AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus - How to remove

AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus – a very dangerous computer virus that can cause detrimental damage to your system. It ’encrypts’ data stored on the infected computer and then demands a ransom in order to decrypt those files.

As far as we know, it origins from a HiddenTear ransomware family. We are already familiar with viruses from this category, therefore can provide you with an assistance on how to effectively eliminate this virus and give the best shot at restoring files that are encrypted by AndreaGalli. Please note that we can’t guarantee that your files will be restored, yet it’s definitely worth to give a try.

Technical Features of AndreaGalli

AndreaGalli is a crypto virus and that means it will employ a specific cryptography to change the structure of personal files once it is actively operating on the system. It is not known what’cryptography’ is used to lock files, yet we know that it can successfully encrypt the following file types:

.txt, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .gif, .jpg, .png, .db, .csv, .sql, .mdb.sln.php, .asp, .aspx, .html, .xml, .psd, .frm, .myd, .myi, .dbf, .mp3, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .mpg, .rm, .wmv, .m4a, .mpa, .wav, .sav, .gam, .log, .ged, .msg, .myo, .tax, .ynab, .ifx, .ofx, .qfx, .qif, .qdf, .tax2013, .tax2014, .tax2015, .box, .ncf, .nsf, .ntf, .lwp

That means most of your personal files will be encrypted and you won’t be able to use them anymore. Since AndreaGalli is from Hidden Tear family, it adds .locked extension to the end of every encrypted file. There are a lot of ransomware viruses that also use .locked extension – JobCrypter, Blood Jaws, Assembly, Ultimo and so on. That comes useful when there is a need to decrypt files – there are plenty of tools that can deal with .locked extension since it’s so popular.

Once the files are encrypted, you will get a message that informs about the current situation. Developers of this malware try to replicate Windows error message. This pop-up window looks just like the original error message, named as “Update Java runtime”. Original text from the message:

Could not open key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Java\\CurrentVersion\\Update\\UserData\\S-1-5-18\\Components\\E66BB33D46696BA40A4403405BA0900B\\D36CE44061781964CBC011866B8B1242 (System error 5).\n\nVerify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

We believe that this message is designed to look like legitimate notification from Windows, so that users would think their computer is dealing with some technical problems and not a ransomware virus.

You might think what is the purpose of that behavior? Most of the time ransomware infections are trying to provide a lot of information about how the ransom should be paid and force users to do that, but AndreaGalli virus acts opposite. Perhaps it’s because this virus is still in the development and they haven’t created a payment system yet. That means they are already preparing for the launch by infecting computers and they don’t want to lose potential victims.

How To Eliminate AndreaGalli Virus

You do not need to wait until the virus is completely finished – get rid of it right now. To do that, you have to get a trustworthy anti-malware tool, such as Spyhunter. Launch a full system scan and after several minutes your computer will be analyzed. All malicious files related to AndreaGalli will be detected and removed automatically, so you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Unfortunately, removing the virus and decrypting locked files is not the same – you will have to perform these actions separately. That means after completely removing AndreaGalli from a system, your files will still remain locked until you decrypt or restore them.

Also, we do recommend to keep one of those anti-malware programs installed – they will protect your computer from similar infections in the future. You can also look at our reviews section for a wider selection of decent anti-malware tools.

How To Decrypt Files Locked By AndreaGalli

In case ransomware attacks your computer, you always have the ability to completely remove the virus using anti-malware tool and then restore your locked files from a backup. Unfortunately, there is one problem – in order to be able to restore files, you have to have a valid backup. Some of the ransomware viruses are even capable of encrypting backup files, so it has to be stored on an external drive.

Luckily, .locked is a common extension used by ransomware viruses, thus there are various free tools that can help you. Take a look at ’Trend, ’Avast and ’Heimdal. All of them are free and one of them should certainly unlock files that were encrypted by AndreaGalli.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus encrypted files and remove the virus

Step 1. Restore system into last known good state using system restore

1. Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

for Windows 7 / Vista/ XP

• Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
• Press F8 key repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options window appears.
• Choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

for Windows 8 / 10

• Press Power at Windows login screen. Then press and hold Shift key and click Restart.
• Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings and click Restart.
• When it loads, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt from the list of Startup Settings.

 

2.Restore System files and settings.

• When Command Prompt mode loads, enter cd restore and press Enter.
• Then enter rstrui.exe and press Enter again.
• Click “Next” in the windows that appeared.
• Select one of the Restore Points that are available before AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus

After restoring your system, it is recommended to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter and remove all malicious files related to AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus affected files using Shadow Volume Copies

If you do not use System Restore option on your operating system, there is a chance to use shadow copy snapshots. They store copies of your files that point of time when the system restore snapshot was created. Usually AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus tries to delete all possible Shadow Volume Copies, so this methods may not work on all computers. However, it may fail to do so. Shadow Volume Copies are only available with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. There are two ways to retrieve your files via Shadow Volume Copy. You can do it using native Windows Previous Versions or via Shadow Explorer. a) Native Windows Previous Versions Right-click on an encrypted file and select Properties → Previous versions tab. Now you will see all available copies of that particular file and the time when it was stored in a Shadow Volume Copy. Choose the version of the file you want to retrieve and click Copy if you want to save it to some directory of your own, or Restore if you want to replace existing, encrypted file. If you want to see the content of file first, just click Open.

b) Shadow Explorer It is a program that can be found online for free. You can download either a full or a portable version of Shadow Explorer. Open the program. On the left top corner select the drive where the file you are looking for is a stored. You will see all folders on that drive. To retrieve a whole folder, right-click on it and select “Export”. Then choose where you want it to be stored.

Step 4. Use Data Recovery programs to recover AndreaGalli Ransomware Virus encrypted files

There are several data recovery programs that might recover encrypted files as well. This does not work in all cases but you can try this:

• We suggest using another PC and connect the infected hard drive as slave. It is still possible to do this on infected PC though.
• Download a data recovery program.
• Install and scan for recently deleted files.

Note: In many cases it is impossible to restore data files affected by modern ransomware. Thus I recommend using decent cloud backup software as precaution. We recommend checking out Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan or Mozy Home.