Remove .CRAW file virus

Is this a severe infection

.CRAW file virus will lock your files, since it’s ransomware. Infection can have severe consequences, as the files you can no longer access could be permanently inaccessible. Another reason why it is thought to be one of the most harmful malware out there is that threat is pretty easy to get. Opening spam email attachments, clicking on malicious ads and bogus downloads are the most common reasons why ransomware may be able to infect. After infection, the encoding process will be performed, and once it’s finished, cyber criminals will ask that you give money in exchange for a decryption. Depending on what kind of ransomware has contaminated your computer, the money requested will differ. Complying with the demands is not something you ought to do, so think carefully. Crooks won’t have a moral responsibility to return your files, so you might just end up wasting your money. There are a lot of accounts of users receiving nothing after complying with the demands. Consider investing the money into backup, so that if this were to occur again, you you would not be jeopardizing your files. From USBs to cloud storage, there are plenty of backup options out there, you simply need to pick one. Just terminate .CRAW file virus, and if you had backup prior to infection, you may recover data from there. This is not the last time you’ll get infected with some kind of malware, so you have to prepare. To keep a system safe, one must always be ready to come across possible malware, becoming informed about their spread methods.

Download Removal Toolto remove .CRAW file virus

How does data encrypting malware spread

Users normally get file encrypting malicious program by opening infected files attached to emails, engaging with infected advertisements and getting software from unreliable sources. However, more advanced cyber criminals will use methods that require more ability.

You could have recently downloaded an infected email attachment from a spam email. Criminals add an infected file to an email, which gets sent to many people. Since those emails commonly use topics like money, many users open them without even thinking about the consequences. The use of basic greetings (Dear Customer/Member), strong encouraging to open the attachment, and evident mistakes in grammar are what you ought to look out for when dealing with emails from unfamiliar senders with attached files. To make it more clear, if someone important would send you an attachment, they would use your name, not common greetings, and it wouldn’t end up in the spam folder. Big company names like Amazon are commonly used as users trust them, thus are more likely to open the emails. If you remember clicking on some dubious ads or downloading files from suspicious websites, that’s also how you could’ve gotten the threat. Be very careful about what adverts you click on, particularly when on questionable websites. And attempt to stick to legitimate download sources as much as possible, because otherwise you’re jeopardizing your device. Sources such as ads and pop-ups are notorious for being dangerous sources, so never download anything from them. If an application needed to update itself, it would do it automatically or alert you, but never via browser.

What happened to your files?

Ransomware might result in you being permanently locked out of your files, which is what makes it such a dangerous threat. It has a list of target files, and it will take a short time to locate and encrypt them all. The file extension attached to all affected files makes it very obvious what happened, and it usually shows the name of the file encoding malicious program. Strong encryption algorithms are used by file encoding malicious programs to encode files. When all target files have been encrypted, a ransom note should appear, with information about what you should do next. The creators/spreaders of the ransomware will request that you use their decryption utility, which you obviously have to pay for, and that’s not the recommended option. Do not forget you are dealing with cyber crooks, and they may simply take your money not giving you a decryptor in exchange. By paying, you would not be just risking losing your money, you would also be funding their future criminal projects. And, more and more people will become attracted to the already highly profitable business, which allegedly made $1 billion in 2016 alone. Instead of paying crooks money, the suggested usage of that money would be for buying backup. These types of infections could reoccur again, and you would not have to worry about file loss if you had backup. Eliminate .CRAW file virus if it’s still present, instead of giving into requests. If you become familiar with how these threats are distributed, you ought to learn to dodge them in the future.

Ways to eliminate .CRAW file virus

Take into consideration that you will need to obtain malicious threat removal software if you want to completely get rid of the data encoding malware. Because your computer got infected in the first place, and because you are reading this, you might not be very tech-savvy, which is why we would not recommend you attempt to terminate .CRAW file virus manually. If you implement anti-malware software, you wouldn’t be risking doing more damage to your computer. Anti-malware tools are developed to erase .CRAW file virus and similar infections, so it should not cause problems. So that you are not left on your own, instructions below this article have been placed to help with the process. Sadly, the malware removal tool isn’t able to restore your data, it will only erase the threat. But, you ought to also know that some file encrypting malware can be decrypted, and malware specialists could create free decryptors.

Download Removal Toolto remove .CRAW file virus

Learn how to remove .CRAW file virus from your computer

• Step 1. Remove .CRAW file virus using Safe Mode with Networking.
• Step 2. Remove .CRAW file virus using System Restore
• Step 3. Recover your data

Step 1. Remove .CRAW file virus using Safe Mode with Networking.

• a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking.
• b) Step 2. Remove .CRAW file virus.

a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking.

For Windows 7/Vista/XP

1. Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
2. Press and keep pressing F8 until Advanced Boot Options appears.
3. Choose Safe Mode with Networking

For Windows 8/10 users

1. Press the power button that appears at the Windows login screen. Press and hold Shift. Click Restart.
2. Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
3. Choose Enable Safe Mode with Networking.

b) Step 2. Remove .CRAW file virus.

You will now need to open your browser and download some kind of anti-malware software. Choose a trustworthy one, install it and have it scan your computer for malicious threats. When the ransomware is found, remove it. If, for some reason, you can't access Safe Mode with Networking, go with another option.

Step 2. Remove .CRAW file virus using System Restore

• a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
• b) Step 2. Restore files and settings.

a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

For Windows 7/Vista/XP

1. Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
2. Press and keep pressing F8 until Advanced Boot Options appears.
3. Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

For Windows 8/10 users

1. Press the power button that appears at the Windows login screen. Press and hold Shift. Click Restart.
2. Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
3. Choose Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

b) Step 2. Restore files and settings.

1. You will need to type in cd restore in the window that appears. Press Enter.
2. Type in rstrui.exe and again, press Enter.
3. A window will pop-up and you should press Next. Choose a restore point and press Next again.
4. Press Yes.

While this should have taken care of the ransomware, you might want to download anti-malware just to be sure no other threats are lurking.  

Step 3. Recover your data

• a) Using Data Recovery Pro to recover encrypted files.
• b) Restore files through Windows Previous Versions
• c) Using Shadow Explorer to recover files

While backup is essential, there is still quite a few users who do not have it. If you are one of them, you can try the below provided methods and you just might be able to recover files.

a) Using Data Recovery Pro to recover encrypted files.

1. Download Data Recovery Pro, preferably from a trustworthy website.
2. Scan your device for recoverable files.
3. Recover them.

b) Restore files through Windows Previous Versions

If you had System Restore enabled, you can recover files through Windows Previous Versions.

1. Find a file you want to recover.
2. Right-click on it.
3. Select Properties and then Previous versions.
4. Pick the version of the file you want to recover and press Restore.

c) Using Shadow Explorer to recover files

If you are lucky, the ransomware did not delete your shadow copies. They are made by your system automatically for when system crashes.

1. Go to the official website (shadowexplorer.com) and acquire the Shadow Explorer application.
2. Set up and open it.
3. Press on the drop down menu and pick the disk you want.
4. If folders are recoverable, they will appear there. Press on the folder and then Export.

* SpyHunter scanner, published on this site, is intended to be used only as a detection tool. More info on SpyHunter. To use the removal functionality, you will need to purchase the full version of SpyHunter. If you wish to uninstall SpyHunter, click here.