The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Help me reinstall windows after huge virus!

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by Yorkdale, Jun 21, 2012.

  1. Yorkdale

    Yorkdale Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I got a major virus on my computer. Afterwards, I keep on getting massive hard drive errors on my computer and a trojan appeared asking me to install this S.M.A.R.T virus. Basically I restored to factory settings and then then ran Dr.Web Cureit! to remove the Trojan. After restarting my computer, I couldn't log on anymore. Windows 7 Scan Disk doesn't work, I tried googling other options and they all failed.

    Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I should reinstall Windows completely. I have a m11xr2 that doesn't have an optical disk drive and I was wondering if it is completely necessary for me to buy an external USB optical disk drive in order to reformat Windows. Also, since I can't log into Windows right now, will this external disk drive even work without downloading the necessary drivers for me to use it?

    Any help would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks!
     
    Yorkdale, Jun 21, 2012
    #1
  2. deadboy90

    deadboy90 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    625
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    30
    well you can get external disk drives for 20-30 bucks and they do come in handy when you need them in situations like this so Id say get it. The other option is to take your windows install disk and make it into an ISO file on another computer, put it on a flash drive and install that way but its kind of a pain in the butt. Get the external drive.
     
    deadboy90, Jun 21, 2012
    #2
  3. ThatOldGuy

    ThatOldGuy Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,310
    Messages:
    2,454
    Likes Received:
    2,588
    Trophy Points:
    181
    The external disk drive will work if you use the usb 2.0 port on the left side
     
    ThatOldGuy, Jun 22, 2012
    #3
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

    Reputations:
    3,658
    Messages:
    6,874
    Likes Received:
    969
    Trophy Points:
    281
    You will need this to reinstall Windows and all the drivers.

    deadboy90 has a good point, you can create a bootable usb and boot from that and reinstall Windows, but I think that it is easier to use the external optical drive, if you need pricing information you can contact us on [email protected]
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Jun 22, 2012
    #4