Anyone still running Windows 7?

Emily Sanchez12 said:Hi everyone!

I was wondering if I could get some advice or help from you all.

How much would you be willing to pay to have an entire computer wiped and just have Windows 7 reinstalled?

Larry Ortiz5 said:I ended up fixing the lady's computer myself because she honestly had no clue what she was doing—let alone how to navigate torrents, download Windows, burn it to a blank DVD, handle the installation, sort out drivers, run Windows updates, set up antivirus, and install all her software. It’s definitely not a simple task if you aren't tech-savvy.

ruggedfalcon62 said:Don't pay anyone a dime... just grab Windows 7 from a torrent site... find an activator there to get it running. You can wipe the entire drive using a DBAN tool launched via the BIOS... because when you upgrade Windows, the old files don't actually disappear; they just sit on the hard drive taking up space and slowing everything down. So, just wipe the drive and perform a fresh install of Windows 7. It's free.

Matthew Young35 said:Are you running the program from the BIOS?
Can't you just wipe the hard drive while you're reinstalling Windows?

ruggedfalcon62 said:...
When you format Windows, you aren't actually wiping the hard drive clean. It’s still there—just invisible, waiting to be overwritten by the new installation. Essentially, when you "delete" the old OS, you're just laying a new layer of Windows over the top of it. This raises a question: if the previous version of Windows was riddled with viruses, can those infections survive the format and migrate to the new setup?

Matthew Young35 said:🤦

Matthew Young35 said:🤦

Larry Ortiz5 said:If you just delete the partition and recreate it or run a format, that’s standard procedure when you're installing Windows. You’d only really bother running DBAN if you were selling the hard drive and were worried about someone using specialized software to scrape your private data..

ruggedfalcon62 said:I figured you'd just set the BIOS to boot from the DVD...
When you format Windows, it doesn't actually wipe the hard drive clean; the old data stays there, invisible, just waiting to be overwritten by the new installation... essentially, when you "erase" it via formatting, the old Windows isn't gone—it's just replaced. And if that old version had viruses, even after a format, they could potentially jump over to the new Windows. Usually, the more aggressive viruses...

ruggedfalcon62 said:Partitioning and formatting a drive aren't foolproof methods for completely wiping data either.

http://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity/tools-for-data-sanitization

Haha, what an amateur...

ruggedfalcon62 said:Hahahaha... *claps*

Please, don't tell anyone you work in IT... this is embarrassing..

ruggedfalcon62 said:But if you're dealing with a virus that survives a format, your only option is a tool that wipes the entire drive. What does that imply? It implies the virus is still lurking somewhere, naturally tucked away within that old formatted Windows installation. How is that possible when this high-level tech expert, Matthew Young35, claims formatting erases everything? It's simple logic. That old Windows—along with its resident virus—still exists in some sector of the hard drive. It wasn't erased. Whether partially or fully, it remains.

Matthew Young35 said:It’s not necessarily true that you don't know what you're talking about. It is entirely possible that the new Windows installation gets written directly onto the same physical sectors where your virus is currently hiding.

But honestly, that doesn't matter. If you're dealing with a heavy-duty virus that's inaccessible to the OS, it won't be able to launch itself once you've formatted, even if its files are technically still sitting on the disk. Don't be so sure, buddy.

Matthew Young35 said:It’s not necessarily true. It’s entirely possible that the new Windows installation gets written right onto the same physical sectors where that virus is hiding.

That doesn't really matter, though, because a virus that heavy wouldn't be able to access the OS or execute itself once you've formatted everything, regardless of whether it's still sitting on the disk.

ruggedfalcon62 said:Is it actually possible for a virus to hang around after you reformat the hard drive?

I’ve picked up rumors from a few different places suggesting that certain viruses, worms, or Trojans might actually persist on a hard drive even after a complete reformat. I just took over a machine running Windows 2000 that was absolutely crawling with over 1,000 viruses. Luckily, Norton Antivirus was able to clean, repair, or quarantine every single one of them. After reinstalling the software, the PC appears to be back to normal, and a deep, full system scan comes up completely clean.

It certainly can happen, though it really boils down to the specific type of infection you're dealing with. Some malware—admittedly rare, but they exist—can indeed survive a standard FDISK & FORMAT. You might find this discussion quite insightful:

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6132_102...he-hard-drive/

🤦

Matthew Young35 said:You don't even know how to post a link, you amateur.

"page not found"

ruggedfalcon62 said:http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6132_102...he-hard-drive/

Or just type it out if you actually know. Can any virus survive reformatting the hard drive? - CNET

☕

Larry Ortiz5 said:It’s just like when you have a USB drive filled with movies and you decide to format it; once it's done, do you honestly think those movie files are just sitting there waiting to be found? Please, let's be reasonable here—that's why they call it a "format." Once you wipe it, the data is gone, unless you hand it over to some high-end specialist with incredibly expensive forensic equipment...