Computer help, please before I break the motherfucker

[Bishop]

I got a nasty virus I just can't get rid of. I'm posting this after a barebones install of W2K. I need to reformat my C: drive, my main hard drive. But it won't let me from the command prompt. It says this: Format can not run because the volume is in use by another process. Format may run is this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? <Y/N> I push Y, Enter and get Can not lock the drive, the volume is still in use.

And it returns me to the command prompt. I can't get the damn thing to format, I forgot how. I have a W2K CD, but no boot disk. How do I get the C: drive to format itself? Is there a way to get to the command prompt /before/ the damn thing boots up all the way so I can format it? I don't remember. Thank you in advance.

[UG]

If you change the BIOS settings to boot from CD first, you should be able to get the install disk to format the drive.

[TheScamp]

That was me, btw.

[Buzzed]

And someone said masterbation was safe sex. Ha! Who would have thought that you could catch a virus from that too?

[Bishop]

How, Scamp? I tried that, I couldn't figure it out. It gave me a choice to delete a partition, I tried that, as well, I hit the "l" button to delete the partition, but it did nothing. Not a damn thing.

[TheScamp]

Do you only have the one partition on the drive?

[Salvation122]

The Ultimate Boot Disk owns you.

[Raygun]

Unless you're using NTFS (NT4, Win2K, WINXP). In that case, it appears that UBD and a nickel will get you a nice cup of jack squat.

Honestly, you probably don't need to format, and you certainly don't need to delete any partitions. Formatting is kind of the broadsword approach to getting rid of viruses. First, are you sure you have a virus? If you are sure, which virus is it and what files are infected? If you know which virus you have, it's usually not too difficult to get rid of it.

But if you still want to format, here's a link to using the 2000 recovery console to do it. How To Use the Recovery Console to Format a Hard Disk in Windows 2000

[Salvation122]

Unless you're using NTFS (NT4, Win2K, WINXP). In that case, it appears that UBD and a nickel will get you a nice cup of jack squat.

Oh. Well, that sucks. Haven't needed to use it since I got my laptop, so I didn't know. Interesting.

[Bishop]

I got it fingered out. And it turns out I had like 4 viruses, of varying names and configurations. The main one was I believe "worm.bagle.ah" or some such. Nasty little motherfucker.

[Raygun]

Glad to hear you got it figured out. In the future, you can download virus removal tools from Symantec's website. As long as you have access to the Internet, anyway.

[lorg]

If one should be technical here Bagle ain't a virus, its a worm. There is a difference, not that it matters much since both sucks but still.

[Bishop]

I usually use Housecall.

[Bishop]

So...no more virus. Format C: drive. Install Win2K. Run windows update, download all the service packs and driver updates, yada yada yada. And have your machine lock up randomly, for no discernible reason whatsoever. It seems to be ok for now, but as soon as I try to install America's Army, it locks up. Every time. It's a game I've been playing for quie some time now, so I don't /think/ it's the program itself. A friend of mine seems to think it's a hardware issue. Sometimes, I hate computers.

[Subversive Agent]

Were you running W2K before? You'll have fewer compatibility issues with XP home/Pro

[Buzzed]

Sounds like a hardware issue indeed, particularly memory. Lock ups during installs is a common symptom of incompatable, overclocked, or failing memory. Did you recently upgrade your RAM?

[Bishop]

No, I haven't recently upgraded or changed /anything/ hardware wise. But I did have a bad stick of RAM. I think I might have to chuck one of the harddrives, as well. I hope it isn't the processor, that's an expensive motherfucker. At least on my budget now a days.

[Bishop]

Update: I think it might be an overheating issue. No, nothing's overclocked. Yes, all the fans are working. Kinda. The one in the back of the box, I have to kind of jumpstart by getting it to spin when I boot the computer up. And my hard drives are real hot, as is the video card. Should I replace the back cooling fan?

[TheScamp]

I'd definitely replace the cooling fan. You can also get fans that fit into a slot that would normally hold a CD drive, if you have any of those slots free on your computer. That could help with some airflow into the case.