Formatting a Dell laptop - aka the dreaded google redirect virus

[~decepticon~]

So our friends at Pirate Bay hooked me up with a nice piece of malware that I cannot get rid of on my system. It redirects all google searches via doubleclick.js or adware and it's blocked all antivirus/spyware/malware removal websites. Additionally when I download malware removal programs on my other pc and transfer them to this one, it won't let me install the removal programs (even if I rename them). Hence:
This virus is messing up my life!

I've downloaded hijackthis and posted the log on many a support forum with no luck so as a last resort I've decided to format my laptop.

Now I have a Dell Inspiron laptop that was purchased last year (warranty is expired). There were no boot disks that were sent with purchase and I understand that there should be a partitioned drive with all my drivers and such however I'm unsure if my copy of vista will be there. Can someone kindly help me with how to format this dell and reinstall vista?

Cheers
(I know...get a mac)

 

[oddmyth]

Yes,

Unless you reformatted your disk and bunked the hidden partition then you should still have an image of your original configuration of the OS that shipped on your laptop on your machine.

How do you access it? Start here - support.dell.com

 

[coleridge]

So our friends at Pirate Bay hooked me up with a nice piece of malware that I cannot get rid of on my system. It redirects all google searches via doubleclick.js or adware and it's blocked all antivirus/spyware/malware removal websites. Additionally when I download malware removal programs on my other pc and transfer them to this one, it won't let me install the removal programs (even if I rename them). Hence:
This virus is messing up my life!

Cheers
(I know...get a mac)

I've had this virus twice; once one my laptop, once on my desktop.

I got rid of it by booting to safe mode, then doing a system restore to a time before I had the virus.

After that I immediately installed and ran http://www.malwarebytes.org/

 

[workdowntown]

Seconding malwarebytes after safe mode.

If you just want to avoid all the hard slog and restore from the dell recovery partition then use this guide.
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm