I have an older DELL that was used in a school and they had W98 loaded, I have since contracted a nasty virus that I cannot get rid of and want to format the hard drive and wall off the virus if possible and reload with Windows ME, is is possible to do this and how would I go about it? Thanks in advance!

Formatting the drive will remove all data (including viruses).

Then install ME.

If you are looking for a formatting tool GParted is free and good:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

I do not recommend partition or format tools that FDISK
Depending the virus, this can be resident in the MBR (Master Boot Record)
To COMPLETELY erase any virus you have to boot with a boot disk... destroy the partition with fdisk (I don't create it again... wait) then boot again with the boot disk... type "fdisk /mbr"... then remake the partition with fdisk as always.
Then install windows normally.
I don't recommend win ME (ME it's even worst that 98 )... go for win2000.

I cant agree more. I just got ME and it sucks... Literally. Nothing but problems and it has only been installed for a few minutes =)

I'll just sidle in here with a couple of points/observations/opinions.

If there is indeed a boot sector virus on the drive, it's best to "stomp" on the drive and recreate new partitions as required. I'm not one to counter jephree's direction, but if there's no "data-retention" reason to keep the existing hard disk architecture, and you want a fresh/clean environment, stomp on it and re-create it for a new O/S load. FDISK should handle this task fine. Then you know you're starting with a clean disk.

I also agree that ME isn't a more desirable O/S. Depending on the machine/hardware, I would go with 98SE or Windows 2000 Professional before ME. ME was a "stepping stone", going from the workings of FAT32 towards NTFS. A "hybrid" if you will. Windows 2000 came out shortly thereafter and is much better in regards to file system security etc.

So given your hardware (which wasn't stated other than "older DELL" with 98 ) stick with 98SE or venture into W2K Pro.

Good to see you back Dan! :wave:

I assumed Formatting" would "stomp" the drive although I've never heard that terminology before.

Learned something new! :agree:

Good to be back. (Heh, "Stomping" :yippee: on a drive is my terminolgy.)

A format will only "mark" (rewrite) the FAT (both File Allocation Tables) as being clear, ready to receive data. (ie; showing all sectors as free for use.) It only changes the first character in a file to $ which signifies a "deleted" or "removed" file. The rest of the data is still there, until that space (which is marked as free space but still has data there) is overwritten. The boot sector of the disk is untouched.

Repartitioning will remove the partition information and rewrite the boot sector area (MBR) of the disk, which is sufficient to remove any boot sector virus's. Again, the data areas still contain data however, until those areas are overwritten with new data. These two measures (repartitioning/formatting) are usually sufficient to "clear a drive" of any harmfull pests.

Only a "Wipe" or "zero-fill" utility will "clear" them (usually by writing zeros (or dollar signs) to the entire disk/partition). That's why these utilities take significantly longer to complete than a format.