Question Regarding Notebook OS Backup Install

Greetings Geeks -

It seems as if I am going to have to reinstall the OS of my wife's Toshiba laptop. Before I start, I want to ask a few questions. The OS is Vista. The laptop has a virus we can't seem to shake. So . . . .

1. Should I format the hard drive before I use the backup discs? Or will the backup disks re-format? And if so, is a complete format?

2. How many times can the backup disks be used? They were provided with the notebook, I did not have to create them.

Thanks for any help.

 

DomLuc -

First, thanks for the info.

I did mistakenly place the post here - sorry everyone. I did run the full gauntlet of Majorgeek antivirus routines as per the Malware Forum. I did not post the logs, but I may yet decide to do that. Thanks for reinforcing the fact I should follow up in the Malware forum. However, I had the same symptoms on my desktop and tried for days on end to remove the virus. The only solution was a total resinstall.

Thanks again!