Wiping up my mess, reformat questions.

[offcamber pdx]

I am seriously infected, and I see many here are. The procedure for cleaning all the nasty junk off seems pretty daunting, and I'm wondering if I should just start over since the helpers here are very swamped and may not be able to get to me for some time.

This site is awesome and the volunteers here are darn near saints for all they do, so this is not meant as criticism. It just appears that the bad guys have figured out all kinds of ways to prevent us from getting help, and I don't know if I can get through the process.


I have never reformated a hard drive or done a complete restore on a machine, so I need help figuring out how.

What are the essential files I need to save besides all my documents and work?
Are there any settings I need to save?
Should I use a backup program or just save what I can't replace to a cd or other media?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

[shelf life]

if you have a commercially purchased computer then your best bet would be to visit the manufacturers web site. Most maintain good tutorials and guides you can follow.

[drragostea]

Yes, shelf life is correct. In addition, if you have a external hard drive you might want to backup all your important documents, photos, and music. To me all of them are priceless. If not, you can burn all the ones that are irreplaceable on a CD so it'll be there forever. Also, a flash drive will do because you can easily extract and write data on it.

[Bithpq]

Just a thought.

I bought my computer and it came with programs that I couldn't reinstall because it didn't come with the disks. So if you are formatting be aware of this.

[offcamber pdx]

Ok, went looking for the OEM system recovery discs. Yep found them for every computer ever owned except the current on.:sad:

HP has a recovery CD creator program that will allow me to create a set from the system. Will they be corrupt and infect the system or will they be clean?

Not sure the machine even came with any discs except office suite.

[offcamber pdx]

Found this

NOTE: Most HP and Compaq desktop PCs that ship with Windows Vista and XP do not come with recovery discs. Instead, they use a partition on the hard drive. Using a hard drive partition provides a convenient, more stable recovery solution. To access a hard drive recovery, turn on the computer and repeatedly press F10 (XP) or F11 (Vista) until a Recovery window opens.

[drragostea]

Yes the recovery console (HP) should be like the System Recovery (reformat) function, like a Recovery disk for any other machine. This portion should be intact and reserved in another portion of the hard drive. So you can use the function anytime.

[offcamber pdx]

Helps to know, now I can get started.