virus after complete system restore?

my mom's computer had a virus (vx2) that i couldnt remove after months of trying. finally in desperation we got the restore discs and completely restored the original system. much to my suprise the pop up ads started again? is this possible? i thought the system restore completely wiped out and replaced all system files. please note, we used the system restore disks not the restore point software built into windows.

oh and yes i will post a new log as soon as possible i just was curious for an answer to this.

If you did not have the proper protection it only takes literally seconds to get infected on the internet.

yes i know, this was before any sites were visited.

Dont even need to visit a site. If you are on with an active connection there are all kinds of things that will love to crawl onto your system.

seeing as how i didnt do the restore (mom did) im wondering if she didnt restore the system just did a partial restore. but im also wondering my original question, can a virus survive a total restore?

if you c:/format and reinstall it cant, if you used the disk and did a system reapir or installed over the os it can depending on the virus

thanx siggyx! could you give me a short lesson on how i do that correctly (not to sound like an idiot but c:/format?)