A client brought me his virus-infected laptop, an HP Pavilion dv9627cl. He wants me to backup the Users' files, wipe Vista and install 7, then copy back the Users' files. Is it safe to do the backup to my laptop, from the infected hdd while it is connected as an external, then delete/create/format using diskmgmt.msc? Or is there a better approach? Any suggestions will be greatly APPRECIATED. Thanks. I WOULD suggest backing up his files to DVD-RW's and make sure you scan them with at least two good AV's programs before PUTTING them back on the re-formatted computer.If you slave his HD to your computer, and you have a WORLD class AV program running, (like AVG) you won't be able to OPEN, copy of move any file without it being scanned. If in doubt just right click on the drive and SCAN it. Again I'm talking about a program like AVG where you can tell it to scan a file, a folder or even a drive. That's what I do. I will scan it with Trojan Hunter and Malware Bytes too, while I'm at it. The more the better! Eh?

Then copy the files to a folder on your own drive and then burn them to DVD (s) for archival purposes.
After restoring the files to the new OS, give the DVD to your customer. They will love you for the courtesy.

Cheers Mate
Shadow I would hardly call AVG world class.