Re: Mysterious file crowding my laptop's hard drive - HELP!!!

"JazzyJeff" <seale.j@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Aug 4, 7:13 pm, "Twayne" <nob...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"JazzyJeff" <seal...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:6d3bb3bc-739b-4980-8325-18b0fbe90c14@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



On Aug 4, 12:18 pm, "Twayne" <nob...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"JazzyJeff" <seal...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:fb26dc34-c62a-4504-8306-786fb0094752@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Aug 3, 6:58 pm, "Twayne" <nob...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"JazzyJeff" <seal...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:55829275-e4c5-4d5e-901a-733efa58f82e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My HP dv6149's hard drive appears to have only 10GB of space
remaining. When I use Disk Size Manager (DSM) to view the
contents of my hard drive, it shows that a file in the 'Install'
sub-directory of 'WINDOWS' has a 50GB file in it by the name
'[File]'. This file apparently cannot be deleted, viewed or
manipulated any way. It also doesn't appear when viewing this
sub-directory in the Windows Explorer, neither does the Windows
Explorer figure this file into the total size of everything in
this sub-directory. Is this a ghost or a file generated by a
virus or something?

Hmm, interesting. Before I go further, let me say: Don't
discredit the things Shenan provided for you; go ahead and try
them out, as he hasn't suggested anything harmful in any way
that I can see. I just don't understand how he is addressing you
problem and instead has probably assumed you have a full disk
drive you need to free up some space on.

If my questions seem a little odd, I'm just trying to cover all
the bases:

Checking my own system, I do not see a folder/directory called
"Install" under C:\Windows\. There IS a folder called "InstallER"
however. Did you literally mean "Install" or did you maybe leave
off the "er" at the end?

Are you certain it's in the C:\windows folder and not a different
one?

Do you actually mean 50 GigaBytes? Not MegaBytes? 50 Gig is a
humongous size for a file, and even for a folder, for that
matter. My largest file in the Installer folder is around 54
Meg. The largest folder in the entire Windows folder is System32
at 1.93 Gig.

Are you certain it is a "file" and not a "folder"?

When you say you can't see it in win Explorer, have you set it up
to display hidden files, all known file extensions and all hidden
system files? If not, then that may explain why you aren't able
to see it. The three settings are located in the View tab of win
Explorer's Tools; Folder Options. They're spread out in the list,
so you have to look for them. Setting those three options
properly will enable you to see every folder and file on the
disk drive. You may want to put them back to their original
settings when you're done.

-- Exactly HOW and with WHAT have you tried to delete the file?

You say only DSM sees this file? How about after making the
settings to reveal all files in windows Explorer? Does win
Explorer it see the file now?
Can you delete it now?
If you get any error messages, please quote them as exactly as
you can.

My initial feeling is that you have a virus, trojan, worm or some
other sort of malware in general.
Have you scanned with an anti-virus program? Are the definitions
up to date? And what is the name of the program?

Have you scanned for spyware and general malware? With updated
programs? What programs did you use?
If you haven't done so, you should now. The general concensus is
that at least 3 anti spyware programs are necessary to cover all
the bases; no program yet can find everything.

If you have any questions, feel free to post back for answers. I
haven't included a bunch of links and references because I don't
yet know what you have and don't have so I'm just saving myself a
little typing and research right now<g>.

Go through all the suggestions above and respond back with the
results for each one. Include any/all relevent information you
can think of, especially error messages and what happened just
before and just after the error message appeared?
Then we can go forward from there is necessary.

HTH,

Twayne`

Sorry I confused you on the directory names. Well, Norton
AntiVirus doesn't pick this up either when I do a manual scan. I
tried booting up in safe mode as was suggested before but that
didn't get me any more access to this file (and yest it is a
file, not a folder) than what DSM gave me. Heck, at least I got
to see where this thing is.

You didn't answer what the exact folder name is; "install" or
"installer"?

Nor did you cover:

When you say you can't see it in win Explorer, have you set it up
to display hidden files, all known file extensions and all hidden
system files?
Have you scanned with an anti-virus program? Are the definitions
up to date? And what is the name/version of the program?

