DeKlezzification of a PC -- boot from CD problematic?

I have a nontechie friend whose PC laptop is infected with Klez. No internet connection, can’t recognize its own CDROM or floppy drives, other problems. (She got it via the usual route: Outlook email attachment).

I’ve volunteered to pull her document files from the hard drive using my Mac and I can also erase her hard drive, and she has all the installation CDs to reinstall her software and OS.

Question: does this Klez virus screw up the ability of the BIOS to switch bootup device to the Windows installation CD? If so, are there things I need to do either before initializing the hard drive or even while booted into (her infected but still bootable) copy of Windows, in order to enable booting from CD?

Come to think of it – she has antivirus software on CDs but can’t run it because the system can’t utilize the CDROM drive. What if I use the Mac to copy the executables and folders from the CDROM drive and deposit them in a folder on the infected hard drive, then put it back in her laptop – is it likely that they would be able to run and do their tasks, or would the viruses be loaded in to RAM and simply ruin the antivirus software or otherwise prevent it from doing its thing?

Come also to think of it – is there a manual procedure for nuking Klez? i.e., “remove this file, edit this text configuration file, delete this file”? I could do that from the MacOS and then put the drive back in her laptop virus-free without having to reinstall all her software if that is the case.

AFAIK, Klez doesn’t usually cause this type of damage. It’s just a mass mailer. However, since Klez turns off antivirus software, she could have been open to infection from something else.

You can find a tool to clean Klez at Symantec’s website. This particular link has a tool to clean the virus automatically, or you can remove it manually by following these instructions.

Oh, additional details: Her existing OS is Windows98, so her drive is going to be FAT in one of its incarnations, not NTFS. (Good thing, since I can’t mount an NTFS on the Mac). I’ll be swapping out my Mac laptop hard drive for hers, and booting from a separate Mac hard drive in the expansion bay. Salvaged files will be copied to Zip or burned to CD.

Thanks!