my poor laptop...

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my poor laptop got a virus. a really nasty one, so it seems. i don't know where it came from, but it kept freezing up the system. it wouldn't let us onto the internet, wouldn't let our security program load, and other stuff.

we managed to save all the files, and my husband tried to reformat the hard drive, but it says there is still something running and it won't let him do the reformat.

can anyone help or offer any suggestions?

Are you trying to reformat from a boot cd? You'll need to be starting from clean media to stop anything nasty loading.

no...he's just trying to reformat the hard drive.
(this all makes no sense to me, i'm pretty much computer illiterate...i'm just relaying the info...lol)

If you get everything up and running successfully, here is a link to try. They inform how to protect your computer in the first place, and set up some helpful programs to prevent viruses:

http://www.happyhacker.org/

They also tell you how to clean everything out of the computer, while in Safe Mode.

You can't format a hard disk when you're running the operating system from it. you need to boot off a cd and format it from there. But there are virus removal programs for specific viruses so you need to find out what virus you have.

how does one make a bood cd?
we have no idea what virus we have...is there a way to find out? it completely shut down our security system including the antivirus program...we cannot get into the internet because it has disabled the wireless system for the laptop.

You don't need to make a boot cd. You should just use the operating system cd that came with your computer. Don't worry about figuring out what virus you have if you don't know how.

there are online databases of virus that describe them: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/ if you're really curious.

okay, he said he actually was trying exactly that as i was yelling your response to him...lol
keep your fingers crossed that it works...

if he has the right CD, it will work. no crossing of the fingers needed.

Once you have your machine up and running you might want to try out "threatfire" there is a free version available here http://www.threatfire.com/

It can run side by side with your normal antivirus and works by detecting "suspicious" behaviour so can warn you of malicious activity even if your antivirus doesnt have a detection for it yet.

Good luck

there's a zillion anti-virus programs out there. I use Ad-aware, and Avast, both free. If you do a scan, they'll usually tell you the nature of the illness. Once you have a name, you can google it to find further information, such as how to get rid of it.

There used to be a site called 'computer cops', that was pretty helpful when I got hit with the 'cool web search' virus. I never managed to get rid of it (until I did a reformat), but I battled it into submission.

thank you alex and everyone else...it seems to have worked!
as soon as he gets everything else installed again, we will definately check out the sites you recommend...

thanks again!