First a start up issue...then I will continue with the Virus problem.

My Original post in Malware Forum...
I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 (I thought it might be okay, it is not!) and was downloading a torrent file and also had (gasp!) Limewire opened. Earlier in that session, I had declined an iTunes update and then got busy and left my computer in that state for over 24 hours. My DH unplugged the laptop to take to a friends house and when he got there, it shut down automatically once he went to close out of iTunes. I was able to boot in Safe Mode ,which, within 10 minutes it shut down, but now it just runs me through a check to determine why it wont start and then loops me back around again. I am (sadly to say, don't i ever learn?) familiar with the Read & Run me first steps, however, how do I get to that point? I have the Recovery disk but don't want to loose all my stuff. Can you tell me what I need to do so that I can boot into safe mode and save my stuff (or should I wait to clean it up first? I will be backing up to a 320GB External) before I do the read and run me steps?
....where I was informed that this needed to be in the software forum. Mainly, my last sentence is my question. Please respond soon, as it took three days to get the response that sent me here, with, as of yet, no answer to my question of HOW do I get my computer to start in Safe Mode so that I CAN run a backup.

 

I only have the recovery disk, and after running every other option except wiping it, i tried the Memory Scan option and I was able to get in on Safe Mode. I then tried to back up my stuff but it locked up during the process after about 10%. I had to leave so I shut it down again. Any other options for backing up before I try to slave it? Oh, and apparently my restore points were never set up.
I really appreciate all of your help!

 

Other than removing the hard drive, you can use the Active@ Boot Disk. It's a bootable CD that boots in to a Windows-like environment. The big plus is that you can remove the CD once it's loaded and burn your stuff to a blank CD/DVD. I'm not sure if the free demo has the burning utility functional or not. However, if you have an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive, you can plug it in before booting to the CD, then you can drag-n-drop or copy-n-paste your data using a familiar Windows Explorer environment. You'll need access to a PC with a CD burner (obviously). If I remember correctly, the download will not only create the boot CD image and file structure, but will burn the actual CD also.
Good luck!

(if this doesn't work for whatever reason, or doesn't suit your needs, follow MT's advice above and remove the drive and attach it via USB to a healthy PC, and you should be able to save your data)