HDD Diagnostics is a bogus program that spreads over the Internet. Unlike the previously released and most-hated fake program, HDD Diagnostics is not pretending to be an anti-virus software, instead, it represent itself as a tool to resolve computer’s hard disk drive errors and software troubles. This potentially unwanted program is part of the same group who also created WinHDD and HDDControl.
These types of software were developed to deceive computer users with fake diagnostics performed on the system. HDD Diagnostics constantly pop-up various alerts about system problems and hard drive errors. Moreover, each time that you start Windows, you will see the scan performed by HDD Diagnostics. The scan seems real and takes a minute to end. Malware authors make sure that you will fall into this trick by imitating what real diagnostic tool does. Keep in mind that scan results arises from HDD Diagnostics contains nothing but false detection. Its main goal is to persuade victims into purchasing the registration code.
Ignore HDD Diagnostics and completely scan the computer with a legitimate anti-malware program. Don’t attempt to remove HDD Diagnostics from Windows add/remove program because there are no entries created to have this malware be removed automatically from a compromised system. Also, removing the rogue program is not sufficient. You also need to delete the Trojan that dropped this malware onto the computer.
As stated below, this threat can be removed by downloading a powerful security tool and running a full scan on the infected system. Do not forget to update the anti-malware tool to its most recent version to ensure complete removal of HDD Diagnostics.
What are the Symptoms of HDD Diagnostics Infection?
It will modify Windows Registry and add the following entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[random alpha numeric]“
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[random alpha numeric].exe”
The threat will drop the following malicious files:
%Temp%\[random alpha numeric]
%Temp%\[random alpha numeric].exe
%Temp%\[random alpha numeric].dll
%Temp%\dfrg
%Temp%\dfrgr
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Desktop\HDD Diagnostics.lnk
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Diagnostics
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Diagnostics\HDD Diagnostics.lnk
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\HDD Diagnostics\Uninstall HDD Diagnostics.lnk
How to Remove HDD Diagnostics Manually
1. Restart your computer in SafeMode
– Press F8 on keyboard as soon as you turn on the computer
– Select SafeMode to start the computer loading only minimal resources
2. Delete Windows registry entries the malware created. It is important to BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY FIRST.
– On Windows Start Menu, Click Start > Run
– Type in the field, regedit
– Find registry entries mentioned above and delete if necessary
3. Files related to HDD Diagnostics must be deleted:
– Browse and delete malicious files detected above.
– Some files cannot be deleted instantly. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Windows Task Manager, look for any virus-related files mentioned on this page and highlight it, click End Process. Try to delete the file once more.
4. Run Antivirus Program
– You must be connected to Internet to be able to update your anti-virus program. This is needed to have the latest database available and detect newer threats.
– Thoroughly scan the computer and clean or delete all detected threats.
How to Easily Remove HDD Diagnostics
1. Print this procedure as we need to close all running programs later.
2. Download AntiMalware Application here and save it to your Desktop.
3. Close all open applications.
4. Double-Click on the downloaded mbam-setup.exe to start the installation. If unable to execute, infections on computer is preventing it from running, rename the file mbam-setup.exe to anything (like myfile.exe)
5. Run the installation on the default settings. No changes are necessary.
6. Just before completing the installation, make sure that the following are marked check.
– Update the program
– Launch the program
7. The tool will run and update itself after installation. Close it after the update.
8. Restart your computer in SafeMode
– After Power-On the computer, just before Windows start, press F8
– From the selections, Select SafeMode
9. Click on the icon and start to Perform Full Scan to begin scanning your computer for HDD Diagnostics related files.
10. After scanning, a message will appear stating that the scan is completed successfully. Click OK.
11. Click Show Results and detected threats will be displayed.
12. Make sure that all threats are marked check, then click Remove Selected to begin removal of the malicious files.
13. Exit AntiMalware Apps and restart your computer.
14. HDD Diagnostics and all its files are now removed from your computer. To guard your computer from this threat and avoid future infections, you may want real-time protection from a full version of anti-malware program..
