How to wipe / clean up computer? hard drive?

i've had my latptop for about a year, and there's a few minor annoying problems with it, when i hit shift key sometimes everything cap locks, recently, i keep getting a blue screen that says i must shut down, supposedly a 'serious error;' and my computer might have viruses, adware, spyware, etc; i'm thinking easiest way is to buy a protable hard drive, transfer all data there, and wipe out my laptop(how do this?), and then transfer files from protable drive back to laptop; however, if i have installed software such as photoshop, will this be erased also? any other ways to clean up computer?

How to wipe / clean up computer? hard drive?virus protection software

If your hard drive is infected by virus, you will need to clean all virii,spyware, malware,etc before transferring the files to your portable hard drive.

The procedure you are talking about won't remove the virus, so there isn't any point in doing it.

You have several other options:

1- You can do a system restore to an earlier date when your computer wasn't infected;

2- You can download a tool such as System Mechanic that can run comprehensive scans to find all the problems with your laptop

The problem in your case is that you don't know what or where your virus infection is, so if you transfer files, you will in all probability transfer the virus as well. Clean your laptop and then back up your data so you won't have the same problem next time.