Need to get rid of HDD rescue urgently! Please help!

[The Nightingale]

My computer has got the virus HDD rescue. It's a rogue program that tells you that there are things wrong with your computer when there aren't. I've read lots of instructions, but most of the softwear that they recommend to remove it costs money.

I really need to get rid of it urgently as it is messing up my system (it's got rid of my screensaver etc.) I'm not tech savvy, so I would need some step-by-step instructions on how to remove this. I have tried running Malwarbytes in safemode, but it turns off my computer after about 30 mins of scanning.

I would really, really appreciate help. I'm getting very worried.

 

[Jason2009]

back up, format, start over.

 

[thompatry]

My best recommendation is download and boot into live mode of Ubuntu. Then back up and then reinstall the OS.

 

[JCB1]

i think i had the same virus a while back, i re-installed windows, I couldnt get rid of the virus

 

[The Nightingale]

Oh gosh, is that the only option? I wouldn't mind - it's just that I'm not terribly PC savvy so it would be a huge challenge for me. Not to mention the fact that my PC has so many programs and things on it that I need. It would be difficult to back them all up.

And, on top of that, I'm not sure whether I have the OS disk.

Sigh. There were some instructions online for manually removing it. Seemed complicated, but still not as bad as re-installing. Is that a possibility?

Or would doing a system restore back to factory settings work?