Reformat My old PC using my shiny new mac

[michaelbullard]

Hi all. I got sick of PC about 6 months ago, and left my old Dell in the dust. I LOVE my new MacPro tower 2.66 Intel. It kicks butt. Anyway, now I need a computer in my shop. Does anybody have any advice on this little problem? Here are the basics--

I would like to totally reformat my old PC, running XP, and install vista, tune it up and use it as my 2nd computer for work.
-- Problem-- it has a nasty little virus that won't let me reformat it using its own system. I cant even get into the BIOS because the virus has disabled the use of the keyboard. I don't know what to do. I am reluctant to just rip out the hard drive and reformat it using my nice new mac, because I really don't want any sort of baddness to enter it. Thoughts?
Being a mac newbie, I am not really well versed in what damage these pc viruses can inflict on the mac world. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.

 

[thegrifman]

You have nothing to worry about when it comes to viruses and your mac, pull the drive out and format away but you may want to see if that Virus didn't manage to mess with other things on your system like the BIOS. Unlikely, but worth a look.

 

[shoveland]

Agreed! I'd say your PC virus used a completely different means of entry, those types of security holes come pre-closed on your mac, so you should be a go.

 

[jonnylink]

Can Mac's format a drive for windows? I didn't think they could. I guess even if it can't it would clean the drive and then you can reformat it again with the Windows CD

Anyway, are you able to boot off of a CD? If so you could use a safe erase CD (there are a bunch you can download for free) to reformat. But then again, if you could do that you'd probably be able to boot off the Windows CD too.

 

[thegrifman]

Can Mac's format a drive for windows? I didn't think they could. I guess even if it can't it would clean the drive and then you can reformat it again with the Windows CD

Anyway, are you able to boot off of a CD? If so you could use a safe erase CD (there are a bunch you can download for free) to reformat. But then again, if you could do that you'd probably be able to boot off the Windows CD too.

Mac OS can format FAT16 which will be more than sufficient for the windows install cd. Probably don't even need to go that far though, just deleting the existing partitions should do just fine.

 

[michaelbullard]

Anyway, are you able to boot off of a CD? If so you could use a safe erase CD (there are a bunch you can download for free) to reformat. But then again, if you could do that you'd probably be able to boot off the Windows CD too.

Hmmm. Haven't tried this Safe Erase CD thing yet. I will give it a whirl. You mentioned there are a few available. Any recommendations on which?

Many thanks for all the advice!!!