If you cannot boot into your Operating System or you think your system is totally infected with some sort of malware and your antivirus isn’t able to wipe these intruders, then before trying to reinstall the Operating System and losing most of your precious data (in case of unbootable system), you should give any one of the below mentioned antivirus software that let you scan at the boot time.
BitDefender Rescue CD
The website provides a Bot Removal Tool to scan infected computers and remove the malware. The Bot Removal Tool has been developed by Quick Heal company which is a popular antivirus company. Following is the link to download Quick Heal Bot Removal Tool: Download Quick Heal Bot Removal Tool. Open Quick Heal antivirus. On the left pane, click Protection and then click Malware Protection. In case, the adware is not removed successfully, the adware is quarantined and will be cleaned in next Boot Time Scan. Close: Click this button to close the message. However, the same message will keep appearing until you take an action. The installer automatically sets the boot time scanner to scan and disinfects the system on the next boot. After disinfection of your computer, the computer restarts and you need to re-initiate the installation. For more details, see Performing Boot Time Scan. If no virus is found in the system memory, the installation proceeds.
BitDefender is capable of scanning and disinfecting your system at boot time. This is another one of those who states to used only when your system in not booting or is almost inoperable.
Tools included inside are a rootkit scanner, network-vulnerability scanner, partition manager, file recovery tools, wireless network monitor, network diagnostics, and Mozilla’s Firefox browser. When you boot the CD, the software tries to download anti-malware definition updates if the system has an active Internet connection.
Virus Detection is Good and gives you option to choose what to do after threats have been detected.
You can download the ISO from here and if you’re looking for a guide to create bootable rescue cd or usb check out this link.
Kaspersky Rescue Disk
Kaspersky Rescue disk is specially made to scan, disinfect, and restore infected operating system. The official website of Kaspersky states that this software should only be used when the operating system becomes unbootable. Kaspersky doesn’t need much introduction when it comes to defending systems against intrusions. The rescue disk is capable of removing any kind of intrusions and makes your system bootable again.
Graphical User Interface is quite user friendly but sometimes, cleaning enters infinite loop mode and then only option is to unplug power.
You can download the ISO from here and if you’re thinking on how to create a bootable USB drive then you can check out this link.
Quick Heal Antivirus
This is the only antivirus which comes with an inbuilt boot scanning option. Actually this is one of the things every antivirus should come with. To perform a boot time scan through Quick Heal, you have to follow these steps:
- Update Quick Heal to the latest virus definitions
- Disconnect your computer from all the networks
- Open Quick Heal – Click on Scan – Click on Boot time Scan – Click on Yes to set the Boot Time Scanner – Click on Yes to restart your computer
Quick Heal is faster in scanning compared to above solutions while I doubt about offering complete threat deletion.
If you don’t want to believe in ratings and comparisons provided in this article or by anyone, you should create a combination of all these top Antivirus Rescue disks. Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility can help you in creating a multiboot disk.
Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility [ SARDU ]
This is one of those applications that everyone should give a try. This is just a utility that lets you create bootable disk/usb from the available antivirus rescue disks and system tools. The application does not come up with any of the rescue disk or system tools.
Here is the list of supported antivirus rescue CDs and other tools:
Antivirus: Avira Antivir Rescue System, Bitdefender, Dr. Web Live CD, F-Secure, GData, Kaspersky Kav Rescue CD, Panda Safe CD and VBA Rescue
Utility: Floppy win98SE, Clonezilla, Gparted, NT password, Parted Magic, System Rescue CD, Ultimate Boot CD
Linux: Austrumi, Damn Small Linux, NimbleX, Puppy Linux, Slax
Boot Time Scan Windows 10
Quick Heal Boot Time Scan Stuck
PE: LiveXP, MegalabCD, WindowsPE, UBCD4Win, VistaPE
Free Boot Time Scan
It offers either to create an ISO image or make a bootable usb drive by combining two or three tools and rescue CDs together.
You can download Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility from here.