Does reformatting a Hard Disk Drive clean it completely?

Asked By otis hartwell 40 points N/A Posted on - 04/22/2012

When viruses put themselves into the disk drive system, does reformatting the Hard Disk Drive remove all traces of the virus? This is with refernce to viruses which cannot be removed using Norton.

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Answered By Estillero State 5 points N/A #147472

Does reformatting a Hard Disk Drive clean it completely?

 

 

Hi Otis,

 

The answer for your question is a big YES. Viruses are computer programs so wiping the drive is the cheapest way to get rid of it. You just have to bear in mind that it is painful to reinstall your operating system and other software. Based on my personal experience,  this way is very effective way without spending a single penny on anti-virus software. What I did is, after installing the operating system and all other software that I need, I create an image of my system drive. This technique could be more effective if you put all your personal files on a different drive or partition. In such a way, you can restore the image without losing your files anytime. There are lots of tools available to create an image of your system. One is Norton Ghost.

 

I hope it helps.

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Answered By Mark Amna 5 points N/A #147473

Does reformatting a Hard Disk Drive clean it completely?

Hi!

Formatting the hard drive erases the entire drive and arranges it in a way that the operating system can recognize, if you're using windows that would most likely be NTFS. I would recommend formatting, and switching to FAT or FAT32. Die to the fact that formatting a drive in FAT or FAT32 will allow it to be read by other operating systems, such as Mac, Linux, Ubuntu, and older versions of Windows such as Windows 98.

Whenever your Operating system or Hard Disk is infected by viruses, formatting it is just a second or third option to fix it.

There are two options that you can practice whenever your System Unit is in danger:

1. Analyze carefuly if what are the programs that aren't working well. It may the DLL files is missing or removed from system32 folder. When encountering error messages, please take it note and search in the internet if it’s easy to fix.

2. If your PC is very slow to respond, please check your hard disk drive capacity, unorganized folders and files are easy for the virus to penetrate. Observe all files that you are downloading, some of it may carry viruses like Trojan horse.

In your case, the reason why the viruses are always coming back it is because that your backed up files was infected in virus or your Hard Drive disk is damaged.

 

I hoped this tips was helped.

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• Posted on - 04/22/2012
• Question Category: Peripherals