[dinodino]

My advice was serious. The OP could have a rootkit and does not have the knowledge to remove it. In fact, there are now malware that install to the flash on the HDD itself. Since hard drives are dirt cheap, better to just start fresh and junk the old one.

[trebb]

There are cheaper ways to sanitize the HD than throw it out before loading a new OS - you can use a write-locked boot CD wiht a format app that can overwrite multiple passes, etc. Besides what you and I consider to be dirt cheap may not be so affordable to everyone.

Your way would definitely be effective though.