Crystal Ransomware - How to remove

Have you noticed that you can’t open nearly any file that is stored on your computer? Then most probably your computer is infected with ransomware virus – now pay the attention to the extension which is added to the end of every of your files. If it is a random combination of words and numbers from 0 to 9 and from A to Z, then chances are that you are dealing with Crystal Ransomware. It is a pretty new ransomware infection on the market so there is not much information at the moment.

It seems like this ransomware is targeted specifically to the North Europe and USA, English speaking countries and users with higher income. And that is a really smart move – sine you are trying to swindle money, you want to target the ones that can afford to pay the ransom. Cyber security experts have revealed that the infection was built on .NET platform and can infect Windows 7 and Windows 10 operating systems. So if you are using iOS, Linux, or older version of Windows, you should not worry about this particular virus.

We have no idea what actual ransom fee is requested, but usually it is around $300 and cyber criminals ask it to be paid in Bitcoins since it’s way more harder to track the receiver this way. Regardless of the amount and payment method, we suggest not to pay the ransom for this or any other ransomware infection. There are 2 main reasons why: first of all, you will support cyber criminals this way so they will be able to continue their work developing viruses and infecting computers and secondly, no one can be ensured that the files will be unlocked even if the ransomware is paid. Either way, it’s just a waste of your money. It makes much more sense to invest that money into strengthening the security of your computer.

Processes of Crystal Ransomware virus

Crystal ransomware can get inside of your computer when you open some attachment to the spam e-mail. It is enough to open the fake attachment that looks like photo or text document, and .exe file will be automatically implemented into your computer. After that, the virus automatically scans your files and adds unique extension to all or most of them. From this moment, you will be not able to open any of them. Right after that, you will notice a notification on your desktop – usually they give you the instructions how to pay the ransom and decrypt your files.

What to do if Crystal ransomware encrypted my files?

If your files are locked, the very first thing you should do is to remove Crystal ransomware itself from your computer. It can be done with some help from a reasonable anti-malware application, such as Spyhunter. To more detailed instructions, scroll down below this article and take a look at our ransomware restore guide.

Unfortunately, there are no free decryptor for this ransomware at the moment, so the only way to retrieve your locked files is to restore them from a back-up. Simply set your system to the date that is previous to the infection – the virus will be gone and files restored.

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

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Crystal 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 Crystal Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Crystal 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 Crystal 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 Crystal 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.