Is there a new virus filling hard drives????????????????

[Guest]

UPDATEI have users compaining that they are unable to save info on thier hd.
When
we look it shows 200k avail. We delete files but no changes in hd space. We
can't run anyking of spyware or anitvirus. We do have both already but the
antivirus didn't prevent whatever is happening from occurring. Any help is
greatly appreciated.
thanks
Mace
UPDATE: After the PC was rebuilt using a recovery partition, Symantec
Antivirus was loaded. As soon as antivirus definitions were downloaded, the
same thing happened. 0 hard drive space available, and an error message
regarding a corrupt user profile:
UPdate: this occurs after a reboot we 1st thought it was a symantec problem
we show 0k bytes
We could really us help
thanks
Mace

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

I'd start by checking the hard drive manufacturer's website for their
diagnostic tools, making not of how to create their tools disk and the
instructions for use, download the tools and run their diagnostic. Better
to rule out a failing hard drive before anything else based on the
information you've already posted.

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol.

Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

 

[Guest]

Micheal..thank you for the response. But this is happen to multiple PCs
running xp only.
Mace

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:
We went to the windows disk defragmeter and it shows 300000% that isn't a
typo free space. We go the an xp box not rebooted and it shows normal(ie 78%)
thanks
Mace

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Start by checking to see if Hibernation is enabled and check to see the size
of the hiberfil.sys file. It's located in the root of the C drive. You
will need to set view options to see all files in Explorer. Open Explorer,
go to Tools, select Folder Options, go to the View tab, remove the checks
from the hidden files options and place them next to the show options.

If the file is quite large, that might be one source of the issue. If you
don't need the Hibernation feature, turn it off. Open Control Panel, open
Display, go to the Hibernate tab and remove the check from Enable
Hibernation and click OK.

Next possibility is System Restore, these files are kept in the System
Volume Information folder and is usually inaccessible. I don't recommend
running with it off but you can clear all but the most recent restore point
or clear them all and start over. To clear all but the most recent, in
Explorer, right click the drive, select Properties, click Disk Cleanup,
click More Options, click Clean-up under System Restore and you will be
offered the option to clear all but the most recent restore point. You can
clear them all but turning off System Restore and turning it back on. In
Control Panel, go to System and go to the System Restore tab. If this makes
a substantial difference, you might want to lower the amount of space
allocated for System Restore.

Next, a virus is always possible and if you cannot run the antivirus
application on the system to scan for viruses, try an online scanner:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Many other antivirus application sites have online scanners as well.

You might also want to look for any malware on the system. If you have the
space to do so, download, install and run Ad Aware, www.lavasoftusa.com.

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol.

Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:
WE tried this but to no avail. WE think it's a virus. The reason I say this
is when we tried to run the micro trend online it asked what lang, we gave it
US, it then went back to the choose a lang option. We ran fixmbr thinking it
was a prob in the mast boot rec. When we finished it showed 10mb. The prob is
we have 40mb harddrives. We tried to run the ms malware it told us we needed
1.2 mg on the temp dir which we have but failed to run.
thanks
Mace

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Have you looked in Explorer to see if there are any files are large numbers
of similar files that might be taking up all this space.

A virus would be more likely to destroy, delete or otherwise erase all the
files on your hard drive. That doesn't mean a virus isn't at the root of
this, it might very well be but you need to do some detective work as well.
At the very least, most AV programs have emergency boot disk options that
allow you to run them outside of Windows and as such might be able to give
some clues.

Are you able to get to Event Viewer as it might give some clues. If
possible, open Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, open Event Viewer
and go through the various sections looking for corresponding errors, in
this case, they would likely be the same on all systems. Then double click
any such error, the information contained within might give a clue as to the
source of the issue.

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol.

Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

 

[Guest]

Maybe I didn't explain the prob properly. We have several(7-8) xp pro
machines in our shop,the rest are 2000. This occurs ONLY after a reboot. All
are equipped with 40gb hard drives. When you display hd space it shows 10mg
(not 40gb). On the cmd promt it shows you have 0k avail. You can delete as
many files as you like(even through the cmd line) and it and it still shows
0k. If you look at the disk defrager it shows a 10mg hd,with 30gb+ and
gives you a ~300000% free space(the math is correct). If you run the system
restore cd you a few things happen whi
le it boots up one display shows the TRUE(~30gb) free space. ALSO once up in
restore mode if you run a chkdsk it shows the ~30gb of free space. THis has
happend on 3 different PCs so it isn't only occurring on 1 PC.
We have tried to do a fixboot,fixmbr and bootcfg. We have alos replaced the
boot.ini and bootsec.dos.
I hope this clears up my earlier mis-explainations(if there is such a word)lol
thanks
Mace

 

[Guest]

we found the problem. the network admin had set disk quotas to 10mg. when the
policy was pushed down the xp machines only saw 10mg but the 2k machines saw
the harddrives differently.
thanks
ljmace1953

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Thank you for letting us know.

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol.

Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/