Completely clean a laptop after infection

What would be a reccomended way to completely clean a laptop after being infected by a virus? I'm thinking if I flash the bios and replace the HD I should be fine, but am I missing anything by doing that? Also I updated my Bios a few months ago and right now when I try to update it I get a message saying it's up to date. So here are my questions:

1.) is there any way on a laptop to force the Bios to reset/update to a known good?
2.) I'm I ok by just replacing the HD and flashing the bios or might there be something lurking around that I should be aware of?
3.) My security plan afterwards is to restore the OEM install of win 7, delete useless programs, use EMET, set useless services to manual, and use Panda Cloud Free, Windows FW with no incoming access allowed (behind a HW firewall), sandboxie and maybe returnil. Any suggestions to improve it?
4.) Could someone recommend a good list of Win 7 services that can be disabled or win 7 default install items that can be removed?

Thanks in advance

 

Yeah, flashing the BIOS is a bit extreme but if you want to be "100%" sure.

When you reformat make sure you replace the bootmanager in case its infected.

As for the BIOS just go to you manufacturers website and download the update tool they provide.

That security sounds good, just make sure you run with an adblocker.

It's hard to say which services can be disabled without knowing your usage habits. That's somethign you'll have to research yourself - blindly disabling without understanding will break things.

 

1) I'm not sure how to answer this. There should be solutions online.

2) Very rare, but hardware firmware can be infected. Highly unlikely though, unless it's bought from a suspicious source.

3) SUMo (lite or portable) or Secunia and Paragon Backup & Recovery or Macrium Reflect. Maybe Norton DNS and/or BitDefender TrafficLight.

4) "http://www.blackviper.com/2010/12/17/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/" Read over carefully.

 

Thanks for your replies. That blackviper link is exactly what I was looking for.