While it does mean "reinstall Windows", it also means "delete everything".
You can of course backup some data, but doing so is dangerous, since if you are indeed infected with a worm, that worm will most likely hatch on to any external storage devices you plug into your computer, such as USB sticks, external harddrives and network connections.
What this means, is that when you load the backed up data back onto your computer, your computer will be reinfected.
By the way, "formatting" a storage device means to discard all knowledge you have about what is on it, so that it simply appears to be comletely empty. A thorough format, which sometimes is a good idea, will overwrite the storage device with nothingness, so that the harddrive is actually completely empty, whereas normal formatting just means saying to the system "Hey, you can just use these gigabytes to store stuff on, even if there is already something there".
Ninja-edit: Fableflame, you are wrong. I'm not sure if there is a Windows option to wipe out all content on the harddrive, without deleting the operating system itself. Either way, in this situation where the system is infected, that's a bad idea, even if possible. As I explained, an actual format means deleting/overwriting everything on the harddrive.
More edit: Some computer vendors who pre-install Windows on the computers they sell, chose to install Windows on its own little partition of the harddrive, while everything you install on the computer is kept on another partition. While this does allow you do delete everything but the operating system, it is not ideal and won't work in this situation.
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