My computer is infected

I'm going to install Win7, so I'll FDisk, I'm not too concerned about the malware.

My computer's wireless is a little bit temperamental to start with. It's always been like this. In XP I can reset the connection and have it work for 1-30 seconds. 5 min max. It works perfectly in Linux/Mandriva.

Question 1: If I have 2 hard drives in my computer, do I only FDisk the one with Windows?

Question 2: What is a decent AV program that doesn't need internet to install?

I'm behind a hardware firewall, but I'd like to have everything ready for Win7. I'm not planning on being able to find a good network card driver, since I'm using the manufacturer's now.

Assuming I am understanding your post correctly, it sounds like maybe your drivers are either out-of-date, installed incorrectly, or just plain messed up. I would recommend some driver support, but you're planning on reformatting anyways.

To answer your questions:

1. You would repartition both drives; one of them is probably an untouched factory recovery HDD (random guess right there). If I was you, I would nuke both of them with DBAN and not worry about any of that.

2. In your case, I think Malwarebyte would be my recommendation, but you need the internet to download it in the first place. I was told by a family friend who is an IT Security Administrator that Kaspersky is awesome, and as far as I know you don't need to have an active internet connection to install it. Obviously to update it, but if you're not going to be on the internet I don't see the point in AV software anyways.

Hope that helped you in anyway.

I'm not sweating the drivers since Mandriva works smoothly. They are the only drivers I've found by the manufacturer. I was just bringing that up to explain why I don't really have internet for XP.

The XP hard drive doesn't have permission to write to the Mandriva hard drive, so I guess that question 1 is pretty much answered.

I run almost all my media, torrents, and games on XP. There's a lot files that come in, so that's why I wanted the AV. I like my computer to be fast/healthy.

I'm still up for any AV recommendations though!

maug wrote: I'm not sweating the drivers since Mandriva works smoothly. They are the only drivers I've found by the manufacturer. I was just bringing that up to explain why I don't really have internet for XP.

The XP hard drive doesn't have permission to write to the Mandriva hard drive, so I guess that question 1 is pretty much answered.

I run almost all my media, torrents, and games on XP. There's a lot files that come in, so that's why I wanted the AV. I like my computer to be fast/healthy.

I'm still up for any AV recommendations though!

I personally favor ESET NOD32 Smart Security as my AV solution. It's both light and powerful and has several useful functions. It alerts me of malicious ads and scripts that attempt to run in the background of my browser and terminates that connection. The only time I dislike NOD32 is when I'm downloading "Hack Tools", It prevents the download from completing and terminates my connection without my say. Due to its light usage of processing power, it is essential for media and gaming oriented users. Also, I've installed it many times and am positive it does not require an internet connection for installation.

I have also used Kaspersky in the past. It is also a very good AV but much more resource intensive. There are many debates on which is better all over the net. :happy:

Nod32 and Kaperskys is a good choice for antivirus.

If you think you have a malware infection though Id run malwarebytes then Asquared(in that order there both free). That should help clear everything up. And speed everything up. If your infected.