Crypt0r Ransomware - How to remove

Crypt0r Ransomware was recently discovered by ’Malware. It’s clear that it is ransomware – a virus that can lock up all (or most) of your personal files and then demand a ransom to be paid in order to reverse this process and make those files usable once again.

Obviously, it would be much better to not get infected with a virus like this one in the first place – it would save much time and even money. And it’s not that hard – all it takes is to secure your computer with a trustworthy anti-malware tool that has a special ransomware protection feature. IObit Malware Fighter is one of them, so feel free to check it out, or simply take a look at our reviews section where we give our insights on most advanced AM tools.

However, if it’s too late for prevention and your computer is already infected with Crypt0r virus, you will have to take other actions in order to solve this problem. Right now you are probably thinking about contacting cyber criminals behind Crypt0r ransomware and paying them the money because your personal files are very important to you. That would be a mistake – do not do that. You already did half of the job – you found our article on this topic and we will help you to eliminate Crypt0r virus from the computer and restore your locked files, so keep reading.

Also, if you have any questions regarding this topic, feel free to ask them in the comments section below and we will do our best to answer them all.

Crypt0r Ransomware Features

It would be fair to say that Crypt0r is a typical ransomware virus. We can compare it to other infections like Ahihi, Boom ransomware, or Vulston and we will see that they all have some key features in common:

• Unique extension to mark locked files;
• Demand for a ransom in exchange of decryption key;
• Locks files using strong cryptography;
• Generates ransom notes with instructions on how to pay the ransom.

So you already know how ransomware works and what to expect of it. After Crypt0r virus hits you, it will immediately scan your hard drive for files that could be encrypted. Once that’s done, it will right on encrypt all of them and add “.aqhATfjK” extension to the end of every encrypted file. Also, you will notice a file “_HELP.txt” on your desktop – it’s a ransom note we have told you about. Original text from this ransom note:

All your files and documents are encrypted by Crypt0r.

We provide a decryption service. If you need our help, contact our customer service via mail:

[email protected]

All we need is your personal service ID: –

They present you with an email address [email protected] – supposedly you should contact them and get all the information that is needed to pay the ransom. So it’s not know how much and how you will be asked to pay. Regardless of the amount, we do not recommend to do that. First of all, you can get scammed. There have been plenty of occasions when victims choose to pay the ransom and then they simply get ignored by cyber criminals, so don’t do that. Also, paying the ransom equals supporting cybercriminals, so that’s not a good thing to do as well. Instead of that, go for an alternative method to solve this problem.

Removing Crypt0r And Restoring Files

First things first – you need to remove Crypt0r itself, and only then restore your locked files. If you restore encrypted files while the virus is still active on your computer, they will get encrypted once again, so there is no point in doing that.

The easiest method to get rid of Crypt0r is to scan your computer with Spyhunter. The virus and all files related to it will be immediately detected and eliminated from your computer for good.

Then, you need to take care of locked files. Unfortunately, free decryptor is not available at the moment (we will let you know about it as soon as it is out), so you will have to go for alternatice. Try performing a system restore – it will solve the problem if you have a valid copy of your hard drive that wasn’t damaged by the virus.

If a backup copy is not available, try using ’free – it can solve the problem too.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover Crypt0r Ransomware 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 Crypt0r Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Crypt0r Ransomware

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 Crypt0r Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Crypt0r Ransomware 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 Crypt0r Ransomware 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 Crypt0r Ransomware 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.