What should I do? (reformatting)

[flipflop09999]

Ok, so, my PC is getting quite laggy, slow, and definatley has many viruses, so I'd like to get a fresh start. The only problem is that I have some media(music) that may not have been retreived from the most reliable of sources (Who hasnt used it?). Normally, Id just create a new partition and move the files there, but im afraid that'd be all this transferring one virus from one partition to another, and the whole thing a waste of time. So, Im at the point where re-downloading all the music would take forever, and even if I did, I would get the same issues. Also, I have COD4 on my computer now, and I cant find the disk. Id transfer that to another partition/ flash drive, but im afraid something might not work because of regristry or whatever. Also, once I have all this sorted out, Id like to keep my computer that way. And, in the past, Ive had Anti-Virus programs be viruses themselves. So I'd like to test it out before i do a wipe. And whats the best way to preform one?

Also, on a side note, I have a recovery drive pre-installed by the company, should i wipe this too?

One more question: My brother said that sometimes just reformatting a drive isnt enough, and caches/ junk/ spyware could hide in other places, so, what would i do about this.

FYI
(Ive reformatted a few times before)

 

[Rishwin]

1. I have over 72GB of pirated music, i have NEVER seen a music file turn into a virus. I do not even think it's possible. Just chill and copy your music but make sure it is only the .mp3 files cos copying over other random files that came with them COULD have viruses. I suggest using something like iTunes to consolidate the library itself and that way you can just copy all of it over without a worry.

2. Yea umm i would not suggest or recommend copying over just the COD4 program files, there is a very good chance it will not work or it'll be buggy. Just download it i suppose lol or find/re-buy the Disk.

3. What anti-virus have you been using? AVG 8 for viruses and Spybot S&D for Spyware. I can guarantee you neither of those have viruses and they are the best at what they do. And they are free.

4. Well the recovery ghost images are there to save you time by just re-ghosting back to factory settings instead of reformatting... you d not need to do all the re-activation crap cos you're not re-installing windows, and it takes about 1/4 the time. But it may come with 2rd party programs which may be dodgy. I would recommend wiping the recovery partition and making your own with your own image of a clean installation once you're re-installed Windows.

5. No, formatting the drive is all you need to do. System Cache and RAM is volatile which means that they are unable to hold any data while the computer is not turned on, so just rebooting the system clears them of any data. No viruses can sneak their way back in the cache or RAM.

 

[flipflop09999]

thanks, that was very helpful.