Chat Place Forum

I have a virus on my computer that screws up my search engines and doesn't allow me to get into gmail. I've tried everything and all the scanners to get rid of it and I thought I would reinstall windows. Will I lose all my documents and pictures if I do that? Do I need to back up everything and then reinstall?

yes everything

yuppers, back it up, and then reinstall. just make sure you dont back up the virus too.

u can move what ever u have on the drive which u wanna format ....
n then format the same ...
yes ...ur documents & pictures will be removed ..if u wont move them from there original place..

of course it will u need 2 backup them eg flash disk or CDs

No, it will ask you at some point if you want to format your drive. Just say no.

You can always put your documents on a cd or flash drive or create a gmail drive and put them there

Yes, everything will be wiped so you should back up your important docs, email addresses, photos, etc. Be careful because the virus might be copied to your backup...

Make sure you have the license keys for all the programs you need to reinstall or it'll cost you.

Good luck!

if you reinstall as is, you will lose everything except programs.

if you do a back up you are saving the virus in the back up.

you need to get a USB pin drive and save all the documents and pictures to it, them disconnect it from the computer and set aside.

reinstall windows with antivirus and all updates until complete..

once done, activate your antivirus to check new devices on computer.

attach your USD drive or external hard drive and do not open. if your antivirus does not kick in to scan new hardware, go to computer, right click on hard drive or usb and initiate scan.

if there are viruse on your pictures and documents it will identify, clean or delete,... this way you do not lose everything.

Put your documents in D or E or other disk, reinstall system in disk C, they wouldn't erase.

If you choose the option to format the hard drive (which is usually the best way to go) then yes, you will loose everything. If you choose the option to Not Repair, then it will erase your c:\winnt or C:\windows folder but leave everything else intact. So when you pop in your CD, choose the option to Not Repair and go that route.

you should back up the documents then install windows and run an anti virus on the documents to make sure you did not back up the virus as well

however if you did that you might as well consider those documents lost

You can re install windows. But it wont really get rid of anything. You have to re format your hard drive. Plus you do want to back up everything you want to keep. But if the virus is in that certain folder you want to back up it will just come back on your pc once you put your files back on. Burn your files to a disc or a flash drive or extrernal hard drive or something of that sort and you'll be ok.

In your case, reinstalling Windows means that you must format C: (as default system partition) so the best is that you move your documents that are in C: to another partition that you haven't to format.

P.S. : The risk in your case is that the virus hides in the other partitions but C: , so you can face the case that you reinstall the system and at last the virus jumps again from other partitions to the new system.
So the best to do is that you move your documents to some amovible disks and format the whole PC than reinstall.
You must disinfect amovible disks at somebdy's PC with antivirus before putin' them back to yours.

Good luck ;)

go to C:\Document and Settings -> copy and paste to other drive (eg. D drive) then just reformat it..
Content provided by Yahoo Answers.