I had one of my Netbooks infected with a spyware and a quick call to the tech support helped me reinstall WIndows XP and have this machine reformatted clean as though it was fresh from the factory.

SInce I found some tips which I did not know earlier about my Netbook, I thought it will be useful for others too. My netbook is a EEE Pc 1000HEB from ASUS.

Please note that what you are about to read is to reformat a hard disk clean – in other words, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR EXISTING DATA. SO PLEASE PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

When you are ready to reformat the machine, restart the netbook and press F2. F2 will take you to the startup boot menu. Make sure the settings are such that it allows you to press Shift + F9 during bootup to perform the reinstallation.

Once you save the above settings, press Shift + F9 while the machine boots up and the system will automatically take you into the format and reinstallation screen. From here on, follow the instructions on the screen and you should have a clean formatted netbook ready within five minutes.

Hope that helps.