Laptop problem: need help

Hiya,
Basically I downloaded a the other day (it was some music player i think). However, it appears that it has given my computer a virus which is worrying. I have norton internet security but it did not appear to detect it. I spoke to someone at PC World who said the chances are that the virus has impedded itself into Windows itself, meaning that the anti virus could not locate it.

Basically, my computers symptoms are: it displays a warning 'critical error' message in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, telling me to 'click the balloon to fix all the problems' (aka, it takes me to some web page that tries to sell me some anti virus software). Also... every so often I get dodgy pop-ups that come on my computer screen.

So I really need your help with the following questions:

1) The chap at PC World said the best bet would be to wipe the hard drive and reset the computer back to factory settings. How do I do that, would my laptop come with a system restore CD, or would PC World have to restore the computer for me?
2) Finally, and most importantly: I want to transfer my files from my old laptop onto a disk so that I can back up my files before the hard drive might possibly have to be wiped. I bought some DVD+R disks, however my computer says (when I try to put files to the DVD): 'insert a writable CD. Note: a writable CD is a compact disk that can be converted to a conventioanl audio CD by a recoridng drive CD-R or CD-RW)... Does that mean that my computer cant put files onto DVD?
3) Will CD-R disks therefore be compatible with my laptop then?
5) Lastly, how do I go about transferring files onto CD? Basically I want to transfer music files, picture files, and word files. I dont know how I go about doing that at all!
4) Once the files have been transferred to CD and then uploaded onto a clean hard disk, can the files on the CD-R disk be deleted to allow more space again?

Thanks for all your help. I would appreciate it if people could reply using numbers eg. 1), 2) so that I can easily locate the response to the question.

Post a HijackThis LOG as per instructions found here:

Read This First - IMPORTANT Instructions


Otherwise, and additionally, the following info would likely prove very helpful:

• What web page are you being redirected to - provide the URL?
• Name the antivirus software that they are trying to sell you.

__________________
Vincent P

MALWARE: READ FIRST Procedures:
|_ SpyBot V1.5 _|_ HijackThis LOG __V2.0.2 _|

__
ASAP: promoting a high standard and quality of security support no matter where you seek help.

Okay thanks.

I would greatly appreciate an answer to questions 2) to 4) if thats okay.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...685&tabIndex=1

that is the model of my laptop btw. Will the equium l10 allow me to send files to CD-R?

As you are being assisted elsewhere on those questions, I will only offer to checkout your Hijackthis log if your wish to try and resolve your malware by such efforts. It is quite likely resolvable more often than not.

__________________
Vincent P

MALWARE: READ FIRST Procedures:
|_ SpyBot V1.5 _|_ HijackThis LOG __V2.0.2 _|

__
ASAP: promoting a high standard and quality of security support no matter where you seek help.