Reinstallation of the system

banderas1978

Hi,
The reinstallation of the system is not likely to remove a virus. I wonder why as it does wipe up everything so the virus should go too. What are the chances of the reinstallation removing the virus?

Thanks,
Banderas

ivlatt

Chances are it probably will remove it
It is only viruses that affect the Master Boot Record (pre OS boot) that are difficult to remove, as they are instantly reloaded to memory even with a format.
(i think)?

wedge1988

Chances are it probably will remove it
It is only viruses that affect the Master Boot Record (pre OS boot) that are difficult to remove, as they are instantly reloaded to memory even with a format.
(i think)?

yes i think thats a good answer, you cannot delete a virus from a master boot record by formatting the hard drive using normal formatting techniques.

To remove viruses from MBR and to re-write sectors to the disk to help "dodge" bad sectors you can do a Low-level format which is essentially what manufacturers do to modern hard disks. (i believe they never used to originally and you had to do it yourself because of poor platter / read head movement which caused data corruption) LOL.

go take a read, wikipedia has some useful info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_formatting

banderas1978

Thank you, Ivlat and Wedge, brilliant answers!