Resolved: "Virus Protection" malware has locked all access to computer

[R. Ravenclaw]

Hello,

While doing some side work, I ran across a new (to me anyway) variant of the fake antivirus. This one calls itself Virus Protection. On boot up, it takes over the computer completely. Ctrl+Alt+Delete will work, but the task manager option is greyed out. Booting into Safe Mode gives the same results. I was frustrated with this, so I walked away to think about it. When I came back the dock (OS=Vista Home) was displayed at the top. I was able to wiggle my way to my jump drive and run MalwareBytes. After several hours, the computer was clean and working as expected.
This morning at work I have encountered the same virus! We run XP Pro, so there is no hope of a dock appearing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could try to gain access to the drives, or anything else? Thank you for your time

 

[Bobbye]

You lost me here:

I was able to wiggle my way to my jump drive and run MalwareBytes. After several hours, the computer was clean and working as expected.............
This morning at work I have encountered the same virus! We run XP Pro, so there is no hope of a dock appearing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could try to gain access to the drives, or anything else?

You switched systems which was confusing! Is it possible that the flash drive has caused the malware to spread from one system to the other?

Please give us more details on just what you are encountering on the Windows XP system. Can you get in at all? Normal mode? Safe mode?

 

[R. Ravenclaw]

Sorry for the confusion. I guess it was not clear that I was speaking of two different computers. On has Vista and the other has XP. The jump drive was not part of the problem because I have one at home and one at work. I did not use the same drive in both computers.

After talking with some of my peers, we decided to just put the infected drive into a computer that is slated for a reimage. The infected drive became the secondary drive and there was no concern for infecting the primary drive since it will be reformated this afternoon anyway. I was able to run Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware on the infected drive and found over 300 adwares and 50 trojans.

So, problem solved! Thanks to all who took the time to read this and/or reply.

 

[Bobbye]

Thank you for the update. The thread will be closed since the problem has been resolved.