Start over? Will it help?

Hi I have an Aptiva 2170-275. For about a month or two, I've been trying to spruce it up and are some traces of ****ware that remain. I been browsing through the registry and see hundreds of traces of malware. But I can't seem to completely get rid of everything so I'm considering a Windows re-Install. I still have my Red "Recovery" Disk. (I'll pull my data to another HD.)

Will the reformat/reinstallation reset:

Windows files?
(After years of what not, I see command.com and io.sys floating around...)
The registry?


(Yes I know installing updates and tweaking option will be a pain but this seems to be like the only way to get rid of the junk.)

 

When I was running Win98, I routinely reformatted/reinstalled about once a year, sometimes more often when I'd been trying out a lot of different freeware.

Formatting essentially wipes the harddrive clean so when you reinstall Windows, it's a completely new install...new registry, new system files. All programs and data will be lost, of course.

I'm not familiar with how Aptiva recovery/restore disks are set up. Some recovery disks just re-image the drive, with the end result basically the same thing as a reformat/reinstall, so reformating before running that type of recovery disk isn't necessary. Some require the data on a hidden partition on the drive to work, so re-partitioning and reformatting will render that type of recovery CD useless.

 

I haven't EVER reformatted my Aptiva and I used "Non-Destructive" recovery on my HP when a viruse deleted the Config folder. There is no hidden partition on the tiny 10GB hard drive. And the "Recovery" disc says that using it will "Result in loss of all data on the harddrive" which seems good. Not that i'd try to recover 5 years worth of trojans but could I use my copy of McAfee Shredder to make 10 erase passes on the whole HD by using it from a CD?

So i'm off to back everything up

(I wish OEM manufacturers would give out Windows discs to make this easier and to skip deleting OEM shovelware as recently, Microsoft charged more for the license if they included a OS CD.)