[no_fat_chicks]

I have a problem with a friends PC that I think may have a virus. She said she had a virus that her anti-virus detected but due to a few problems she had afterwards, she reloaded the OS using the recovery cd, but is still having problems as in she cant get into her banking site & cant access her Norton anti-virus after a reinstall to get updates for it.

I have done an online scan for viruses using Trend micros site & it comes up clean. I included the boot sector in the scan.

The problem is I have updated her IE to IE6, lowered her security settings to nothing, removed her proxy, & after 2 hours I still cant get into a password screen for her banking & still cant update her anti-virus.

I read recently (cant recall where) about a new virus that changes the file extensions once its infected a HD to an extension not recognised by anti-virus programs. I'm thinking maybe this is her problem.

So, if I use the recovery cd again & do a format & restore, will it ACTUALLY format the HD? I know a normal format would wipe any virus present & I could check the boot sector b4 reloading the OS using a anti-virus boot disk but I'm not sure everything is wiped using the recovery cd.

I work for an internet company by day & fix PC problems after hours, & I've never come across this problem b4 w/o finding a fix but I'm at a loss for answers right now..