Acer Laptop with Vista Premium Needs Formatting Due to Virus Infection

Hey People,

Alright Ive an Acer Extensa 5510 Laptop with some Core Two Duo CPU or other and 1 Gb Ram installed. I bought it new about 6 months ago at a bargain price as its already a little outdated. It came pre-installed with Vista Premium Edition and the Upgrade your Windows Vista Experiance DVD. Oh its all 32 bit.

Anyway,

Lastnight I clicked on a movie file which asked to install an active x component and thats when I started to have problems. Ive spent the whole damnd day trying to get rid of virus and have now decided to give up and format my HD. Vista is still operating at the moment and I hope to backup my essential documents and files onto the secondary partition on the hard drive, or the D drive as vista recognises it, before formatting the C drive and reinstalling vista.

Basically ive been messing around with PC's since 95 and whenever i got a virus i couldnt heal I would format C and then reinstall ensuring I have a cleas install.

However Ive never done this before with Vista and am unsure how it works on laptops !

SO

Will a NEW install of vista on the C drive still recognise my D drive partition !

As my laptop came with Vista Pre Installed will I need to buy a license to re-install Vista ?

If i need a license Can i Work Around it in some way on a laptop ?

These questions are just for starters . Once i start the format/installation process I guess I will be back for more help.

All assistance is of course valued and very musch appreciated.

H

Thanks Worm. Need 25 Gb Storage to backup my Secondary Partition. Whats a good option to do this ?.. Hmm 5 blank DVD's will add up to 23.5 Gb so i guess i could get rid of some stuff and just buy a cheep pack of DVDs out of the local TESCO. I think Ive jst answered my own question !

Tanks again anyway. OF to buy some DVD's for the moment.

Have you determined the name of the virus? Is smitfraudfix an option for removal? Might want to ask around for removal information before you reformatt unless you're determined to go that route.