Reformat

That is a yes and no answer. Yes, if Windows recognizes your device it will use its own native drivers. No, if windows does NOT have a native driver for your devices it will place a ? by them in the Device manager. The BEST thing to do is get a flash drive BEFORE you reformat, then look up what kind of Dial up or Ethernet or Wireless adapter you have. Download them onto the flash drive and reformat. (you wont need any other drivers yet). Once you reformat, IF windows DOES NOT recognize your networking devices, (modem, ethernet, or wifi) then you will have them saved on the flash drive. install from the flash drive, and get that machine back online. Then, go to the manufacturer's website and get the drivers for the missing devices. ALSO, it's not a bad idea to invest a small amount of money into a website called "Driver agent" www.driveragent.com. Driver agent locates the drivers you need (with a 95% success rate) and will allow you to download them. If you do a lot of reformatting, you should get a subscription to them. OR you could subscribe just long enough to download the drivers, save them onto your flash drive or cdrom, and put it away for a rainy day, should you ever need to reformat again.

you can easily get rid of the viruses if you want to. Go to the following link and download and save the program to your desktop. Reboot the computer in safe mode (hold down F8 when the power comes back on before windows starts, choose safe mode). Once in safe mode, click yes to the box that comes up, install the program you saved to your desktop. Once installed, run a full scan and let it fix all the files it finds. Let me know if you need anything else.
seth

http://dw.com.com/redir?edId=3&siteId=4&oId=3000-8022_4-10804572&ontId=8022_4&spi=63e3682abd31bf11c36e933638ed6b7f&lop=link&ltype=dl_dlnow&pid=11039785&mfgId=6290020&merId=6290020&pguid=E3r2swoPjAIAAHFjSZIAAAF5&destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.cnet.com%2F3001-8022_4-10804572.html%3Fspi%3D63e3682abd31bf11c36e933638ed6b7f%26part%3Ddl-10804572

No

You need a bootable copy of the Windows disk plus the serial number to do a re-install.

You also need to go on the Acer website to download the drivers for the motherboard etc

Windows only has basic drivers for things like video & sound cards but in almost everycase you can download your drivers from the vendors website. A clean windows install will have enough to get you online & that's all you need. If you want to provide you PC spec & I tell you exactally where to find everything you need.