Can I get files off a HDD with virus?

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My computer somehow managed to get infected with a virus/malware, a few trojans and something potentially much worse. I'm no expert on the matter, but AVG kept warning me and deleting the infected files had no effect. My computer ground to a standstill to I had to restart.

Now I get a blue screen of death a second or two after the XP loading screen comes on, even starting in safe mode doesn't work. I've tried CHKDSK and whilst it seems to have fixed errors on the drive, I still can't load Windows.

My question is this, am I missing anything? The STOP error code upon starting XP is: 0x0000007B (0xB84C7524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

What I was thinking of doing is getting a fresh HDD, and installing XP on it as new, then connecting my old virus-ed system HDD in an enclosure, connecting via USB to get all my files (the important ones only obv) across. Is this a good idea?
 
Sounds like the best plan, if you were more comfortable with disinfecting then you could think about using something like ComboFix directly on the infected drive, but I think a fresh install isn't the worst idea here, depending on how many programs/games you will need to reinstall. After connecting up the old drive make sure you run a full scan with MalwareBytes and your favorite Anti-Virus program. Then take what files you need from the now hopefully clean drive.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes I wouldn't mind a fresh install anyway, my system was getting a bit cluttered and slow.

My only concern is connecting my old infected drive to my fresh XP install on a new HDD, is it possible that I transfer the virus across somehow?

MalwareBytes will no doubt find a virus or two, but from I've read up on it it's a huge pain to get rid of so I'm not sure it will be able to fix or solve anything? Is it necessary to run it or can I just copy over my files and then run a check on my new HDD?
 
You should really do a full scan on the old drive first, then copy over the files you need. If you have an anti-virus package with 'On Demand' scanning it should check each file as it is accessed to be copied and find any that are infected that way.
 
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