Virus after reformat

I reformatted and clean installed winxp but the memory resident bugs (many) are still on the system. I thought reformatting a HDD cleans it of viruses? Can someone enlighten me.

 

Formatting a partition does wipe out everything, however if you browse the internet without proper protection (AntiVirus Program, Firewall, etc; ) you can be re-infected.

If you are infected or think your infected please start by followowing ALL the steps in this Sticky thread
READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal


After doing ALL of the above if you still have a problem:

Make sure you have HijackThis 1.99.1 and follow the guidelines on where to install it and how to post a log as an ATTACHMENT.
All instructions are covered in the sticky thread NO HIJACK THIS LOG FILES BEFORE READING THIS: HJT Tutorial & LOG File Posting


Now post a Hijack This log as an ATTACHMENT to your message (Do NOT copy/paste the log into your post). Please close unnecessary running programs before you run HijackThis. You must close each of the following: your web browser, e-mail client, instant messenger, and programs like notepad, wordpad, MS Word etc.

DO NOT run Hijack This from the Desktop, a temp folder, or a sub-folder of C:\Documents and Settings, or choose to run it directly from the downloaded ZIP file. Place it in its own folder, for example C:\Program Files\HJT

 

i went on the web just to go to avg site download. That's all. But strange how it is the exact same virus that was there prior to reformatting. Don't you find this a bit suspicious. Incidence of infection is 14% low and it seemed to have come from kazza use by the owner of the machine. Can a virus that is memory resident possibly survive a reformat?

 

Depends, what is the exact name of the infection? Did you actually format or did you do a repair reinstall?

 

reformatted and clean install. Not a repair install. There is not just one virus after the reformat but several. The behaviour is the same as prior to the reformat. For eg....wont let me open taskmgr/regedit..etc. I renamed these but couldnt locate the virus. Worm Francette is one of them. Rootkit is another (a hidden file Im having trouble viewing). There are others. I can try another reformat but it has me curious now because I always thought formatting was cleaning.

 

Let me know what you decide to do so I will know whether to start the cleanup process. Be sure if possible to install Windows XP Service Pack 2 before getting on the internet after the format.

If you do not format let me know so we can start the cleanup.

Good Luck!

 

Well I got all these viruses after going to the avg site, so i was surprised, until i discovered that this xp os had never been updated. It was full of holes. So I guess that explains the coincidence of getting the same virsuses back again e.g. rootkit.H etc., cause of the IE vulnerabilities. But I didnt know all this before. So I reformatted, got disks for SP2, AVG, ZA, and now all's well.

 

Good Job!

To stay Malware free please see this thread on How to Protect yourself from malware!

Browse Safely!

 

I recall hearing that you should not have the comp hooked to the net while installing XP as you can get a virus while the install is incomplete (I think via XP messenger service). This came from someone who makes his living in comps ( it happened to him). I always turn that service off, just to be safe.

 

If your reinstalling WindowsXP you should NOT be connected to the internet. Its best to wait until you have Service Pack 2 loaded as well as AntiVirus and a Firewall.