Some specimens of this variety of ransomware may allow you to use your PC but bombard you with alerts and pop-ups, while others might prevent you from running any programs at all. The simplest type of ransomware, aka scareware, consists of bogus antivirus or clean-up tools that claim they’ve detected umpteen issues, and demand that you pay in order to fix them. I categorize ransomware into three varieties: scareware, lock-screen viruses, and the really nasty stuff. Some procedures involve a simple virus scan, while others require offline scans and advanced recovery of your files. In the past I’ve discussed general steps for removing malware and viruses, but you need to apply some specific tips and tricks for ransomware. The process varies and depends on the type of invader. You can remove many ransomware viruses without losing your files, but with some variants that isn’t the case. So what if you don’t have a CD/DVD drive, or the computer simply won’t boot from CD? Well, the following instructions will step you through how to make a DBAN USB flash drive to boot from, instead of from the CD.With nasty malware like Locky making the rounds-encrypting its victims’ files, and then refusing to unlock them unless you pay up-ransomware is a serious headache. DBAN can be downloaded from and is simple to use, but the download is a bootable CD image. This is a good thing to ensure no personal data can be recovered from the drive after disposal. You may have heard of a utility called DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke) that will permanently wipe all the data from a hard drive before you recycle or dispose of it. At the DBAN menu, type “autonuke” and let it run!.Once the USB conversion is complete, restart the computer, and from the boot menu (see computer manufacturer’s instructions for how to select a boot device), boot from the USB device.Run Universal USB Installer, select “DBAN” from the drop down list, and follow the onscreen instructions.Download the Universal USB-Installer, which converts the *.iso image to USB flash.Insert a USB flash drive with 32MB+ available space.To use a USB to wipe an old hard drive on a Windows PC:

Make a bootable USB flash drive to wipe an old hard drive

How to nuke windows 10 from lockscreen