A good time to make some bootdisk antivirus scanners / rescue cds

RussJK

After reading all the fun about the System Tools infection, I figured it would be a good idea to remind people that you can make antivirus CDs that the computer can boot up instead of Windows, allowing an antimalware scan without having to load Windows. This is important particularly if you have only one computer, and a virus has prevented you from accessing the internet (and so preventing you from finding out how to fix it yourself.) In the same way, you can access utilities for fixing or backing things up.

There are a number of easy to use boot CD rescue disks, from each of the major antivirus vendors:

Avira Rescue System
http://dlpro.antivir.com/package/rescue_system/common/en/rescue_system-common-en.iso

Dr Web Live CD
http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd

F-Secure Rescue CD
http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA-Labs/security-threats/tools/rescue-cd/

AVG Rescue CD
http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

Kapersky Rescue 10
http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/RescueDisk10/

eScan (wants you to register, but direct link here)
http://www.escanav.com/english/content/products/MWAV/escan_download.asp

G Data BootCD
https://www.gdatasoftware.com/support/main-subjects/upgrade-service/download.html

Panda Safe CD
http://www.pandasecurity.com/resources/tools/SafeCD.iso

VBA Rescue (can be oversensitive with false positives)
http://www.anti-virus.by/en/vba32rescue.shtml

BitDefender Rescue CD
http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/

PC Tools' Alternative Operating System Scanner
http://www.pctools.com/aoss/

I personally prefer Avira, F-Secure, and Dr Web. VBA32 is thorough, but does tend towards false positives, so only use if you can tell the difference.

Basic steps to do this:

1. Download one of the rescue CDs above, should be .ISO file
2. Burn it onto a blank CD using a program like Imgburn
3. Restart computer with the CD in the drive
4. Boot from the CD (may need to select boot menu)
5. Follow the onscreen prompts


To make an antivirus rescue CD:
Easiest program to use is Imgburn (http://www.imgburn.com/)
and follow this simple guide here:

a. Load Imgburn.
b. Select 'Write Image File to Disc'
c. Press 'Select a file' and select the .ISO image file that you downloaded:
d. Make sure a blank CD or DVD is in the drive, and then press the Burn button:


To boot up using a rescue CD
First you need the CD/DVD in the drive whenyou start your computer. The computer may choose the start from the CD if it is set to do this, otherwise you will have to look out for a message such as:

'Press F12 to enable multi-boot menu'

Do this, and select the IDE CD Rom. The computer will then start to boot from the CD. After this, just follow the prompts.

If you want to make the computer automatically load a bootable CD, there is a guide here but it's not really necessary.


Notes
Some of the rescue CDs are better than others at detecting internet access in order to update their database (important), so it's probably easier to connect to the modem router using a network cable instead of trying to get wireless working. For this same reason, it's also worth making a number of boot CDs, each from a different antivirus vendor.

It is also possible to make a bootable USB, such as for a netbook, but for a computer with a working DVD drive it's best to just use a boot CD as the USB has more chance of not working from experience. If you want to do this, it is easy enough to search for a guide.


Other boot CDs:
There are some other boot CDs that people might find handy such as Ultimate Boot CD, Trinity Rescue CD, Hiren's Boot CD. There are backup programs such as Clonezilla or Redo Backup, that will make a complete image of your hard drive or partition, so that you can restore the system exactly as it was in case of hard drive failure or a virus, etc.

Many are conveniently listed at Sardu, which is a program that can combine multiple boot CD images into one boot CD/DVD
http://www.sarducd.it/index.html
http://www.sarducd.it/utility.html
http://www.sarducd.it/linux.html

Great program - it adds more complexity to the bootup process so some don't work properly, but most do so it's worthwhile to fill up a DVD with bootup programs.

RussJK

Here are some two more boot up antivirus rescue CDs that I missed in the original list:

BitDefender Rescue CD
http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/

PC Tools' Alternative Operating System Scanner
http://www.pctools.com/aoss/

dogmaryxx

Nice list but why no Hiren's Boot CD

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

RussJK

dogmaryxx wrote: »

Nice list but why no Hiren's Boot CD

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Hiren's is good, I used to use it along with UBCD until I discovered Sardu - which lets you put your own package together. I still put Hiren's on my Sardu DVD though.

It is listed in the Sardu link I posted, along with Ultimate Boot CD and Trinity Rescue Disk:
http://www.sarducd.it/utility.html

The Sardu link lists a number of useful bootable utilities, so it saved space in my overlong post. The main thing was the bootable antivirus programs.

There's an even bigger list here for fans of boot CDs:
http://www.livecdlist.com