This is apparently a common problem but I fear I may have screwed myself over.

I was at work so this is not firsthand information. My 7-year old son was on the internet (first mistake) and got the blue screen yellow box etc. My wife ran some of our antispyware programs, got to a point where it identified 4 "issues" - per my directions she left the computer alone until I came home several hours later. I checked the boxes on the antispyware program to remove or quarantine them, one of them was titled "bluescreen" (I did not write it down, my mistake). Once I checked them off and hit remove I got a message to reboot the system for the changes to take effect (again likely my mistake, I followed the instructions).

The computer restarted but didn't come into the regular screen with icons, taskbar, etc. It came onto the XP login screen for "Owner" - but when i click to log in it it does instant log off after flashing the blue/yellow message. So I cannot get in to the computer at all. I also lost the ability to open in safe mode.

My wife took the PC to a local shop today, they could not get in to the PC and are telling my wife the only thing that can be done is a total wipe of the computer and reinstall of XP. The problem is we have many many pictures on the PC that weren't backed up which would be lost, together with thousands of MP3s (again my fault, I'm surely going to [bleep] big time). I was thinking of taking the PC to Best Buy's Geek Squad, I'll pay their exorbitant rates to recover the pictures etc. before my marriage goes off the deep end. Please somebody help me, I'm not skilled and this will kill my wife - many pictures of our two adorable sons, etc.

Is there a way to remove the hard drive, put it in one of those enclosures and just get off the photos (I'll forgo the MP3s) without infecting other computers? Someone please help!

Also - just as important - I read this may be a trojan horse (?) - I changed every password I could think of, what else do I need to do?