Needing to fully clean out hard drive

Azura · 03 Sep 2012

Since around February this year I had gotten a couple viruses that just wouldn't go away. I had done a factory default restore at that time but the viruses had followed me. I had let it go for months and now I have around 10 to 11 viruses in my hard drive.. Yes, I'm not joking. They're deep in the installation files so I obviously can't just remove them. I have 3 Gateway Recovery Discs and I have no idea if there are also installation discs that I should have before I do this. The Gateway model I have (which is also the type for the discs) is Gateway NV59C.
Does anybody have advice, tips, etc. before I do this and know if I'm supposed to have installation discs as well as my 3 recovery discs? And if I should use all 3 or do I just need to use 1? Any help on this is appreciated.

Edit: It may be important to know that since February I have always gotten the "blue screen of death" and as the viruses multiplied so did the multiple blue screens and crashes before it starts up. Often it'll crash 3 times an average day when starting this up to use. Not sure if that's obvious or important to know.

ignatzatsonic · 03 Sep 2012

I have no experience with Gateway, but recovery disks are typically self-contained and do not require any other discs.

As far as I know, they should be numbered, and you would use them in sequence as asked to do by a series of prompts.

An alternative is to do a clean install from a burned disc made with a downloaded legit ISO file. Many here would advise you to do that instead.

But try the recovery disks and see what happens.

Your blue screens may not be fixed by the new installation at any rate.

rraod · 03 Sep 2012

This is remote chance that your recovery partition got infected with viruses. If you don't want to take any chances with the HDD, either get fresh recovery disks from another similar machine, or burn a fresh DVD from a reliable ISO image.

After taking a backup of your data, remove all partitions and freshly create new partitions during windows setup, install windows, connect to internet and update the OS using windows update, install a good AV program like MS security essentials, update AV program, scan the system completely, and also scan your backed up data before copying it back to your newly installed system.

Always keep the AV program up to date and do frequent scanning.

Layback Bear · 03 Sep 2012

If I may mention. We have a user problem. When you keep getting infected with that many infections something is wrong. It could be one thing or many things in combination.
1. Choice of anti virus program
2. Choice of firewall
3. User keeping things up to date and doing proper scans
4. Proper use of secondary security programs.
5. Not using u torrents or the like will keep you safer
6. Not using P2P will keep you safer
7. Choice of websites
8. Being careful of what is download and from where.
This list can go on for a long time but I think you all get by drift.
After getting this computer fixed some thought must be given to stopping it from happing again.
Azura if you need help with keeping your computer safer just ask. Their are many here that will help.