How To Use Kaspersky Rescue Disk to Clean Infected Computer

Last day, we wrote about an emergency kit by Emsisoft for cleaning an infected computer system. But sometimes, to completely remove viruses and other malware from the system, you may need something that lets you scan and clean your system without booting into Windows first. This is when, the best solution is to reboot into a rescue disk and run a full virus scan to disinfect the PC.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk is designed to scan and disinfect x86 and x64-compatible computers that have been infected. The application should be used when the infection is so severe that it is impossible to disinfect the computer using anti-virus applications or malware removal utilities (such as Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool) running under the operating system.

In this article, we will show you how to use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to clean an infected computer.

Download and burn the Kaspersky Rescue Disk image to a disc or use USB

The first thing you’ll need to do is download the latest version of Kaspersky rescue disk, and then use any of your favorite CD/DVD burning application to burn that ISO image file to an optical disc.

You can also install the Rescue Disk ISO image to a USB device and boot your computer from it (if you are not having optical drive option), follow the steps below:

  • In order to use a USB device, you have to first make sure that the device is FAT or FAT32 formatted.

  • Download a special utility Kaspersky USB Rescue Disk Maker (rescue2usb.exe).

  • On the USB Rescue Disk Maker window, click Browse… and select the iso image of Rescue Disk.

  • Select the required USB device from the drop-down menu. and click on the big START button.

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  • Wait until the process is complete.

Use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to clean an infected PC

Once you have the disk or USB device ready, insert it to the computer and reboot it. After reboot, a message will appear on the screen: Press any key to enter the menu.

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Press any key. A loading wizard will start (you will see the menu to select the required language). If you do not press any key in 10 seconds, the computer boots from hard drive automatically. You’ll now be able to choose between the Graphic or Text mode, we recommend using the Graphic mode for keeping the process simple.

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Now, accept the End User License Agreement to continue. It then scans your computer for connected devices and searches for file systems of your local and removable disks. After that, within a few seconds you should see the full working environment of Rescue Disk.

Note: If the host operating system is in sleep mode or its operation has been completed incorrectly, you will be asked to mount the file system or restart the computer.

In order to boot from the hard drive to shut down the operating system correctly, select Restart computer.

  • If you select Continue, the application will continue mounting the file system, but there is a high risk of file system damage.
  • If you select Skip, the application will skip file system mounting. Only boot sectors and autorun elements will be scanned. There is a high risk of file system damage.
  • Restart computer allow you to boot from the hard drive to shut down the operating system correctly.

Now, the first thing you should do is switch to the My Update Center tab, and then click the Start update button to download the latest anti-virus definitions.

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After updating the virus definition files, switch back to the Objects Scan tab, select the drives that you want to scan, and then click the Start Objects Scan button. It will start scanning, and clean up any viruses that it finds.

Note: You’ll be prompted when it finds any virus, and you’ll have the option to clean or quarantine the files.

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If you need to do some in-depth research on the system, you can use some very nifty tools, included in Rescue Disk, directly from the menu below. Utilities included are a file manager, fully working web browser, command line (Terminal), screenshot tool and network setup.

Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk (latest version)

For real-time protection of your Windows operating system, use Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG or Avast or other antivirus of your choice.

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