viruses

[Vainix]

Hey, my friend got a lot of viruses on his computer, he doesn’t care about any file on the computer. I was thinking to plug in a usb stick and reinstall windows. How do i delete the old data ?

[Eigenvektor]

The Windows installer should let you remove/format the partitions, which should get rid of all data.

[minibois]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

The Windows installer should let you remove/format the partitions, which should get rid of all data.

Correct.

You can format before installing even.

[Vainix]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

The Windows installer should let you remove/format the partitions, which should get rid of all data.

Do i just delete every partition?

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Vainix said:

Do i just delete every partition?

Unless you know exactly which partition(s) the virus resides on, yes. I would delete all partitions and simply tell Windows to install to that disk. It will then create new partitions as needed.

[Vainix]

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Unless you know exactly which partition(s) the virus resides on, yes. I would delete all partitions and simply tell Windows to install to that disk. It will then create new partitions as needed.

What’s the difference between the usb windows media and resetting it straight from windows 10? 

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Vainix said:

What’s the difference between the usb windows media and resetting it straight from windows 10? 

That will reset settings to default and remove user files, but it will not format the drive, so there's a good chance the viruses will survive that, because Windows itself will not be removed or reinstalled.

[Vainix]

4 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

That will reset settings to default and remove user files, but it will not format the drive, so there's a good chance the viruses will survive that, because Windows itself will not be removed or reinstalled.

Ah ok thank you so much