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In the event of a virus that has sucessfully trashed your system, or any other unfortunate event, you hard drive will need to be wiped clean in order to get rid of whatever is causing the damage. This is a useful guide on understanding what reformatting is, and how to do it.

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When installing a hard disk drive (commonly called a hard drive) for the first time, attempting to remove errors from your drive, getting rid of a nasty virus, or even cleaning a hard drive because you are selling or donating your computer -- those are just a few of the many reasons why one might consider formatting their hard drive.

Format actually means to prepare a storage medium, usually a disk, for reading and writing. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched or otherwise damaged), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk (floppy or hard disk) before you can use it.

When you take a disk that has been formatted and run it through the format process again, it is referred to, logically, as "reformatting".


Back it Up!
Before the format process, you want to make sure that if your goal is hard drive recovery, you back up as much personal data and information from your hard drive as you need. In some instances where a virus has caused serious system damage, this may not be possible, but if your format is planned ahead of time you certainly can copy and archive data off your hard drive before you start the format process.




How to Format
If you purchased your computer from systems vendor such as a Dell , HP Compaq or Gateway system, you most likely will have a set-up or a restore-and-recovery CD (also referred to as a master CD) which came with the system. If this is the type of system you use, then a format is an easy process as the master CD will format the hard drive, reinstall your Windows operating system, and install any software and programs which came with the system. If you no longer have your master set-up CD, you should contact the manufacturer to get a replacement.

If you aren't using this type of mass-market system, then a hard drive format will consist of you formatting the hard drive manually, installing your Windows OS from CD, then installing your software programs and hardware drivers. Before you begin the formatting process, it is important to make sure you have all your driver CDs located, Windows CD and your software CDs to ensure a smooth set-up.

It's also important to know about your operating system before you format. For example, if you're going to be reinstalling Windows 98 or Windows Me then you should have a Windows 98 or ME start-up disk to complete the procedure. In this instance, you would restart the system with the start-up floppy in the drive. Upon system boot, you will choose to have CD-ROM support. Once the files load you can then choose to run the format command on your main drive (usually C drive). If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP, the Windows installation process offers "format your hard drive" as an option. Here you would ensure your computer is set to boot from CD-ROM (a setting in your system BIOS), insert the Windows CD and restart the computer. From there you will be on your way to reformatting.


Does Formatting Really erase All Data?
It's important to remember that "format" and "delete" do not mean erase! Reformatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the address tables. The good news is that if you accidentally reformat a hard disk, a computer specialist should be able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk. The bad news is that for any business or corporation that is planning to donate old computers to charity, this could pose a security risk if that computer disk drive contained confidential business information. Remember — just because you may donate the computer to charity that doesn't mean an honest person will end up with it. While that shouldn't deter you from recycling old computers in this way, it should be an incentive to ensure all business data has been completely wiped from the hard drive. Never just delete the files and assume they are gone because you can't see them on the hard drive. Businesses should at the very least run the format command to erase the hard drive. The safest method to completely remove data is to overwrite the disk. You can do this yourself, although it is quite time consuming. To overwrite the disk would mean to format, then fill the disk completely with data, and format again. The easiest way to do this is to use a software program that will overwrite the disk for you. Most of these programs, which are often referred to as "Data Dump" software, will meet even the strict deletion requirements of the U.S. military. As an added bonus, a few good data dump programs can be freely downloaded from the Internet.

You may listen to music on your computer, but have you ever wondered how it works? And also, does it confuse you when people talk about "file formats" and "codecs"?

I've found a guide that answers those questions and more in a simple and easy to understand format. Once again, this is not my work, merely information that should be shared.



Hundreds of file formats exist for recording and playing digital sound and music files. While many of these file formats are software dependant — for example a Creative Labs Music File is a .cmf — there are several well-known and widely supported file formats. While different operating systems have different popular music file formats, we'll mainly focus on those that are most commonly used on Windows-based PCs.
Many different digital audio formats and different software are used to create, store and manipulate these files, the good news for consumers is that there is also a wide range of devices and products available that support multiple formats. Should you not have the correct device for playing a particular file, you can also look for software conversion tools that will convert one file type to another. Because some audio files are open standards and some are proprietary, chances are we'll be seeing a wide variety of digital audio formats for some time to come.

File Format and Codec
An audio file format and audio codec (compressor/decompressor) are two very different things. Audio codecs are the libraries that are executed in multimedia players. The audio codec is actually a computer program that compresses or decompresses digital audio data according to the audio file format specifications. For example, the WAV audio file format is usually coded in the OCM format, as are the popular Macintosh AIFF audio files.

Audio Formats
Audio Formats can be broken down into three main categories. Uncompressed formats, lossless compression formats, and lossy compression.


