Flash drive w/ hacktool.rootkit

[squirrellyec]

I have a 1GB flash drive. I have some how managed to get a hacktool.rootkit on it. I have been unsuccessful in getting rid of it. I have found posts on how to remove it from a PC but would it also apply to a flash drive. I believe I have infected my PC as well. Luckily it is not attached to the internet, so not much harm seems to be done. That does present the problem though of how I am supposed to get rid of it off of the PC as well, when I am unable to download anything to it.
I could use a little bit of advice on this one. Oh, and please be sure to use simple terms.
Thanks

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You can't just take your important data off the drive and format it?

Remove any data worth saving. With the drive attached and detected by the PC go into "My Computer". Right click on the flash drive and click "Format...". Do not use "Quick Format".

 

[squirrellyec]

tried that

I deleted everything except a log in software that came with the flash drive and formatted it, but no luck. I can't get rid of the little bugger. My main concern is infecting other computers. We believe that our PC is infected now and my husband works on it then saves stuff to his flash drive to use at work. So this could easily become an epidemic.

 

[DelJo63]

use the Disk Manager to DELETE the partition.
then recreate it and reformat.

this will eliminate the issue.

(btw: the USB thumbdrives are the reincarnation of the floppy disk and there's a
great history on how floppies cause cross system infections)