[northernsongs]

For a few weeks now, there is almost no space on my C: drive left, and I can't find any reason for that since I didn;t save anything to it. It went from several GB of free space to just a few MB without any reason, and I get warnings telling me to clean up the drive every minute. I cleaned it several times already and deleted files I didn;t need, which freed one GB, but minutes later it was down to 40 or 50 MB again. Is there any way to find out what is cluttering my drive and how to get rid of it?
Thank you!

[ComputerGuy]

You could look in add and remove programmes to see whats taking up most space. Do you have a tv on your computer? Because if you do and you record things they can take loads and i mean loads of space im talking 4-6GB for 30minutes.


CG

[northernsongs]

No, nothing like that. I didn;t record or save anything, and I don't have a TV on it either (laptop btw). This never happened before... it started all of a sudden, I didn;t install anything before that as far as I can remember, nothing that takes up a few dozen gb anyway. I looked at add and remove programmes but that doesn't provide an explanation either.

[ComputerGuy]

virus?

[northernsongs]

I thought of that too, but I did a virus scan (mcafee) with no results.

[evilfantasy]

Why don't you attach a HijackThis log so we can see what all is running.

Download HijackThis to your desktop.
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button to install.
It will by default install to the directory - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis
Please do not change the default install location.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.

Next click on the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button.
HijackThis will scan and then a log will open in notepad.
In the top left of the notepad window click "File" > "Save As" name it hijackthis and then save it to the Desktop.
Please save the log as a text (.txt) file or .log
Do NOT attach MS-Word .DOC files, they will NOT be looked at!
In your post, add the log as an Attachment.
* Don't have Hijackthis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.
** Don't use the Analyse This button. It's findings are dangerous if misinterpreted.

Guide for attaching logs to a post

[northernsongs]

Here's the hijackthis log

[evilfantasy]

I don't know about one entry but we will look at that at the end of this post.

These are not malicious, they are either empty entries or unnecessary.

Open HijackThis and select "Do a system scan only"

Place a check mark next to these entries:
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045} - (no file)
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Konsole - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll

Close all windows except for HijackThis and select "Fix checked"

==========

This needs to be done so you can complete the next set of instructions.

How to show hidden files in Windows Vista

Windows Vista changed the location where you can modify the folder and file display settings. While before you could access these settings within any folder, in Windows Vista you need to use the Folder Options control panel in order to modify how folders, and the files in them, are displayed.

To enable the viewing of hidden and protected system files in Windows Vista please follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button with the Windows flag in the lower left corner.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens you can either be in Classic View or Control Panel Home view:

If you are in the Classic View do the following:

1. Double-click on the Folder Options icon.
2. Click on the View tab.
3. Go to step 5.

If you are in the Control Panel Home view do the following:

1. Click on the Appearance and Personalization link.
2. Click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
3. Go to step 5.

5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files. Once this is done, your Folder Options screen should look similar to the following image.



8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button.

Now Windows Vista is configured to show all hidden files.

==========

Next go to http://www.virustotal.com/

Select "Browse" and locate C:\Windows\P1370Mon.exe

Double click it to enter it into the window and click "Send File"

This will run the file through 32 different virus scanners and show the results. Let me know what (if anything) was reported as a virus or trojan.

The scan should take about 5 minutes or less.

[northernsongs]

Hijackthis fixed all the files and virustotal showed no results.

[evilfantasy]

The reason I wanted to check C:\Windows\P1370Mon.exe is

It seems that the name of this program is the same as the name of the file. In the most cases this is the result of trojans. To be sure, you should check this file.

But it showed no signs of malware.

Do you leave the web cam and blue tooth stuff plugged in all of the time?

I have seen instances where this will eat up resources (yes I am grasping at straws) but it is worth a try to unplug all unnecessary peripherals and restart.

Have you tried running chkdsk?

[evilfantasy]

Almost forgot this.........

Your Java is out of date
Older versions have vulnerabilities that malware can use to infect your system. It is possible that you may be running Java code in your applications that absolutely require a specific version of the JRE to run. Please follow these steps to remove older version of Java components and update

Updating Java:
* Go to Start > Control Panel double-click on Add/Remove programs and remove all older versions of Java.
* Check for any item with Java Runtime Environment (JRE or J2SE) in the name.
+ The current version is Java 6 update 3
* Click the Remove or Change/Remove button.
* Repeat as many times as necessary to remove each of the Java versions.
* Reboot your computer once all Java components are removed.
* Download the latest version of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6
* Click the Free Java Download button.
* Click the Download Now button.
* When the Software Installation dialog box opens. Click on the Install Now button.
* Follow the prompts to complete installation.

[northernsongs]

I updated Java and ran chkdsk, but it didn't change anything. I hardly every use the webcam, so it;s not plugged in all the time... same with bluetooth. I don't plug in anything at all for that.

[alex]

What size capacity is this drive in a formatted empty state?

NTFS format?

[northernsongs]

Yes, NTFS.. 69.0 GB.

[alex]

Okey doke. I'm with EF in that it could be malware but we can try some other things that won't upset anything.

But it could also be the hdd failing physically. If you've anything on it that you simply can't lose then please back up asap.

Okay, you're going to lose a fair few gig once the o.s is installed on the hdd, along with drivers and updates and any office software etc.

But you should still have around 60gb when this is all installed. Going down to nothing suggests there's some software running in the background that has been installed, unknowingly, by you. (I use the term "installed" loosely). It could very well be p2p related....

I see you've already ran chkdsk, nice one.

Firstly, download CCleaner and run it with the boxes that are ticked by default as the only things you're going to clean.

Please now run a rollback on windows to the earliest restore point and let me know the results.