[H] Suggested tools for helping a friend with bad virus infestation

[Jerry Jones]

A co-worker & friend of my wife asked if I would be willing to look at their 
PC. Appearantly they have a bad virus infestation on their PC and have not 
been using an anti-virus program. They have spoke to tech support at Gateway 
and were told that they may be best off backing up their data and 
reformating. I have not seen the PC yet so I don't know how bad it is. I 
have never had to deal with a PC that has a virus and has NO anti-virus at 
all.

I am looking for suggestions of what software tools I should bring with me 
when I go look at the PC. I have a bootable Norton Anti-virus disc and can 
let it scan the PC and try to clean it up. Is there something better that I 
should use? If I do have to reformat and re-install the OS, what is the best 
way to backup the data and not re-infect the PC when the data is restored?