Hard drive diagnostic is a fake utility classified as scareware / malware, the program was made to have users think it’s an actual program running for windows when it is not.  When a user is infected with this they will have a pop up window with this program claiming to have detected errors on the systems hard ware most notable the hard drive. This program will add itself to the startup tasks so whenever the user restarts or shutdown the program will immediately be launched. When running, the hard drive diagnostic scareware  / malware will report various hard drive errors such as:

A hard drive error occurred while starting the application

Windows – No Disk

Exception Processing Message 0×0000013

System Restore

The system has been restored after a critical error. Data integrity and hard drive integrity verification required.

While the program is running it will block numerous legitimate windows programs from running giving these errors as well.  The errors given are false and should be ignored and the program should be removed to prevent any further infection.

Manual Removal:

1. Stop Hard Drive Diagnostic process by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. Windows Task Manager will open. Look for the following process:

(random characters).exe

2. Update your installed anti-virus program.

3. Run a full system scan and clean/delete all detected infected file(s). A manual removal of virus-related files should also be performed.

4. Edit Windows registry and delete Hard Drive Diagnostic entries.

5. Exit registry editor.

6. Remove Hard Drive Diagnostic start-up entry by going to Start > Run, type msconfig on the “Open” dialog box. System Configuration Utility will open. Go to Startup tab and uncheck the following Startup item(s):

(random characters).exe

7. Click Apply and restart the computer.

Malicious Files Added by Hard Drive Diagnostic:

%Temp%\[random characters]

%Temp%\[random characters].exe

%Temp%\[random characters].dll

%Temp%\dfrg

%Temp%\dfrgr

Associated Hard Drive Diagnostic Windows Registry Entries That should be removed

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “<random>”

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “<random>.exe”

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