advice needed for clean install
 

Hi,

I think my machine is infested with spyware or possibly a virus.

My current setup is as follows:

Dual boot from same harddrive
1 Ubuntu 8.10 and 2. win xp sp3

Ubuntu seems to be working perfectly I think its just my xp setup that has gone crazy. Things like when I try and download spybot it tells me the spybot site is down. If i google something and click on any links it takes me to other websites. On this site as soon as I click on a text field the pop-up blocker goes crazy blocking all the pop-up but only when I click on a text field.

I know windows does not play nicely with another OS on the same harddrive so I thought I would ask for some advice. Do I just run xp setup again and reformat the xp partition and install xp as normal? If I do this wont it break the grub? how do I get ubuntu up and running without a fresh installation.

Thanks for your help.

Re: advice needed for clean install
 

Yes, a Windows reinstall will bork the Grub loader.
Google directed me to this Ubuntu forum guide for repairing Grub.
Otherwise, yes just do a normal XP install, reformatting only the XP partition.

Re: advice needed for clean install
 

Have you got any shared folders that the Windows and XP systems can both see?

It's entirely possible that files on those folders could be infected, it's also possible that the infected files could have been passed to the Ubuntu system (although, of course, the Ubuntu system wouldn't have suffered as a result).

For that reason my suggestion (as severe as it may sound) would be to completely rebuild both operating system. No point rebuilding Windows and restoring Grub only to find that you've got a nasty file hiding in the Ubuntu/shared partition that then gets back onto your Windows install and borks it all over again ;)