My work PC has been infected with the System Check malware. Our company IT guy tried to help, but I'm afraid that some of the steps he took may have made it worse.
It started when a TrendMicro warning detected 14 malicious URLs in a site I was visiting. <<Full disclosure, I was researching Justin Bieber fan club sites on the same day his latest single came out....I suppose that made me a duck in barrel.>> IE closed by itself and I ignored it. After about 5 or 10 minutes, all of my open programs shut down and a "Run System Check" screen popped up saying that my HD was failing with things like "rotation speed down 20%." Also, multiple warning messages that "Windows detected a hard disk problem" appeared across the screen with the option to scan, fix, or delay.
This is when our IT guy, Tom, stepped in. He chose 'delay' on about 20 of the warnings and then chose to run the System Check. I think the System Check ran for about 10 minutes and said my hard disk was in danger of failing. Tom then left, Googled 'System Check', and came back asking if I installed it myself. He cancelled the running System Check and then ran a System Restore.
The System Restore did nothing. All of my desktop icons and Start menu icons were 'gone' and nothing appeared in 'My Documents' folder, either.
Another computer savvy guy, Bill, had me install MalWarebytes. The first Quick Scan turned up 14 'trojan' and 'hijack' files. I clicked 'Remove', saved the log, and rebooted. All of my stuff was still missing. Tom then manually chose 'unhide' for most of my desktop icons, but not the Start menu items.
I then ran a Full Scan from Malwarebytes, 3.5 hours later, it flagged 5 trojan files. Again, I clicked 'remove', saved the log, and rebooted. But, I still have no Start menu and I can still see shortcuts to the 'System Check' software.
Tom and Bill threw their hands up! I then found this site and spent time reading many of the threads for this malware. I didn't want to follow the recommended steps exactly since I already performed all of these other 'remedies' but probably made it worse. What should I do now? Is there still hope for my machine? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It started when a TrendMicro warning detected 14 malicious URLs in a site I was visiting. <<Full disclosure, I was researching Justin Bieber fan club sites on the same day his latest single came out....I suppose that made me a duck in barrel.>> IE closed by itself and I ignored it. After about 5 or 10 minutes, all of my open programs shut down and a "Run System Check" screen popped up saying that my HD was failing with things like "rotation speed down 20%." Also, multiple warning messages that "Windows detected a hard disk problem" appeared across the screen with the option to scan, fix, or delay.
This is when our IT guy, Tom, stepped in. He chose 'delay' on about 20 of the warnings and then chose to run the System Check. I think the System Check ran for about 10 minutes and said my hard disk was in danger of failing. Tom then left, Googled 'System Check', and came back asking if I installed it myself. He cancelled the running System Check and then ran a System Restore.
The System Restore did nothing. All of my desktop icons and Start menu icons were 'gone' and nothing appeared in 'My Documents' folder, either.
Another computer savvy guy, Bill, had me install MalWarebytes. The first Quick Scan turned up 14 'trojan' and 'hijack' files. I clicked 'Remove', saved the log, and rebooted. All of my stuff was still missing. Tom then manually chose 'unhide' for most of my desktop icons, but not the Start menu items.
I then ran a Full Scan from Malwarebytes, 3.5 hours later, it flagged 5 trojan files. Again, I clicked 'remove', saved the log, and rebooted. But, I still have no Start menu and I can still see shortcuts to the 'System Check' software.
Tom and Bill threw their hands up! I then found this site and spent time reading many of the threads for this malware. I didn't want to follow the recommended steps exactly since I already performed all of these other 'remedies' but probably made it worse. What should I do now? Is there still hope for my machine? Any help would be greatly appreciated.