Uncompressed audio formats (often referred to as PCM formats) are just as the name suggests — formats that use no compression. This means all the data is available, at the risk of large file sizes. A WAV audio file is an example of an uncompressed audio file.

Lossless compression applies compression to an uncompressed audio file, but it doesn;t lose information or degrade the quality of the digital audio file. The WMA audio file format uses lossless compression.

Lossy compression will result in some loss of data as the compression algorithm eliminates redundant or unnecessary information — basically it tosses what it sees as irrelevant information. Lossy compression has become popular online because of its small file size, it is easier to transmit over the Internet. MP3 and Real Audio files uses a lossy compression.

Common Windows-compatible Audio Formats

MP3 (.mp3)
MP3 is the name of the file extension and also the name of the type of file for MPEG, audio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. Layer 3 uses perceptual audio coding and psychoacoustic compression to remove all superfluous information (more specifically, the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal. The stuff the human ear doesn't hear anyway). It also adds a MDCT (Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) that implements a filter bank, increasing the frequency resolution 18 times higher than that of layer 2. The result in real terms is layer 3 shrinks the original sound data from a CD (with a bit rate of 1411.2 kilobits per one second of stereo music) by a factor of 12 (down to 112-128kbps) without sacrificing sound quality.

WMA - Windows Media Audio (.wma)
Short for Windows Media Audio, WMA is a Microsoft file format for encoding digital audio files similar to MP3 though can compress files at a higher rate than MP3. WMA files, which use the ".wma" file extension, can be of any size compressed to match many different connection speeds, or bandwidths.

WAV (.wav)
WAV is the format used for storing sound in files developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. Support for WAV files was built into Windows 95 making it the de facto standard for sound on PCs. WAV sound files end with a .wav extension and can be played by nearly all Windows applications that support sound.

Real Audio (.ra .ram .rm)
Real Audio is a proprietary format, and is used for streaming audio that enables you to play digital audio files in real-time. To use this type of file you must have RealPlayer (for Windows or Mac), which you can download for free. Real Audio was developed by RealNetworks.

MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface (.mid)
Short for musical instrument digital interface, MIDI is a standard adopted by the electronic music industry for controlling devices, such as synthesizers and sound cards, that emit music. At minimum, a MIDI representation of a sound includes values for the note's pitch, length, and volume. It can also include additional characteristics, such as attack and delay time.

Ogg (.ogg)
Ogg is an audio compression format, comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, but differs in that it is free, open and unpatented. It uses Vorbis, a specific audio compression scheme that's designed to be contained in Ogg.

Converting Audio Formats
With a slew of software applications available today, consumers can convert one digital audio file format to virtually any other. many of the programs available today offer standard burning or converting tools to enable consumers to create CDs on their computer which can be played in home or car stereos. Usually these tools will convert or burn uncompressed WAV PCM, compressed WAV , MP3, and Ogg Vorbis.

This is yet another installment of useful, if not critical, information for your computer. I did not write this guide, and obviously, this guide will not work if you do not use windows.




Safe Mode is a diagnostic mode of Windows which loads only the bare essentials to give a usable desktop. It is not intended to be a working environment. In fact, many programs will not run in Safe Mode, and with some older computers not all drives are available (often the CD drive is unavailable). If possible, make sure that whatever programs you intend to use in Safe Mode (like spyware or virus scanners) are installed and updated.

However, Safe Mode is a good environment in which to run a complete virus scan or junkware scan, especially if the computer is very compromised. NOD32, SpySweeper, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and ESET-NOD32 AntiVirus will all run scans in Safe Mode. Viruses, spyware, or other malicious processes that run in the background in a full-mode load of Windows are not running in Safe Mode, so they can be removed more easily.

To get your computer into Safe Mode you must first shut it down. Find the F8 on your keyboard and get your finger ready to press it. Power on the computer and tap the F8 key every second or two, but not too fast or you will get a keyboard error. The trick is to catch it before you see Windows start to load. When you succeed, then you will see a "boot menu" of white text on black background something like this:



You can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the Safe Mode option. On older systems you may have to key in a number that corresponds to this choice.



You may have another warning box to click OK on which warns you that you are in this special, diagnostic mode of Windows. Windows ME opens a "Help and Support" page that you may have to close to get to your desktop.

Once you are in Safe Mode you will see that the desktop looks different. That is because Safe Mode uses very low-level video settings. You should still be able to get in to Start Menu and run programs like SpySweeper, NOD32, Spybot, Ad-Aware and the like. When you are done with your scans, simply shut down and restart. Windows should start normally.

