My computer has been totally anhiliated by viruses and adware. I decided I would just go ahead and reformat. The only problem is my computer wont let me. When I try, it loads the reformat program (prompted by restart upon insertion of the disc), but then says it cannot read my disc drive. I know the discs are in perfect condition, the only time theyre out of their case is when I reformat which Ive done two or three times. Is is possible it is a virus that is tweaking my computer out and not preventing me from reformating my hard drive? If so, what would be the best way to fix it? Norton says I have a virus or a few, but it cannot do anything about em... Any suggestions would be much appreciated,

Ok first thing is, I know you do not know your disc is in perfect condition, simply by your reason given. If you knew your disc was perfect condition you'd have run a test at the time you did the reformat proving to yourself that it was and not merely assuming it was from past usage. That being done, you can try another disc to see if your CD reader is still working. After that you could try to shut down all unnecesary programs or services and try the disc again.

http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/InstallXPHome/installxphome1.htm Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

Go here and download CLEARHDD.EXE: http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/Download/software/ Clearhdd is a tiny program (11k) that is low-level and will totally clear your HD of EVERYTHING - data, partitions, logical drives, extended partitions, nothing escapes it and it does not work through Windows so nothing can stop it. Drag and drop it onto a floppy boot disk. Insert your disk, reboot. Type at the A prompt: clearhdd.exe 0 (remember space after .exe) and hit return; it will ask you two (2) times if you really want to do this, hit Y two times. Now your disk is 100% clean of everything, guaranteed. Reset your main partition, format and reinstall Windows using your CD. NOW use fdisk to set your Primary, Active partition (in this case, your entire disk); do not format this partition. Insert your XP installation disk in the CDROM. Reboot the computer. It will ask you if you want to start with CDROM support, say Yes. Say yes to large disk support. After it finishes loading the generic ROM drivers, at the DOS prompt switch to your CDROM drive letter, and type SETUP.exe XP should fire up and start the install process. Now you can format your primary partition with NTFS, and install XP. You can also use the XP CDROM disk directly to boot and not have to use the WIN98 floppy to set your partition, but sometimes folks have trouble getting the computer to see the ROM, and in some BIOSs you must set the CDROM to First Boot Device. I personally just use the floppy. I find it faster.

Bill... ignore all the stuff in my post from "NOW use fdisk to set your Primary...." onward. none of that applies in your case.