problem,Something Called "EVEREST POKER",Maybe a Game?The Real problem Is Something Has Disabled My HP Windows Updates And Won,t Allow Me To Change To Automatic Updates,What Should I Do?Back To My Previous Question If i Hit F10 And Do A Reformat Will I Be Able To Keep My Pics And Documents?AnyIs Greatly Appreciated!

There is one way to reenable AUTOMATIC UPDATES but it can be a tad complex to give a step by step as it involves accessing something call MMC...I have a document that I created to show how to do this at work so hold off on doing anything first until I can get access to the document and then I will PDF it and send you a PM for your email address so that I can email you the PDF.

It sounds as though something has been tagged in GROUP POLICIES to ENABLE disable automatic updates so the document I send (with a series of screen caps) will show you how you go about changing the setting to DISABLE disable automatic updates. I know that it may seem strange the way I have worded this but once you see the document and screen caps then you will understand.

Until then do not REFORMAT your computer as YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING.

 

[JOUPER]

Please,Someone Give Me A Solution Soon,My Computer Is Getting Worse And Slower All The Time.I Don,t Know How Much Longer I Will Be Able To Connect To The Internet

 

[AdmiraalW238]

Please,Someone Give Me A Solution Soon,My Computer Is Getting Worse And Slower All The Time.I Don,t Know How Much Longer I Will Be Able To Connect To The Internet

Youare obviously NOT reading the responses posted so far.

In my last post to this thread I said I would get the document I need from work and I will conact you via PM to get your email address so I can then send you the document that should assist you.

As it is the weekend I will not be going to work until MOnday so once I go to work I will get the document that I think will assist you and will contact you then.

If this is not suitable for you then let me know I am wasting my time.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Please,Someone Give Me A Solution Soon,My Computer Is Getting Worse And Slower All The Time.I Don,t Know How Much Longer I Will Be Able To Connect To The Internet

Jouper, i'm sorry you haven't really given us enough information for us to help you very much. You said you think the Trojan is BTG or big top games (you didn't say how you know this, such as what software is reporting that you have it). i said i couldn't find big top games as being a virus/trojan, but that BTG might be. I suggested spybot, which it sounds like you tried and ran, but then you said the only thing big that was wrong after that was HP wasn't updating. Now you are saying or computer is getting worse and slower. do you still have the Trojan?

I don't have an HP computer, I don't know what F10 will do on an HP computer. But if you REFORMAT you will Lose everything.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I was looking for more information on what you think is a trojan.

it looks like often the torjan hides in the system restore folder, which antivirus software i don't think touches. you could try turning off system restore, restarting your computer, then running the antivirus and antispyware software again to see if it still finds the trojan.

speaking of system restore (that a program within windows you don't have to use F10 or anything to use it) have you tried using system restore to see if that helps? how long have you had this problem with the computer? if you have not tried system restore why don't you try that first and see if that helps.

here is a link explaining how to use system restore print it out and follow it. you will be trying to restore the computer to a date before you starting noticing the problem, so don't just go to the day before, look for a day in BOLD that is before you started having the problem. : http://bertk.mvps.org/

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I've tried to find out what F10 does on an HP computer. It looks like it boots from the XP image on your hard drive. IF THAT IS TRUE, then you can print out the instructions at the following link and follow them to do a REPAIR of windows (and NOT a REFORMAT). But I don't think your problem is with windows, if you have a Trogan still, then I don't think a repair install will do anything. But you can try, if you are desperate. And if you tried the system restore idea i posted above.

Read the warnings on the page I'm linking to, then scroll down until you see "XP Repair Install" then print out and follow those instructions.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[JOUPER]

OK Guys This Is Everything I Know.2 Weeks Ago I Did A Norton Scan Which Found 'BTG"Download,I Searched The Internet and found Something About Some Dad Saying His Daughter Had This Problem When She Downloaded A "BIG TOP GAME"They Told Him To Search His Computer For It To Delete It Which I Did And Could Not Find It.Then I Did A SpySweeper Scan And It Said "TROJAN"Found,But Not Deleted.Then I Did The Above Scan And It Said It Removed All But One Thing"EVEREST POKER".I Have Nothing Like That.I Have Gotten Rid Of Everything Big Top Games And Scanned Them With Norton.I Believe I Said My Automatic Updates Is Disabled And I Tried System Restore Twice And It Said Can,t Restore Nothing New Added.My Computer Works Fine When I,m Logged Into My Email,I Belong To Many Yahoo Groups And I Can Download Movies And Music With No Problem,But When I Try To Use The Internet Is When I Have Problems.If I Click On Internet Explorer It Takes About 5 Times To Get That To Work And When I Do Get There If I Do A Billy Joel Search And I Try To Click On His "wikipedia" Some Scan Comes Up Saying I Need This Spyware,When I Finally Get Into "wikipedia" And I Click On Disography For Example I Get Disconnected,I Can,t Seem To Hold An Internet Connection.It Takes Me A Year And A Day To Get Here!Hope This Is Not Too Much Information.Thank You To Everyone Who Has Responded!!!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Lets try turning off system restore and then reboot and run the antivirus scan again and spyware scans.
here are instructions for turning off system restore.
"Steps to turn off System Restore
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the System Restore tab.
3. Click to select the Turn off System Restore check box. Or, click to select the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box.
4. Click OK.
5. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm that you want to turn off System Restore:
You have chosen to turn off System Restore. If you continue, all existing restore points will be deleted, and you will not be able to track or undo changes to your computer.
Do you want to turn off System Restore?"

After a few moments, the System Properties dialog box closes. Then shut down windows and restart. then run the anti virus scan and antispyware scans again

If Norton's put the virus in it's quarantine vault, you'll need to remove it from there. I don't know which version of Norton you have so try this link to follow the instructions of removing the virus for the version you have: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2000041213443506