Below is an outline of the steps you must follow to properly rebuild a computer running Microsoft Windows. If all of the steps are not followed properly, your computer will likely become infected again, forcing you to reformat the hard drive again.

1. Print out this page, if possible.
2. Back up all data you want to save. This includes MS Word documents, music files, photographs, etc. Remember, reformatting your hard drive will erase all data on your computer. If you don't back it up, you will lose it!
3. If you have a writable optical drive, download the files available on the updates page and burn them to a CD or DVD.
4. Unplug the network cable from the wall jack or your computer.
5. Reformat your hard drive and reinstall your operating system. The specific steps for completing this process will be unique to the brand and model of computer you own, and thus CUIT cannot provide assistance during this step.
6. When you have to set a password for the machine, do not leave this blank and do not use an easily guessable password. A secure password contains a combination of letters and numbers, and is important because many new worms can spread via Windows sharing if an account has a weak or nonexistent password. If it does not ask you to set a password, when the computer restarts, you will need to set passwords in the "User Accounts" control panel.

The remaining steps will vary depending on your system and circumstances:

Windows XP/2000 with a CD/DVD of the updates

Windows XP without a CD/DVD of the updates

Windows 2000 without a CD/DVD of the updates

To reach this page quickly in the future, use the keyword reformat.

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