Many people refer to malicious software as the malware. This deadly software can ruin most of the functionalities of your computer. Malware can get to your computer through many mediums such as a floppy drive, CD drive, pen drive, internet etc. Internet is the main source of malware in most cases. There is a very well planned trap set up by the bad guys, to get your computer infected. A very lucrative sounding popup would appear to you, claiming to do a free virus scan on your computer. Once you invite it for the same, you have actually invited the trouble. You would soon be offered to install an anti virus program that would clean up virus from your computer. Many people also get fooled to pay for the fake anti virus. This is an ugly situation, wherein you could end up paying for getting your computer ruined.

There is another term used for such malicious software, the scareware. Microsoft claims that more than 4.4 million computers are infected by the scareware today. You can take a note of few scareware programs: Personal antivirus, XP antivirus, DriveCleaner, RapidAntiVirus, Antivirus?09, and WiPC antivirus. You must be careful of such malware.

So how do you get rid of malware? It could be a painful task to get rid of malware from your computer. If you have been unfortunate to install malware on your PC, you may want to read on. There are several options to choose from, and we have discussed all such options below.

Never forget to take a backup of your precious data, before you start your regime to fight the malware. Losing your valuable data in the battle may not be a good idea. You may use your flash USB drive, Floppy drive (if sufficient), or a CD drive to take back up. Once you have completed taking the back up, you can get on to tackle the malware.

One mistake that many people make is that they install an anti malware software on an already malware suffering computer. This will most likely do no good for you. The malware will nine out of ten times protect itself from the anti malware. You should have installed the anti malware long before, when your computer was healthy. It may be too late now.

Installing and running an anti malware software in the safe mode could be a better option. In safe mode, your OS will not allow any programs to run automatically. This will allow your anti malware to install properly and then scan and get rid of malware. However, you will have to be lucky enough to not have your OS infected as well; because if your OS is infected, the safe mode might do no good.

Now, we discuss the arguably best means of removing malware. Disconnect your infected hard disk from your computer and reconnect it to another computer as data (not primary). The computer you connect to must already have a good anti malware installed. This will allow the anti malware to effectively remove the malware. You may want to repeat the process with many computers installed with different anti malware software. This is a time taking job, but worth the effort.

In case it does not harm you, formatting the hard disk is the finest option. The format option will clean up anything and everything on the hard disk. You can then install a fresh copy of OS on your system.