HDD Repair is a fake computer optimization and hard disk drive defragmenter software, which from the same family of malware as HDD Plus, Hard Drive Diagnostic, etc. The program detects numerous critical errors and displays various fake warnings that states that there is something wrong with your PC in order to scare you into thinking your computer in danger and has a lot of serious problems. Next, HDDRepair will say that all you have to do in order to fix these problems and errors is purchase the full version of the software. Do not purchase this fake hard disk “repair” tool because it is nothing more but a scam which is unable to detect and fix any problems! Remember that the rogue is a highly dangerous application and you need remove HDD Repair as soon as possible!
HDD Repair is promoted and installed itself on your computer without your permission and knowledge through the use of trojans or other malicious software as you do not even notice that. Moreover, the authors of of the fake program may also distribute HDDRepair on social networks (Twitter, My Space, Facebook, etc) and spam emails . Please be careful when opening attachments and downloading files or otherwise you can end up with a rogue program on your PC.
Once installed, HDD Repair does a fake scan of your computer then tells you it has found numerous critical errors, e.g. “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”, etc. It will require you to pay for the fake software before it “repairs” your machine of the problems. Of course, all of these errors are a fake. So, you can safety ignore the false scan results.
HDD Repair will prevent you from using other programs or the internet by shutting down programs every time they are opened. Instead, it will display the following fake warning:
Windows detected a hard drive problem.
A hard drive error occurred while starting the applicati
Moreover, this malware will flood your computer with nag screens and fake alerts. The alerts are similar to the ones listed below:
System Restore
The system has been restored after a critical error. Data integrity and hard drive integrity verification required.
Windows – No Disk
Exception Processing Message 0×0000013
Critical Error
A critical error has occurred while indexing data stored on hard drive. System restart required.
Of course, all of these alerts are just a fake. This is an attempt to make you think that something wrong with your computer. Like false scan results you should ignore them.
As you can see, HDDRepair is a scam which created with one purpose to to trick you into purchasing the full version of the program. If your computer is infected with this malware, then most importantly, do not purchase it! Uninstall the rogue from your PC as soon as possible. Use the removal instructions below to remove HDD Repair and any associated malware from your computer for free.
Automated Removal Instructions for HDD Repair
Step 1. Reboot your computer in Safe mode with networking
Restart your computer.
After hearing your computer beep once during startup, start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.
Instead of Windows loading as normal, Windows Advanced Options menu appears similar to the one below.
Windows Advanced Options menu
When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, select Safe mode with networking and then press ENTER.
Step 2. Stop HDD Repair from running
Download HijackThis from here. Run HijackThis and click Scan button to perform a system scan. Place a checkmark against each of lines:
O4 – HKCU\..\Run: [{RANDOM}.exe] {PATH}\Temp\{RANDOM}.exe
O4 – HKCU\..\Run: [{RANDOM}] {PATH}\Temp\{RANDOM}.exe
Example:
O4 – HKCU\..\Run: [AcDAlppKDp.exe] C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\AcDAlppKDp.exe
O4 – HKCU\..\Run: [358794] C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\358794.exe
Note: list of infected items may be different. Template of the malicious entries:
Variant 1: [{random string}] {PATH}\Temp\{random string}.exe;
Variant 2: [{set of random numbers}] {PATH}\Temp\{set of random numbers}.exe;
If you unsure, then check it in Google. Skip this step, if you does not find any malicious lines.
Place a checkmark against each of them. Once you have selected all entries, close all running programs then click once on the “fix checked” button. Close HijackThis.
Step 3. Clean temp folder
HDDRepair stores its files in Windows temp foder. You need to clean it.
Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune from here, saving it to your desktop. It is used to cleanout temporary files & temp areas used by internet browsers.
Start ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program. Under Main choose: Select All and click the Empty Selected button.
Step 4. Remove HDD Repair and associated malware
Download MalwareBytes Anti-malware (MBAM). Close all programs and Windows on your computer.
Double Click mbam-setup.exe to install the application. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
Once the program has loaded you will see window similar to the one below.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Window
Select Perform Quick Scan, then click Scan, it will start scanning your computer for HDD Repair infection. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient.
When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. You will see a list of infected items similar as shown below. Note: list of infected items may be different than what is shown in the image below.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware, list of infected items
Make sure all entries have a checkmark at their far left and click “Remove Selected” button to remove HDD Repair. MalwareBytes Anti-malware will now remove all of associated HDD Repair files and registry keys and add them to the programs’ quarantine. When MalwareBytes Anti-malware has finished removing the infection, a log will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart.
HDD Repair removal notes
Note 1: if you can not download, install, run or update Malwarebytes Anti-malware, then follow the steps: Malwarebytes won`t install, run or update – How to fix it.
Note 2: if you need help with the instructions, then post your questions in our Spyware Removal forum.
Note 3: your current antispyware and antivirus software let the infection through ? Then you may want to consider purchasing the FULL version of MalwareBytes Anti-malware to protect your computer in the future.
HDD Repair creates the following files and folders
%UserProfile%\Desktop\HDD Repair.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Repair\HDD Repair.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Repair\Uninstall HDD Repair.lnk
%Temp%\{RANDOM}.exe
%Temp%\{RANDOM}
%Temp%\{RANDOM}.dat
HDD Repair creates the following registry keys and values
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run | {RANDOM}
