Computer virus help

[Fairy]

I've been out of the info security business a long time. I have a monumental infection in my one computer that I need to go into work to have blasted, and I need to get a ton of stuff off my hard drive. But the virus is there, so I can't just do a backup. I can access the files I need, but I'm worried if I stick a thumb drive into the infected computer that I'll bring the virus along with it. I'm not going to just click "backup," I'm going to do a lift and drop of a handful of files. Any experts out there think this is a bad idea?

Another thing I can do is stick the files I want in an email and let them sit there until my computer is cleaned. But that's going to mean I turn on the Internet again and risk having my computer open to the Internet cloud as I do it.

Thoughts?

[rlu]

Not an expert - I worked for an av company for years, but in accounting, so only a tiny bit of tech soaked into my brain through osmosis.

If you do the thumb drive idea, would it make sense to let work scrub your computer and then try to upload onto the newly scrubbed computer? In other words, do you think the just-updated av would then detect the virus if it went onto your thumb drive and eliminate it while letting you upload your files?

I wouldn't go onto the internet with that computer until it's been scrubbed and av updated.

[Fairy]

well, I wanna do the uploading of these non-work files before it goes to tech support in case they have to blast the whole hard drive, meaning I lose everything on it. Personal stuff like my holiday spreadsheet, some word files, and family photos. Ugh.

[Fairy]

I chanced it with the thumb drive. Now I get to go DT tomorrow. Goodie.

[arivecchi]

Good luck. That stinks!

[Fairy]

Yes, it totally stinks! I have to go downtown on my day off. Frak.