Using Live CDs for virus removal

All of these programs are free.  Do not pay any money at any point if you are prompted.

The first one is Kapersky’s rescue disk.  It is a linux based disk that runs from the cd drive when you start the computer.  You have to tell it what you want scanned.  It is probably your c:\ drive or you can just scan everything.  It scans for virus signatures and shows you the results.  You can the delete, quarantine or ignore.  Try quarantine first, if that is not available, try delete.

Download page:

http://rescuedisk.kaspersky-labs.com/rescuedisk/updatable/

The page will look like the above and you will either get a yellow bar with the message “to help protect your security etc.” or a warning on the bottom.  With either instance, you need to give permission to download the file.

Here is the link to user information:

http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk/main?qid=208282484

The next Disk you can try is Hiren’s boot cd.  It is also a live cd that contains tools to remove viruses.  It contains Malwarebytes on the live cd.

It is available here:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

The page is full of advertisements.  You need to scroll down about half way down the page to find the actual boot cd download:

Again, you have to give permission to download the cd file.    It is downloaded as a zip file and will need unzipped when it has finished downloading.

Both cds will be a disk image file or a iso file.  There are many programs available to burn an iso file to disk and you may have one already installed.  If not,  I suggest CDBurnerXP Pro Portable.  It does not need installed.  It just works out of the file location.  It is available here:

http://www.freewarefiles.com/downloads_counter.php?programid=9600

The site has many advertisements and the actual downloads are obscured in an effort to make money.  See the photo below for clarification.

When you burn the cds, start the computer and put on of the cds in the cd drive.  The computer should boot to the drive.

If you are using the Hiren’s cd, choose the windows xp option.  It will load a live version of windows XP.  Click on the ‘HBCD Menu’ icon.  A grey box will open up.  Click on programs and the put your mouse over anti-virus.  There are several anti-virus programs to choose from.  The only problem is that they are command line interfaces but they have fairly good instructions.  You can try a few of these antivirus programs to clear your hard drive.

If you are using the Kaspersky’s cd,  just  insert the cd, you need to push ‘a’ to agree to the terms.  Select the drive to scan and select what to do with the infections.

The Kaspersky’s is probably the easier of the two to use.

Good luck

For more tutorials, see some of the tutorials at http://www.mypctutorials.com pages.