Have you scanned for spyware and general malware? With updated
programs? What programs did you use?
If you haven't done so, you should now. The general concensus is
that at least 3 anti spyware programs are necessary to cover all
the bases; no program yet can find everything.

Plase reread the post and respond to all the information requested.
There are just too many different things to go over and those help
narrow things down.

HTH,

Twayne`- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Aah, well, the file directory is 'Installer', hidden file display is
on and I've turned it off and back on to confirm that, I've manually
scanned everything with Norton AntiVirus and everything on that is
up- to-date. I'm using Spybot Search & Destroy to handle the
spyware and it's mostly been picking up the analytic 'bots' found
on websites but not much else. Hope I'm using the best utilities
for this stuff.

Shenan's advice is good; as I said, you need to run multiple malware
detectors and those he referenced are decent ones. Norton AV and
Spybot are both decent applications.

-- Are you saying that "bots" are being found? I'm not sure what you
meant by "analytic": Can you put a name or description to what it's
finding?
If it is finding bots, that's not good.
Try running the same application (Spybot S&D) again and see if it
finds them again. They might be the kind of thing that comes back
even after it's been removed. Meaning only parts of it are being
removed. You are aware that if any of them are dialer bots, to be
sure your computer can't make any regular phone calls thru a regular
modem, right?

-- Are you on dialup or DSL, or what? Either could end up with a rude
surprise when you get your next phone bill if there are dialer bots
being found. I haven't heard of a dialer bot turning up on a long
time, but ... worth mentioning.

OK, so you still can't find any way to access "FILES", in
c:\windows\installER\ . Thanks for the clarification: THAT folder
DOES exist in XP.

big storm starting - leaving - will try more later - bye

Oh, I'm talking about the 'bots' that measure how many hits a website
is getting (ie: Hitbox, Google Analytcis, etc.) pardon my French.
Also, found more references to [Files] in the C:\WINDOWS diectory
which i could actually view the contents of, one of these had some
elements of ElectricSheep in it. Unistalling ElectricSheep got rid of
that stuff but all the other references to [Files], even the one in
the C:\WINDOWS\Installer directory is still there even after running
all those anti-virus apps. None of these [Files] can be opened in any
way either.

If that file was created by a legitimate program, then AV etc. isn't
going to find it. Since you said ElectricSheep had references to it,
and you uninstalled it, which got rid of the references, it wouldn't be
unusual for it to leave files behind. BUT, that's good because now you
know where it came from, and why you're being denied access to it! So
this is a bit of a turn of events.

Can you now see the file in a Command Prompt or with windows Explorer?
The Command Prompt to get to it would be something like:
CD\ to go back to the root
CD C:\WINDOWS\INSTALLER will take you to the Installer
directory/folder. The screen prompt will should look like
"C:\WINDOWS\INSTALLER >" without the quotes.

If you have adjusted all 3 areas to get to display files, try using the
DIR command and see if the file shows up. Say the file's name is
"file". DIR F* will find only the files that start with F and will be a
shorter list to look thru. In my case it's only a few files, in fact.

If no luck with DIR, then:

ATTRIB followed by return will display ALL files in the folder, along
with their property tags (a, s, h, r, etc.) and filesize. Find the file
of interest and issue the command:

attrib file -r -s <---- followed by return.
For "file" use exactly what the ATTRIB command showed the name to be.

Now see if windows Explorer shows the file. If it does, try to Rename
it. Do NOT try to edit it with anything, as a file that size will take
forever just to open! If that works, try to Delete it.
What happened in each case? You might be able to Rename it but not
Delete it.

If it renamed but still wouldn't delete, the next step will be to simply
take ownership of the file. The file will be "owned" by the program
that created it, not you, thus the need to take ownership (this is
typical with many programs). But let's see if any of this worked first.
OK?
Let us know.

-- Can you now see the file in windows Explorer?
-- Could you rename it?
-- Did it delete?
Explain anything else you did too that I may not have mentioned.

HTH,

Twayne`




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