Server Partition Manager

What Is WannaCry?

First and foremost, let’s clarify exactly what WannaCry is. In short, this malware is a scary type of trojan virus called “ransomware”. As the name suggests, such virus holds the infected computer hostage and demands that the victim pays a sum of ransom so as to regain access to the files on his computer.

If a computer is attacked by WannaCry, the desktop background will be changed and nearly all file types (such as .7z, .avi, .csv, .doc, .docx, .dot, .gif, .iso, .java. .jpeg, .jpg, .mkv, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .pdf, .png, .ppt, .rar, .txt, .wav, .xlsx, .zip, etc.) will be encrypted until the user send $300 in bitcoins to the appointed address. If the user do not send the ransom within 3 days, the amount doubles to $600, and the user will lost the chance to decrypt his files after 7 days without payment. In a word, only through ransom can the victims have the possibility of decrypting their files (reputedly it is hard for the hackers to distinguish who paid the ransom).

According to a report, more than 300,000 systems around the world are believed to have been infected. Undoubtedly WannaCry is the most severe malware attack so far in 2017, and the spread of this troubling ransomware is at an alarming rate.

Got An Infection Already? Try Data Recovery Tool First

If you find that your system gets infected by ransomware, and no backup is available (you have no backup, so you google), what should you do? Pay the ransom? Absolutely NOT! A solution that deserves trying is to recover the lost data.

This can be supported by the way ransomware encrypts computer files. Usually, ransomware directly encrypts the files OR firstly make a copy, then encrypt the copy, and delete the original files finally. So you can have a try on MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition – The most effective solution for most data loss situation – to scan for the deleted files.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a reliable and quick data recovery tool to recover the original data which is deleted by the ransomware. Although we do not know how WannaCry ransomware encrypted files, it’s no bad to have try on this freeware. Download it now!

Before you do: download this free data recovery tool on a normal OS, then cut off network on your PC and restart. After that, install Power Data Recovery on your PC.

Step 1. Launch this data recovery tool for ransomware infection, immediately you can see 5 recovery modules. Here you can have a try on “Damaged Partition Recovery”.

Step 2. Select the partition that suffers from data loss by Wanancry ramsonware to have a full scan and wait until it completes.

Step 3. After the scanning, you can see a partition named “All RAW Files” where you can find the lost files probably. Please check one by one and save the original files deleted by WannaCry ransomware to a safe location.

How to Protect Yourself from Virus WannaCry

Among the several suggestions, regularly back up system and important files is always the best one. Once a computer is attacked by ransomware, cut off internet access and install the patch MS17-010, then restore system and files.

Then how can we do the backup?

Special Recommendation: MiniTool Partition Wizard

Normally, you can use a professional disk cloning software to back up the whole disk. Such kind of utility spares the trouble of restoration and is especially helpful when you need the backup copy urgently to protect yourself from virus WannaCry.

Here we recommend using MiniTool Partition Wizard to do the clone. Why choose MiniTool Partition Wizard? Well, this free ransomware protection can be used to clone disk, system, and partitions. Besides, it is not only ease of use, but also ensure that when you have finished system cloning or system disk cloning, the destination disk is bootable. What’s more, its free edition is capable of disk cloning and has gained great reputation from numerous users around the world. So you can totally rely on it.

How can Partition Wizard Protect Files from Ransomware?

Well, after installation, do the followings:

Step 1. Select the disk you want to back up and choose “Copy Disk” feature.

Note: if you only need to backup personal files in some partitions, you can employ “Copy Partition“; if only the system needs protection, choose “Migrate OS to SSD/HD“.

Step 2. In the next window, choose a target disk to store all data. Note that the target disk will be cleaned before the clone, so make sure it can be cleaned or you have a backup of the important data. Then click “Next” to continue.

Step 3. Here you can choose the copy options: to fit partitions to entire disk OR to copy partitions without resizing. Besides, you can select “Align partitions to 1MB” to enhance the hard drive performance if it is an SSD or advance format disk. (Note that the 4th option is not available in the free edition.) Then click “Next” to go on.

Step 4. MiniTool Partition Wizard will tell you how to boot from the target disk, please keep the information in mind before you hit “Finish”.

Step 5. Finally, you can press “Apply” to start the backup. Since you are copying the system disk, a reboot is required to keep data safe. See! With this PC cloning software, you can also protect files from ransomware.

Traditional Solution: Windows Back up and Restore

In fact, Windows offers a feature to do backup, and it is called Backup and Restore. To access this feature, you need to enter Control Panel to select “Back up and Restore”.

Next, we will show you how to use this utility do protect yourself from ransomware.

Part 1 – Back up and Restore Windows

Step 1. At Backup and Restore, select “Create a system image” from the left menu to activate system backup.

Step 2. Windows will ask where do you want to save the backup. See you can choose a hard disk (better to back up to an external hard drive), a DVD drive, or a network location as the target location. After the selection, click “Next” to go on.

Step 3. Here you need to choose which drives to be included in the backup. You can see that the system related partitions are checked by default and you can also add some other partitions. Then click “Next” to continue.

Step 4. Finally, you need to confirm the backup settings before clicking “Start backup” button. Then Windows will create a system image quickly.

Then How to Restore Windows from a System Image?

Step 1. At the Start menu, hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard and click the “Restart” option.

Step 2. Your computer will boot to the special recovery menu. There you need to click the “Troubleshoot”, “Advanced Options”, and then “System Image Recovery”.

Step 3. Then you need to choose an account and enter the password if it has to continue.

Step 4. Now you see the re-image interface, where you can choose a system image version and choose additional restore options.

Step 5. Finally, you can preview what will happen. Click finish to start the restoration if you agree. Note that all data on the target location will be replaced with the data in the system image.

In this way, you have finished a system restoration using Windows tool, and protect yourself from ransomware.

Part 2 – Back up and Restore Files

Step 1. Enter “Back up and Restore”.

Step 2. If this is the first time you back up files, click “Set up back-up” to begin.

Step 3. Windows will ask you to choose a location to save your backup. The location can be another partition on the same drive, an external hard drive (Recommended), DVD drive, or even a network. Then click “Next” to go on the setting.

Step 4. Now choose what content you would like to back up. If you select “Let Windows choose”, then files saved in Libraries, on the desktop, in default Windows folders will be backed up and an image of the operating system will be created. You can also determine what to back up by ticking “Let me choose”. Click “Next” to continue.

Note: here you can also tick “Include a system image of drives: System Reserved, (C)” to back up system altogether.

Step 5. Now you can review your backup settings, including the backup content, backup location, as well as backup schedule.

Please note that you can change the backup schedule according to your preference.

Then How Can You Carry out the Restore?

Step 1. At the same location, choose “Restore my files”.

Step 2. Browse files or folders to select a backup. In our example, we select “Browse for folders”.

See in the location where we just created a backup, there are folders of which the attributes are “Backup”. Then select the wanted image file and click “Add folder” to show it the list box. You can also choose a single file backup to restore.

Step 3. In the display box, you just tick the files/folders you have selected and click “Next”.

Step 4. Here you should choose where do you want to restore files: in the original location or select another location by yourself. In our case, we choose the former one. Then click “Restore” button.

Step 5. After a while, the restoration will be finished.