Upgrading my HDD because of virus

[pineneddle]

Hello,
Recently my pc has slowed down due to being 3 years old and most likely a few little virus' mixed with being clogged up. I dont want to replace my pc because my hardware is new and I built it myself not too long ago. It is to my understanding that when you get a virus or your computer slows down that it would be mostly a HDD problem. Is this true? and if so then could I not just go buy a new $150 HDD and reboot my computer? Being 15 the only information on my computer is my Games (WoW, GW2, ect.) nothing to important that i cant just redownload, And a couple picture that I could easily move to an external drive because the computer is still working fine. Keep in mind this is a $1100 gaming computer so it did cost me quite a bit of my own money. To sum it all up, If my computer is slowing down is it possible to just throw away the HDD and buy a fresh one. Then reboot windows on that and problem solved?

thank you to anyone that can help

 

[ss202sl]

A virus is not really a hardware issue. Replacing you HDD will get rid of the virus along with $150 of your money. You could easily just re-install windows(formatting your existing drive) and this will get rid of any virus.

 

[Dr_JRE]

What have you done to try and solve this problem? What do you currently have in this computer? what kind of hard drive? how many partitions?

My immediate reaction when seeing this thread was that you are throwing money at a problem to make it go away. Then again it could be that the hard drive worked for you originally when you built the system but Windows has a lot more going on in its head now than it did a few years ago so the drive might not have been fast enough to begin with.

I'm more inclined to look at how the system is currently running. A good format and re-install might do a world of good.

Then again I see the mistake made in homebrew systems often where everything is great except they went cheap on the hard drive.

 

[pineneddle]

Hm well im not exactly sure what the speed of the hdd is but I just wanted to know if there is a way to completely wipe the drive like completely! making it run like new or atleast faster. I figured that virus' dont directly effect hardware so everything else is fine, I just know that computers start to slow down after 2 years or so and wondered if wiping the HDD would fix it

 

[yoji]

Can you clarify.... "Recently my pc has slowed down due to being 3 years old " Vs "I dont want to replace my pc because my hardware is new"
So which is it?

If you threw an old HDD into a new PC without a clean windows install - that may not help... but in general.. your HDD will not slow down.
Your windows install may get full of crap... esp if you install.. uninstall lots of stuff all th etime and dont maintain your PC well (in terms of keeping it tidy and organised).. but thats not a HDD issue - its a "you" issue.

So as others have said... a clean reinstall of windows should bring your PC to exactly how fast it was when you got it.. as others have said.. when you patch it back to "current".. you may see it slow a bit... and then if you load it up with crap.. and let lots of processes start with windows and start clogging it all up again - it will start to slow down again further.

But if its 3 years old... a clean reinstall... patch to current... put your stuff back... should still help a fair bit.

Cheers

 

[Dr_JRE]

Lets see if you see to spend any money, likely not.

right click on computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Disk Drives What model is your hard drive?

Want to just format and re-install?

Insert your windows disk, boot the computer
(you may need to change BIOS Setup options and change the boot device priority so it checks the CD first before trying to boot from hard disk)
Install windows. once presented the opportunity of where to install to, click the advanced link, delete all the partitions, click the now unallocated space and click format. you can now cleanly install windows on a wiped drive.

 

[pineneddle]

I try not to download alot of *** that slows it down like programs that load at start, skype, spotify, and all that crap. I mostly just game and look on facebook with this haha i keep it nice. Well I have a i5 2500k @ 3.8ghz and my motherboard is a gigabyte z68 ud3h-b3 which are components that I dont really want to get rid of just yet. So all I have to do is change the bios to read the disk first then delete partitions (which sounds like the current windows OS installed) and then reinstall windows again. thanks for the help

 

[ss202sl]

Yes. Boot to the disk, install windows, and delete the partitions when it asks where to install.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Download the free Bit Defender and use the 30 Day Free Trial.

http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/total-security.html

Or try these tools

http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Downloads/browseFreeRemovalTool/

After its clean, pick a Internet Security Suite (AV, malware and firewall) and use it.