Some malware infections are so severe that they leave us without the possibility of starting Windows correctly. In those cases, the most common recommendation is to take the hit and apply the 'purge and reinstall' combo, but there are other options to explore before throwing in the towel completely. One of them is Dr. Web LiveDisk, a rescue environment based on Ubuntu that offers an antivirus, a registry editor, automatic mounting of NTFS partitions, and a file manager to extract content easily.
There are many reasons why Windows might refuse to start, and malware infections are very high on the list. An attacker is supposed to cause as little noise as possible when entering a computer, but the average malware sample is not a shining example of 'good code' to say the least, and on more than one occasion, partial destruction of the operating system is a side effect.
So... backups! If you don't have any made, the keyword is 'should', because besides infections, we are also forced to consider other factors (hardware failures?). However, let's return to digital bugs for now. How do you remove them 'from outside' Windows? What are the chances of repairing the system, or at least recovering a part of the information?
Dr.Web: Repairing Windows
The situation improves if we add tools like Dr. Web LiveDisk to our arsenal. Its structure is based on an old copy of Ubuntu, but the lack of updates for the distro doesn't work against us, since we're only interested in the programs delivered by the Russian developer.
The most important of them is obviously Dr. Web CureIt!, which can be updated with a couple of clicks, as long as Ubuntu has detected a network card 'and' an active connection. Another very interesting resource is the registry editor. Some malware variants depend heavily on it to ensure their loading with the operating system, but if we can cut their root chains, we will prevent execution later.
The rest of the team is divided between Mozilla Firefox, a classic like Midnight Commander, the terminal of the MATE environment, and the basic file manager. The ISO image of Dr. Web LiveDisk can be downloaded directly, or written to a USB drive using the official application (compatible only with Windows). In summary: Before applying Lieutenant Ripley's diplomacy and bombing Windows from a safe orbit, you might want to try disinfection or data extraction with Dr. Web LiveDisk.
