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What happened to my disk space?

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19 replies

by pbgerrard 2 views

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I had i don't remeber how much disk space left - afew gigs though. Today windows tells me i am down to about 60 megs. I deleted a bunch of stuff, and managed to free over a gig, but whata happened. I think I had a bout 10 free gigs a few days ago. I recently had a scare that somebody else ont he network had access to my computer, but I disabled file and print sharing, and I hope nobody put a back door on my computer.

I run Win ME.

I recently downloaded a floppy version of Linux calledGiotto Linux. I started up my computer with the Giotto floppy in a few times and ran Giotto Linux, but I never did anything with the hard drive. I ran it off the floppy. Maybe the intial startup automatic configurtion did something? This does not seem to be the case, though, as the drive is still 35 megs, just more space is now taken.

What happened?

In order to try to fix it, i ran scandisk. It could not run.
It said my drive was being mmodified. I closed all programs using crtl+alt+del. Taskman showed nothing running.
Disk defrag also had to keep restarting for the same reason.

What is happening? Are the two problems related?
How can I fix this?

19 replies

by dmiles

I would check to make sure that this is not a virus

Disconnect the computer from the network and try running a virus scan from a emergency repair disk from dos with your virus scan

Next run the search find files and folders and see if their are any large suspicous files on the drive,on the day after you loaded Giotto Linux

by pbgerrard

I got a new version of norton systemworks. It said i should not install the program if i might already have problems. I should run untilities from the cd. Disk Doctor said that that something is wrong with FAT or something (I really don't remember.) and that for this reason the computer may not report that i have as much disk space as i really do. It said it corrected it, but i gained no disk space. I have dropped about 400 megs in the past 2-3 days. I tried running virus scan by restarting my computer with the Norton CD in my CD drive, but after 16 hours virus scan was still not done, so i stopped it, because I have no idea how much longer it will take.

by timthetoolman

Hi,

In order to answer this, you're really going to have to simply take a look around on your hard disk and see whats been created in the last few days.

The "find" in windows explorer will do that search for you. By date...

Cheers,
Tim.

by lizzy

In addition to the previous answer, you should run scan disk and defrag in safe mode as per Microsoft because Windows programs that don't show up in the task manager can still interrupt the programs making it impossible to finish.

Also, users of Kazaa have been getting viruses recently that can do what you're describing. Find the story here:

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-918132.html

(remove any spaces from the URL)
Hope this helps.

by lizzy

In addition to using the NAV to clean your system (if you cannot reformat and reinstall from scratch which will surely get rid of the virus), try some other free virus scans from the internet. Search for AdAware and Pest Patrol. Bugnosis will help you keep prying eyes out if you cannot use a physical firewall. Zone Alarm is a software firewall that offers some protection for the future.

See this site for a free virus scan:

http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_pcc.asp

There are no spaces in the URL.
HTH

by gary mcp

Besides the virus scans mentioned already (Always a good idea), you could also try downloading a utility to check hard disk space. I'm afraid I don't have a URL for you, but I've recently been impressed by a piece of software called Treesize. Or youcould try Spacehound. Both give you a pretty good graphical representation of your hard disk and the larger files on it.

Hope this helps,
Gary

by pbgerrard

OK, I have some resh news. I put most of it in response to the first answer to my question. But that is not all. I have to keep reinstalling my printer. Everytime I try to print it does not work. I uninstall and reinstall my printer and it does. A day later my printer does not work again. This has been consistently happening.

by gigelul

Recently I had a computer which doesn't let me to do anything (installing an antivirus or run a check disk or edit the registry, etc).
I remove the original HDD from computer and I install on other HDD the same OS with an updated antivirus. I put the original HDD as slave in the same computer, I scan for viruses and I found Win32.Klez.E@mm worm. In this manner I clean the original HDD.
Maybe you don't have the same problem but this is a possibility to check your system.
Also you can dowload from www.symantec.com (if is possible use other computer and copy this file on a diskette, write protect the diskette and run on your system from diskette.

by gigelul

Make on other clean system (the same OS)a boot diskette or download from www.bootdisk.com (on a clean system).
Change boot sequence in BIOS and boot from this diskette. Use and power off computer (this will prevent virus to migrate).
Boot again from diskette and try to run an antivirus from diskette.
Other possibility is to download some trial antivirus programs (maybe these will recognize and remove the virus).
I use Norton Antivirus and if is updated periodicaly is very good.
Or try to backup your data, delete all partitions and do a fresh install of the OS.

by pbgerrard

Norton Antivirus detected 2 viruses. The first is low risk. It changes the home page. The second is trojan horse. It gives no extra information other than that the file is a trojan horse. It does not give its name. Norton was unable to repair the files, but it quarantined them. There appears to be no delete option. What should I do next? I have still not recovered an disk space.

by dmiles

If you have a ERD with the anti-virus,insert in A: drive and then boot computer,run the anti-virus from DOS mode

Check the printer drivers for update or try re-installing the printer which may have been effected by the virus before detection

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