/join Type /join #channelname -- to join a channel of your choice Example: /join #bossmom What it looks like: [18:44] *** Now talking in #beginner --Op-- bossmom has joined the channel [18:44] *** Topic is 'Beginner's Help/Chat Channel....All Are Welcome Here!! ®© [ENGLISH]' [18:44] *** Set by X on Sun Jul 23 16:10:34

/me The /me is an action message. Type /me 'does anything' Example: /me waves hello What it looks like: * bossmom waves hello

/msg Type /msg nickname (message) to start a private chat. Example: /msg puddytat Hey tat, how are you? What it looks like: -> *puddytat* Hey tat, how are you?

/nick /nick changes your nickname Example: type /nick newnickname (limit 9 characters) What it looks like: I typed /nick luv2quilt *** bossmom is now known as luv2quilt

/notice A notice is used to send a short message to another person without opening up a private window. Type /notice nickname (message) Example: /notice badnick Please change your nickname for this family channel. What it looks like: -> -badnick- Please change your nickname for this family channel.

/part Type /part -- to leave one channel Type /partall -- to leave all the channels you are in

/ping Type /ping nickname. What this command does is give you the ping time, or lag time, between you and the person you pinged. Lag can be explained as the amount of time it takes for you to type your message and for others to read your messages. Unfortunately, lag is always a part of IRC, although most times it's not a problem, just a nuisance. Example: /ping luv2quilt What it looks like: [19:04] -> [luv2quilt] PING [19:04] [luv2quilt PING reply]: 0secs

/query Similar to the /msg, except it forces a window to pop open. Type /query nickname (message) Example: /query Sofaspud^ Sooo....what's new? What it looks like: <luv2quilt> soooo....what's new?

/quit Type /quit to leave IRC altogether. This disconnects mirc from the server. Example: /quit Going out for dinner...nite all What it looks like: *** Quits: saca (Leaving)

/ignore Unfortunately, there will be times when you don't want to talk to someone, or else someone may be harassing you. By typing /ignore nickname 3, you will not receive anymore messages from that person. Example: /ignore luv2quilt 3 To Unignore them, type /ignore -r luv2quilt 3 What it looks like: *** Added *!*bossmom@*.dialup.netins.net to ignore list *** Removed *!*bossmom@*.dialup.netins.net from ignore list

/whois Type /whois nickname to see a bit more information about another user. You'll see what server another person is using, or what their ISP is. Pretty helpful when you don't recognize a nickname that wants to chat. You may recognize the IP, (Internet Protocol) and then feel more comfortable carrying on a conversation. You'll also be able to see what other channels a person is in, which might be a good indicator if you really want to talk with them or not. Example: /whois bossmom What it looks like: luv2quilt is bossmom@elwo-01-094.dialup.netins.net * Enjoy the Journey........ luv2quilt on @#bossmom luv2quilt using Seattle.WA.US.Undernet.org the time for school is during a recession. luv2quilt has been idle 18secs, signed on Sun Jul 23 18:47:26 luv2quilt End of /WHOIS list.

/chat This opens up a DCC/CHAT window to another user. What's nice about these is that you can continue to chat even if you get disconnected from your server. Word of Caution: Do NOT accept dcc/chats nor dcc/gets from anyone that you don't know. Type /chat nickname. Example: /chat oddjob^ What it looks like: Chat with oddjob^ Waiting for acknowledgement...

/help Type /help, you'll see the the mIRC Help Menu open up. You can do a search from there, or you can type /help topic. Either way, a TON of information at your fingertips. Example: /help Basic IRC Commands

I figured it might be good to have this in one place at all times. How to post an image on the forum.

First, you need to upload it to an image host, such as http://www.photobucket.com or http://www.imagecave.com. Then, to place it in your message either paste the URL of the image(It generally looks something like http://usera.imagecave.com/DelusionalKa ... heView.jpg or http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v710/sgt_sock/chocobo.gif), or, alternatively you can embed the image in your post by pasting the url, highlighting it, and clicking the Img button above your post. If done right, it will look something like this:

Simple. :D

Images should be posted in:
PNG if its a drawn image, or pixel drawing, or even screen-shot this should be everything other than what should posted in the following file formats.
GIF if its animated. GIF is the only animated web file type. It's almost as good as PNG, but less colors.

JPG for scanned images or camera pictures. PNG will also work, and it depends on the number of colors, as to which is the best.

Actually, GIF has far fewer colors than PNG. PNG is lossless and displays as many colors as your monitor will(up to 32 bit, meaning 16,777,216 colors, if I recall correctly), whereas GIF only produces 256. While most image editors can use dithering to make it look less distorted, there will always be far more loss with GIF than PNG.I don't really see the need to use JPG for scanned images, considering PNG has no great debilities when compared to JPG and is lossless.

The only problem with that spoiler method is that some of us are using different themes, on which the spoiler will not blend into the background. The best way is to use incredibly small text that isn't readable at first.
i.e. This is a spoiler.