How to Remove HDD Doctor Fake Disk Repair Utility
HDD Doctor is a fake utility that pretends to be a disk repair tool. It infects your computer and starts generating fake warning messages that your computer disk is damaged and requires immediate repair in order to safeguard your data. HDD Doctor messages can be very convincing. For example, whenever you try to run any program or application, a critical error message is generated telling you that the application cannot start and that your disk has damaged clusters. Other warning messages received are:
- A critical error occurred while indexing data stored. System restart required.
- Damaged hard drive clusters detected. Private data is at risk.
- Ram memory usage is critically high. Ram memory failure.
Additionally, HDD Doctor can hide all your desktop shortcuts and replace your desktop background with a black screen. It can also hide all your program files so when you click on Programs, you come up with an empty menu.
If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms, your computer is most likely infected with HDD Doctor or one of the many other names it goes by. Luckily a simple solution is as follows:
- Click on Start, Run and type the following exactly as shown: Shell:Common Appdata
- In the folder that opens, locate an oddly named file, example KJlfelcpANWPw.exe. Write down the name of this file and keep the containing folder open.
- Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Task Manager. Locate the file from the above step under the processes tab, click once on it to select it, then choose End Process.
- Go back to the folder from step 3, right-click on the file and choose delete.
- Restart your computer.
The above steps should effectively disable HDD Doctor which will enable you to run and update your existing antivirus program to remove all remaining parts.