Bad, bad infections

[carstening]

I have something on my computer that is so bad that I can do nothing with it. I have attempted to load malware programs (Hyjackthis and others earlier), but the computer says that there is no space to load the programs. I am about at wits end as I cannot find malware help that is a bootable so that I can at a minimum get a start at removal. My Norton and other virus or adware programs seem to have been destroyed - when I look in "Programs" under them it says that the files are EMPTY. I am about to strip the machine and throw the hard drive in our nearest lake (i cannot find my recovery CD's or DVD's - I know that I made them). I have purchased a new computer and both the old and new are bare bones at < $500. The only way that I can get the machine on is in the SAFE mode and that seems to be getting slower or iffy. I am trying again, but it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to boot in safe mode. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

1/30/2009
I have run the hardware check that I found in the "safe" boot and it tells me that the hardware is OK! I also checked the hard drive which is partitioned into C & D. C is a 51.2GB capacity with 4.69GB free space and D is 18.5GB capacity with 17.1 GB free space. I also neglected to tell you that I took the machine into BEST BUY and the Geek Squad told me what I already knew -- the hardware is OK (and for $200 they would rid my machine of the more than 5 virus that were on the machine -- I purchased a new one for 2x the clean up price).

2/2/2009 I was able to run an antispy program and it seemed to clean up a lot of ??? material. The one error message that I got over & over was "DLL C:\windows\system32\MSI (or NTMAKTA).dll is not a valid image. Please check against your installation diskette. After the antispy and cleaning up what it said was 900+ problems the machine continues to be slow and unresponsive. The only thing that I am now attemping to do is to salvage some of the files. Otherwise I might throw the hard drive in a lake.

2/8/2009 Just as I thought -- no easly (or any) answers! I just did a system recoverly to the original ship configuration. Didn't save my files, but it did solve the problems of the malware. I will now find a home for this system as it seems fine now but really bare bones!
Thanks anyway to all those of you who took the time to look at this. HELP NO LONGER REQUESTED!

[NonSuch]

Thank you for the update. It was very considerate of you to return to do that.

We're sorry you did not receive a response but glad to hear you were able to resolve your problem.

As this issue appears to have been resolved, this topic is now closed.