Problem
The laptop owned and used by a San Franciso musician became infected with malware or a virus that prevented use of the computer.
Solution
Fortunately a backup of data had recently been done.
Rather than attempt to clean the computer of malware, the safest and most effective to be rid of the malware was to wipe the disk and reinstall the Windows 10 operating system.
Reinstalling the operating system required a search for and an installation of a disk driver so the installation media would recognize the disk. The search was done, driver was found, and the operating system was reinstalled. The reinstalled operating system provided a fresh, clean system with no malware.
Once up and running, the data that had been backed up was copied to the laptop.