Somebody me reformat my computer

[z4955]

my computer is so messed up I think I need to reformat it but I need help with that. my computer suddenly got painfully slow in everything and internet explorer stopped working completely. I finally had to install netscape from a disk I happened to have just to get online to post this. bleepingcomputer.com came up not found as well as a lot of other sites I frequent so I'm lucky to get this far and hope I can get back for some answers. ok.. I have windows me and I have the bootable restore cd's that came with the computer. INstructions say to mkae a boot disk with a floppy but when I tried that an error came up telling me the file 'aspi2dos.sys' was not fouond and windows needs the disk labled 'windows millennium edition' to continue. this disk may be provided by your computer or device manufacturer.. well, I don't have such a disk or know where or how to get one. next I tried to use the restore cd's that came with the computer. the directions say to boot the system and insert cd which I did. then it says, note: because this cd is bootable, check whether the 1st boot device is ATAPI CD-ROM in the setup menu and insert this before boot from HDD. well, this totally threw me. what is the 1st boot device and how do I check it? next it said when the following menu appears choose '1' or '2' and press 'Enter' key. no menu ever showed up. nothing on this computer wants to work except netscape and it's painfully slow... lucky it connects at all I guess. somebody please help!

 

[gerben]

... then it says, note: because this cd is bootable, check whether the 1st boot device is ATAPI CD-ROM in the setup menu and insert this before boot from HDD. well, this totally threw me. what is the 1st boot device and how do I check it? next it said when the following menu appears choose '1' or '2' and press 'Enter' key...

You have to change a setting in your BIOS, when you startup your computer the bios is read and in the bios is a setting from which device it should boot (i.e. from HD, floppy or cdrom). You can cahnge the order in which the bios tries to boot by going to the BIOS setup menu, you do this by pressing del at the start when your computer boots (probably del, sometimes it is F2), just try it perhaps you also see the line at the bottom of your screen saying something like "pres del to enter setup".

It is also important that after you have reinstalled windows that you do not connect the computer to the ointernet before you have a proper firewall installed, otherwise you will be infected again in a few minutes. So it is probably a good idea to download firewall software first.

Zonealarm is a good free firewall, you can download it here:
http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm&subj=dlpage&tag=button

 

[z4955]

thx gerben
I'm downloading the zonealarm firewall now to a floppy.. hope there's enough room for it on there so I can install it when I reformat (hope I can do the bios thing ok)
Netscape's not too bad but more things work with explorer I think
thx again