Clearing my HD of garbage

[Malkieri]

Since purchasing and installing FFXI, I have been trying to clear my hard drive of bugs, spyware, viruses, security holes, etc. I ran Adaware, Spybot S&D, installed and ran Norton Internet Security.

Problem is Spybot and Adaware aren't finding everything. What Norton finds (spyware) it can't delete.

I went in and manually deleted some of it, but my registry still needs cleaned up. Some of the files couldn't be deleted for some reason. I assume it's because they were running, but I could not Ctl-Alt-Dlt them. Sometimes the task manager won't even stay up, it crashes. Other programs crash for no reason that I didn't even know I was running. And now Norton says there is an error and it needs to be reinstalled. Windows Explorer even crashes. I'm hoping cleaning my registry will help.

I'm at my wits end and on the verge of reformatting the drive. That would mean reinstalling everything. And being on dial-up, I'm not looking forward to redownloading the updates.

I've also defragged.

I have a P4 2.5 Ghz processor and 512 MB RAM yet my computer runs very slowly. I'm looking for recommendations on getting this cleaned up before I have to take the last resort of reformatting the C drive. My only saving grace is I have a second harddrive where I can back up my documents.

My problem is much better than it was... I can actually play FFXI without it crashing to the desktop because of error popups or what-not taking priority. But it's far from ideal.

TIA!

[Macht]

There are so many different types of Spyware and Adware removal programs out there that if 1 isn't getting them all you can always try another to catch them. Spyware and Adware you won't be able to cancel them in the Task manager they run as hidden programs same as some elements to a Virus Scan Program will do.

There are registry cleaning software you can get as well. The ones that your Virus Scan is finding and can't remove I'd see if updating your Adware/Spyware removal programs and seeing they can find it will do the trick (It may ask to run on next startup in order to get them).

If the programs can't seem to detect them I'd see if they have an option to make them run at startup, it could be that the Adware and Spyware it's trying to find is doing something to prevent the prgoram from detecting it. So letting the program run before the Adware/Spyware has a chance to do anything could make a difference.

[RogueWolf]

wlel i use SPYSWEEPER , Adware, and Bulletproof spyware remover. also try trend.micro.com That is a onlien virus scan. it shoudl find all the problems wiht ur system. Also install Zone alarm. It will monitor all applications goin on the net.

You can allow some application to go on the net. and deny some. and see where the main file is. :D

if u got any questions. see me ingame., Im on fairy too :D


MYy name is RogueWolf