I have a Virus called Hard Drive Diagnostics Virus and I need help removing it.

1 Answers

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   Solution Center on Dec 08, 2010

   Reprinted from: Remove HDD Plus (Uninstall Guide)
   Posted by Grinler on December 8, 2010 @ 06:01 PM · Views: 10,031

   What this infection does:

   HDD Diagnostic is a fake computer optimization and analysis program that displays false information so that it can scare you into thinking that there is something wrong with your computer. HDD Diagnostic is installed via Trojans that display fake error messages on the infected computer. These messages will state that there is something wrong with your computer’s hard drive in order to scare you into purchasing the program.

   Once installed, HDD Diagnostic will be configured to start automatically when you login to Windows. Once started, it will display numerous error messages when you attempt to launch programs or delete files. It will then prompt you to scan your computer with the program, which will state that there are a variety of errors that it cannot fix until you purchase the program. If you attempt to use the so-called defragment tool it will state that it needs to run in Safe Mode and will then show a fake Safe Mode background. As this program is a scam do not be scared into purchasing the program when you see its alerts.

   To further make it seem like your computer is not operating correctly, HDD Diagnostic will also make it so that certain folders on your computer display no contents. When opening these folders, such as C:\Windows\System32\, instead of seeing the normal list of files it will instead display a different folder’s contents or make it appear as if the folder is empty. They do this to make it seem like there is further corruption on your hard drive.

   HDDDiagnostic also attempts to make it so you cannot run any programs on your computer. If you attempt to launch a program it will terminate it and state that the program or hard drive is corrupted. It does this to protect itself from anti-virus programs you may attempt to run and to make your computer unusable so that you will be further tempted to purchase the rogue. The messages that you will see when you attempt run a program are:

   Windows detected a hard drive problem.
   A hard drive error occurred while starting the application.

   Or

   Windows cannot find notepad. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.

   After you close this alert you will be presented with another alert that pretends to be for a program that will attempt to fix your hard drive.

   Fix Disk
   Windows Disk Diagnostics will scan the system to identify performance problems.
   Start or Cancel

   If you press the Start button, it will pretend to scan your computer and then state that there is something wrong with it. This message is:

   Windows Disk Diagnostics
   Windows detected a hard disk error.
   A problem with the hard drive sectors has been detected. It is recommended to download the following sertified software to fix the detected hard drive problems. Do you want to download recommended software?

   These are just further alerts trying to make you think your computer has a serious hard drive problem. It should be noted that if you attempt to run a program enough times it will eventually work.

   When you perform the scan or use the fake defragmenter it will state that there are numerous problems on your computer, but that you first need to purchase it before it can fix any of them. Some examples of the fake problems it detects on your computer are:

   Requested registry access is not allowed. Registry defragmentation required
   Read time of hard drive clusters less than 500 ms
   32% of HDD space is unreadable
   Bad sectors on hard drive or damaged file allocation table
   GPU RAM temperature is critically high. Urgent RAM memory optimization is required to prevent system crash
   Drive C initializing error
   Ram Temperature is 83 C. Optimization is required for normal operation.
   Hard drive doesn’t respond to system commands
   Data Safety Problem. System integrity is at risk.
   Registry Error – Critical Error

   While HDDDiagnostic is running it will also display fake alerts from your Windows taskbar. These alerts are designed to further scare you into thinking that your computer has an imminent hardware failure. The text of some of the alerts you may see include:

   Critical Error!
   Damaged hard drive clusters detected. Private data is at risk.

   Critical Error
   Hard Drive not found. Missing hard drive.

   Critical Error
   RAM memory usage is critically high. RAM memory failure.

   Critical Error
   Windows can’t find hard disk space. Hard drive error

   Critical Error!
   Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \System32\496A8300. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware.

   Critical Error
   A critical error has occurred while indexing data stored on hard drive. System restart required.

   System Restore
   The system has been restored after a critical error. Data integrity and hard drive integrity verification required.

   Just like the fake corruption messages and fake scan results, these alerts are only designed to scare you into purchasing the program.

   As you can see, the warnings issued by this program are all fake, and once you realize that, the alerts become more of a nuisance rather than a concern. Therefore, do not purchase HDD Diagnostic for any reason, and if you already have, please contact your credit card company and state that the program is a computer infection and a scam and that you would like to dispute the charge. To remove this infection and related malware, please follow the steps in the guide below.

   ——————————————————————————–

   Automated Removal Instructions for HDD Plus using Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware:

   1.Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.

   2.It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.

   3.Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to HDD Plus so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure.
   Identify rogue processes:
   %Temp%\
   %Temp%\.exe
   %Temp%\.dll
   %Temp%\dfrg
   %Temp%\dfrgr
   %Temp%\.exe
   %UserProfile%\Desktop\HDD Plus.lnk
   %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Plus\
   %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Plus\HDD Plus.lnk
   %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Plus\Uninstall HDD Plus.lnk
   File Location Notes:

   %UserProfile% refers to the current user’s profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\ for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\ for Windows Vista/7, and c:\winnt\profiles\ for Windows NT.

   %Temp% refers to the Windows Temp folder. By default, this is C:\Windows\Temp for Windows 95/98/ME, C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ProfileName\LOCAL SETTINGS\Temp for Windows 2000/XP, and C:\Users\ProfileName\AppData\Local\Temp for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

   Associated HDD Plus Windows Registry Information:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “”
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “.exe”

   Stop them with Task Manager.
   Do not reboot your computer after stopping the processes as the malware programs will start again.

   Go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com
   Run a scan. Remove infections.