Maybe someone can help...

If I am posting in inappropriate forum - please cut me some slack, it is my first post...

Here is the problem: I got a Trojan Page dialer. The symptoms - I was getting a message from Windows that se.dll in \LocalSettings\Temp could not be accessed.
Sure enough, it was there, and it was not invited there. NortonAntivirus identified it, but could not delete it. After logging in SafeMode I manually deleted it.

After that, I had a funny system behaviour - I was getting messages (grey panel) addressed to "THE INFECTED" or to "AOL USER" telling me how many problems I have on my computer and advising me to go to some websites in order to fix the problem, or telling me about imminent system crash.
Of course I haven't done any of this.

Norton Antivirus was showing the system clean (after I deleted se.dll), ADware and SpyBot also indicated all is OK. I guess I got nervous and tried to reformat the C:\ drive and make a clean install (which I periodically do anyway).
Unfortunately, re-formatting of the C:\drive was impossible (the message was that some program has exclusive use of the drive).

Which prompted me to re-install Windows...
Stupid me, I haven't uninstalled Norton Antivirus, and after system re-installation it stopped working.
I tried to re-install it - but it would not work. When the installation gets to "Publishing product information" it tells me that it encountered a problem and cancels the installation.
OK, so I tried to install MacAfee. During the installation MacAfee tells me that Symantec is blocking the script.

The end result:
1) Can't re-format the hard drive
2) Can't install any antivirus software

Question:
1) How do I get rid of any trace of NortonAntivirus ?
2) Is there any way to reformat the C:\ drive and start from the beginning ?

I am leaning toward junking the drive, buying a new one and installing the system on a clean drive.
And BTW from now on no Norton: PC-cillin probably - any comments ?

It was a bit long, but there you have it. I am not terribly smart when it comes to computers (but I can tell you a lot about structural analysis of aircraft, crack propagation, FEM analysis, etc. - none of which helps me here unfortunately...)

Thanks for any help

 

Thanks !
I managed to fix it w/o re-formatting the drive.
Norton still does not install, but I downloded the trial version of ZoneAlarm and due to jont efforts of ZoneAlarm, SpywareBlaster, SpyBot, CCleaner and Ad-Aware the comp appears to be clean.
No more grey pop-up messages, the scan shows all green.

Thanks again !
As a side issue: ZoneAlarm is such a relief after Norton !
Easy to use, does the job, firewall is up and running.
Norton firewall (although I have no doubt that it was up to the job) was so difficult to use that I had to stop using it in the end.
I was setting it up with AOL TechSupport at the other end of the phone and it still didn't work properly (or rather it worked too well). Symantec TechSupport was of no much help either. They were blaming AOL, AOL was saying it is Norton etc. etc.

I am buying ZineAlarm.
The only problem being that I do not seem to be able to post this reply with all the security up: the web site repeatedly informs me that I am not logged in, so I turned off the ZoneAlarm for a sec

 

And I managed to post this reply with the privacy settings in ZoneAlarm way down, so I actually did not have to turn it off.

 

Thanks, will try it !
Currently I have ZoneAlarm on one comp and PC-cillin on the other. No prob.