virus and xp problems

my son's computer has become infected, i want to 'scrub' the hard drive and start anew, since i have no restore points available, also, can't get add/remove programs to work, have put in xp disk, but get to where to partition and then told not recommended to duplicate operating system, what do i need to do to just start from scratch?

 

Start by reading here:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

mickzer.

 

First make sure that you have the instal or restore disks and key code
If there is anything serious you have- data copy it to an external hard drive or back up onto dvd/ or cds
If you want to be really safe use norton ghost to backup the entire hard drive onto another hard drive or dvds

to install windows best to go from scratch
if you update the windows it causes nothing but trouble in xp
can wipe out your documents and desktop
seems sometimes to save old os - takes space

the steps are to be sure

1) format the hard drive
you can do this with a bootable windows 98 diskette ( if you have a diskette reader)

you can go to bootdisk.com to create a diskette or boot cd

Boot from that ( you may have to change boot order in the bios) to make the diskette or cd first order
at the worst choose to restore to factory defaults >ok > save

if not go to the manufacturer of the drive - maxtor , seagate, western digital and find a program to wipe out the hard drive
it will write 1 and 0s to the drive
It will take some time but you will be sure everything of that virus or spyware will be gone

if you cannot go to www.killdisk.com and download the free program
again it will take some time


then boot off of the install or restore cd
if it is not bootable there are links to msoft for a program from them to create bootable diskettes or a cd
Have fun
It never hurts to be oversafe