Page 32 - index

How to recover data from an infected hard drive

Methods and best practices

By Jean Lewis, Tech writer, Laptopical.com

The digital age sees us becoming more reliant than ever on our computers in both our private
and professional lives. Whether it is for communications or information, digital data has become
a staple diet for our modern lifestyles. In fact, it is not just computers but also our mobile devices
which have become a day to day necessity.

But our reliance on digital data increasingly puts us at risk of catching viruses and malware,
exposing our professional and private lives to incidents of data theft or even data loss which can
have a seriously negative impact on our lives.

This article will look at the different methods and best practices to recover data from a hard
drive infected by a virus or other malware. It first will look at how to recognise if the hard drive is
infected (syndromes of malware) and will then show the appropriate steps to take in order to
recuperate data before / after the operating system becomes unusable.

Syndrome 1: The inability to access Google, Bing or Yahoo search engines.

This syndrome often indicates that our hard drive has been infected by a browser hijacker. This
kind of virus interferes with our browser’s settings, often redirecting us to a different search
provider when we try to go online. Instead of being able to use the Google, Bing or Yahoo
search engines, our browser will force us to use another engine to search the web. Some of the
more well-known browser hijackers include Trovi and Babylon Toolbar.

How to catch a browser hijacker. Browser hijackers install themselves as a window service
and they run upon Windows start-up. They are often installed on your computer by yourself
when you try to install or download another bit of software. The practice of the ‘optional extra
software offer’ is used around the web to get people to install promoted software. An example of
this can be found when downloading Adobe’s Flash Player. The following screenshot shows the
optional offer of downloading ‘McAfee Security Scan Plus’:

32 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2015 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide