Fast Disk

There are many reasons attributable to the continued success of rogueware such as rogue defragmenters and system optimizers, as is the case of Fast Disk. The overwhelming element which continues to add to their success is their knack of duping consumers into believing they are indeed offering a prima service. Fast Disk, which derives from the same family as Defragmenter, HDD Low, HDD Tools and HDD Plus is only a new version from this family of rogues which infect unsuspecting users’ PCs.

Fast Disk spreads with the help of pernicious viruses which are distributed in a variety of ways over the Internet. These include browser hijackers which are employed by Fast Disk to forcefully infect PC owners’ systems simply by redirecting them to one of these domains’ sites. This happens because the illicit websites make use of established drive-by download techniques which spreads Trojans to users’ PCs without their knowledge. Fast Disk also bundles its Trojan and malware viruses with legitimate security updates and software downloads obtained from third party websites.

As soon as the Fast Disk infection roots itself in the PC, it will start spamming the user with various fake security alerts. These fake security messages are quite plainly intended to cause panic among PC owners, and to place Fast Disk in a favorable and authoritative light with its victims. Do not fall for this tomfoolery, and remain suspicious about any of correspondence received from Fast Disk. Some of the more notorious fake Fast Disk security pop up messages to be on the lookout for includes the following:

"Critical Error!
Damaged hard drive clusters detected. Private data is at risk."

"Critical Error
Hard Drive not found. Missing hard drive."

"Critical Error
RAM memory usage is critically high. RAM memory failure."

"Critical Error
Windows can't find hard disk space. Hard drive error"

"Critical Error!
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file System32496A8300. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware."

"Critical Error
A critical error has occurred while indexing data stored on hard drive. System restart required."

"System Restore
The system has been restored after a critical error. Data integrity and hard drive integrity verification required."

You cannot trust any of these malicious fake security notifications. PC owners are urged never to follow or act upon any calls to action contained in these fake alerts as they are without merit. Fast Disk, as with any other rogue is dependent on user interaction in order to successfully attain its ultimate goal of fleecing its victim out of his money. This means that if the PC owner refuses to interact with Fast Disk and act upon its instruction, then it won’t have the opportunity to con the user out of his money.

The developers of this rogue will also try to prevent the user from running or downloading any program with the ability to detect and remove Fast Disk from the system. They will do this by blocking the system’s access to the Internet, and by curtailing the user’s ability to launch any executables. When the PC owner tries to launch a program, he will be subjected to the following bogus security alert:

"Windows detected a hard drive problem.
A hard drive error occurred while starting the application."

Or

"Windows cannot find notepad. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search."

Fast Disk will present the following message if the user acts on the aforementioned call to action:

"Fix Disk
Windows Disk Diagnostics will scan the system to identify performance problems.
Start or Cancel"

If you would like to "activate" Fast Disk on the PC in order to reinstate the Internet access and allow programs to execute successfully, simply enter the following security key:

0973467457475070215340537432225

Be aware that by simply entering the above security key, you will not successfully erase Fast Disk from the system. You will only quell the rogue’s symptoms, but you still need to eliminate Fast Disk in order to restore your PC’s health and security.

Fast Disk is a nuisance, and does not have the ability to live up to any of its promises. In order to minimize the inevitable damage posed to the system by this infection, erase Fast Disk from the system as soon as possible. Do this by investing not only in a program which will detect and eliminate Fast Disk, but one which will offer continued protection against future similar attacks and threats.