Windows dir. & system32 dir clogged with 0byte files

[WhosDaMonkey]

Trying to fix a machine and upon inspection I found thousands &
thousands of zero byte exe files clogging both the windows directory
and the system32 directory. I've ran a symantec virus check on this
machine and it comes up empty. Can anyone tell me what sort of
nastiness I should be looking out for here? Or even just a link to a
forum where I might find answers?

Kleptic

 

[glee]

0-byte *EXE* files, or just 0-byte files?

If they are in fact files with an ".exe" extension, I suggest following the
procedures here:
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm

and also make post a copy of your HijackThis log to the forum mentioned below:

Download Hijack This from one of these locations:
http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/files/HJTsetup.exe
http://security-central.us/downloads/HJTsetup.exe
http://downloads.malwareremoval.com/HJTsetup.exe

Install, then run HijackThis, and click the Scan button.

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log"
button.
Press that, save the log somewhere you can find it (Desktop, My Documents, or
similar).
Most of what it lists will be harmless or even required, so do NOT fix anything yet.

Copy the log files and paste them into a new post at:
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30

In your post, please state your problem clearly and what you've done so far to fix
it.

The folks there will tell you what to remove.

See the "housekeeping" they ask you to complete before you post your log:
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=4075

A tutorial for using Hijack This is located here:
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/
and an in-depth tutorial is here:
http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm