Don´t let it confuse you take it slowly if you change your HD it will be as you had it when you bought it clean and fresh (if you don´t have any problems with any other hard ware and problem is the virus)it is definitely worth a try a HD is very reasonable today for you for the INTERNET and writing it is not necessary to have a big and expensive one i can´t see that anything will install your broadband when a file is damaged by the virus when it is damaged it has to be repaired or renewed first hope this helps you further.
Fred

Hi Foxy,

Have you tried Panda antivirus, I find it is very good and picks up quite a bit that avg and other programmes don't.

If you enter panda antivirus into your search you should get it. It is completely free, and if it does find anything nast or suspicious it sends the details to panda labs who work on it and tell you how to destroy it if possible.

It might be an option before purchasing a new hard drive.

Ian

Hiya Fred, yet another little question for you (bet you will be glad when you start your diving job so you can get away from me won't you )

I am going to try to persuade O/h that we should have a new PC because even if we get another hardrive that might not solve the problem and at least we know that a new pc will work. I think my son has mucked this one up because he is always messing around and downloading stupid things and he has downloaded that Msn messager 7 that somebody said messed their computer up.

What I am thinking is if we get a new one (lots of creeping will be required here I think ) and my son has this one upstairs in his room and messes it up to his hearts content. If we got a wireless router do you think we might be able to get broadband on it this way after connecting the new computer up to broadband?

Also we wouldn't need a terribley expensive one would we because we only really use it for the internet and photos etc.

Just have to convince o/h now to part with those moths in his wallet

Wished I lived nearer you, I could have come and sorted it out no problem, Oh well! your plan with O/H might work

Ian

Aww thanks Ian you are a treasure

It is nearly 3 years old now and has had a lot of use so maybe its just knackered and is ready to go to that computer place in the sky

Don't know whether my plan with o/h will work especially with him just buying the laptop the other week I will just have to tell him it will take about £600 to fix so we may as well go for a new one

Hey Foxy - this is what I've done. Got the big PC connected via broadband and the laptop plus wireless router. We didn't get a built in card though, we got a removable one. It seems to be working out okay but I had an awful lot of trouble getting it to work in the first place. It all came down to turning off firewalls in the end. I thought it was luxury being able to use the laptop in the garden - but that's when the thunderfly problem started.

3 years really isn't that bad...I think it's a shame to just bin it and get a new one.

Also if you get a new hard drive it wont make it exactly as it was when you bought it, it will be a blank canvas (nothing on it) until you reinstall everything like your operating system etc etc...The disks that came with the 3yr old PC might not allow you to install from them on a different PC as they were intended for the one you have. Of course you will be fine if you have a 'windows' disk to instal but if you have disks that came as a bundle for that particular PC there can be issues...

Sorry Fred but formatting a PC is the cheapest and easiest way to wipe everything clean and start over...I have done it loads of times it it works everytime, never has damaged my hard drive and I have always been able to start over like nothing happened.

Foxy just needs to see if she has any of the user manulas that came with the PC for instructions and then needs to find all disks that came with it They should always be kept in a safe place when you get a new computer...If you haven't kept them, then make sure whatever you do, when you get a new one next time, keep all the original instalation disks and books that come with it. Tell us if you can find these manuals and disks ok.

The thing is if you fork out for a new hard drive you may still find that the BB doesn't work anyway as it may be some other issue...at least if you wipe the hard drive you have and then instal BB if you find it's still a no go then you've wasted no money.

Have you checked that this PC has enough memory and processor speed to work with BB etc??...What are the specs??

If it is all to stressful though and you have money to spend I guess a complete new one is easy, but it would be a shame to waste the one you have.

And to see if you have any viruses right now you can download a free trial antivirus programe from microsofts website

Look here, http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...s/default.mspx

You will see Mcafee, Symantic, Trend Micro etc...Some with up to a year free trial For me the easiest and best to use has been Panda (it comes with it's own firewall protection which works much better than windows own) you can download for free for 90 days

Even if you end up with a new PC it is a good idea to go here to get an antivirus trial from one of the companies as you can then see if you like it before you pay for it

i was trying not to confuse Foxy but trying to help her and as formating goes it doesnt delete all the data from your hard drive as you should know
First of all, you should have a reason if you really want to learn how to format a hard drive. But don't forget that formating a hard drive does NOT permanently delete your data!

Of course, when you format your hard drive you think that the data is really deleted, but that is not the case.

The fact is that the data you have "deleted" can be restored. Nonetheless, you should not experiment with formatting a hard drive because you never know what may happen. Of course, it also depends on the software you use, for example, there are such products that will permanently delete the data you want and then you can continue the process of how to format a hard drive.