Two hard drives in laptop, Can i format just one? (virus) - Saxperience

Paul^p · 25th November 2010, 23:29

Hi there,

Need abit of help from you computer geniuses. I've got a virus (trojan) or 5 on my laptop. I've got rid of a few, but theres one or two that norton antivirus can't get rid of. So i'm thinking of wiping the laptop and reinstalling windows.

Now. Heres the thing. I've got a shed load of pictures and images on my laptop that i dont want to lose. Currently i have two drives C:/ and D:/ (ACER and ACERDATA). Now i save all my images and files and music and whatever on the D:/ drive, and i save all my programs on the C:/ drive. Just to keep stuff organised more than anything.

Now i'm not sure if the laptop has actually got two hard drives or if its just 'partitioned'. But i'm thinking, if i right click just the C:/ and 'format' then it won't wipe D:/ and i can reinstall windows xp on C:/ maybe i'll be able to access D:/ that i have touched?

Or does it not work like that... ?
Reading that back it hardly makes sense :\

Sam^p · 25th November 2010, 23:33

From my limited knowledge of acer laptops im sure the D:// knly has 1gb of space. If youve got a few quid spare you could buy an external harddrive copy tot that and then re-install windows.

Paul^p · 25th November 2010, 23:35

C:/ and D:/ both have 53gb of space. I've already got all my pictures and stuff i dont want to lose on D:/.

I'm just wondering if i reinstall windows on the C:/ drive, will i lose all my stuff on D:/ ?

KamRacing · 25th November 2010, 23:41

install superantispyware, install spybot, and malwarbytes. Run all three one after the other. See if that does the job first. Otherwise I would be sorting and rar'ing all my personal files, move them onto a separate harddisk partition, harddisk or memory stick then do a clean install. Then when I move files back I can virus scan each before using them again..

KamRacing · 25th November 2010, 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

C:/ and D:/ both have 53gb of space. I've already got all my pictures and stuff i dont want to lose on D:/.

I'm just wondering if i reinstall windows on the C:/ drive, will i lose all my stuff on D:/ ?

no just select to format C when installing onto there.

Remember to back up your email and other less obvious software/data

Paul^p · 25th November 2010, 23:49

Thanks Kam