Often, viruses are very tricky and infect your MBR (Master Boot Record). This is pretty annoying, so let’s find out how to check the MBR for virus infections and how to remove the MBR virus.
The master boot record contains the primary partition tables, which makes it a very important disk record. Code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) is executed automatically on boot up, that’s why the MBR is often the target of viruses. Some viruses will always return unless you don’t remove them from the MBR.
1. Repair Corrupt / Broken MBR
If your MBR is corrupt or broken, you can often easily fix it by running a few Windows commands. We have covered this in another article: How to repair MBR in Windows 7
2. Check MBR for viruses
Geekstogo.com provides a useful tool called MBRCheck, which will scan your MBR for any viruses. You should do this if you think your MBR might be infected.
After downloading MBRCheck.exe, stop all your security programs, run it and confirm all UAC prompts. You can run this while you are logged into Windows or if you can’t log in, do this either via safe-mode with command prompt or system repair tools (boot from Windows 7 DVD, repair, run command prompt).
My MBR looks fine, it detected Windows 7 and Windows XP MBR code that are required to boot the operating system. If MBRCheck.exe finds a virus it will display it and you can proceed with removing the virus. However, if you need further advise, you can post the .log file that will be added to your desktop if MBRCheck.exe finds a virus.