Q:
A: Before you decide to reformat your hard drive, make sure you back up any files that are absolutely important to you. Then insert your Windows XP disc in the drive. When the window pops up asking if you want to install Windows, just close it out and shut down your computer completely (do not restart) with the disc still in the drive. When you turn your computer back on, you should see a DOS prompt asking to boot from disc. Hit enter (or Y) for yes. At that point, you should see a blue screen that begins the Windows installation. During this time, you will be given the choice to delete the information on the current drive and reformat it. Go for the full reformat to make sure everything gets deleted. After the reformatting process is complete, Windows will re-install on your computer. Once that's done, and you're able to set up your user name then install your internet provider software first if necessary. You will need to install any software needed to be able to get onto the internet. Do not worry about installing other software because you will need to do the Windows updates first. After you install ALL the updates (and there will be a lot of them) then you can install all of the software that you once had on your system. But you definitely need to install an anti-virus software program on your system so that you won't have the virus problem again. All of this will take time, so you want to do this when you know you can be home for a few hours.