How to Remove Boot Sector Viruses

Remove a virus from your boot sector to regain control of your computer.

If your computer is having trouble starting up, it may be infected with a boot sector virus. The boot sector is the area of your hard drive in charge of starting, or "booting," your computer. A virus infection there can be devastating, preventing you from turning on the machine at all. The key to fixing it is to boot your computer using an option called "Safe Mode," then remove the virus(es) from there.

Things You'll Need

• Malware Removal Tool

Instructions

1. Start your computer in Safe mode by hitting the F8 key repeatedly when you turn it on.

2. Run Microsoft's "Malware Removal Tool," included on all PC computers. Click the Start menu in the bottom right of your desktop, then click "Run." Type "MRT" (no quotes) and hit ENTER. If you encounter problems, download another copy from Microsoft (link in Resources).

3. Click once on the "Next" button, then "Full Scan." This offers a better chance of finding and removing the boot sector virus than the "Quick Scan."

4. Click once on the "Next" button and wait for the scan of the virus-infected hard drive to complete. Follow the steps on-screen to remove the boot sector virus(es). Click once on the "Finish" button and restart your computer.

References

• PC Hell: Using the MSRT

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Download Malware Removal Tool