Hard drive suddenly full

[Michael Cook]

My hard drive went from half full to full, suddenly. There are now lots of large "hidden" files,
in C:\Docs & settings\name\localsettings\temp also lots of windows files \prefetch \system32 etc.
What happened? How can I recover? Help much appreciated. Running Xp disk format is NTSF.
Also chkdsk will not run. It aborts, and chkdsk /F says "cannot unlock drive".
Thanks

[Ian Smythe]

Michael Cook wrote:

> My hard drive went from half full to full, suddenly. There are now lots of large "hidden" files,
> in C:\Docs & settings\name\localsettings\temp also lots of windows files \prefetch \system32 etc.
> What happened? How can I recover? Help much appreciated. Running Xp disk format is NTSF.
> Also chkdsk will not run. It aborts, and chkdsk /F says "cannot unlock drive".
> Thanks

Is it a secret or what size hard drive are we talking about? Do you
regularly clean off the .temp files and cookies, especially if you
use I.E.? And what to you is suddenly? You need to provide more
information to get a proper response. :-(

[Michael Cook]

Hi, The HD is 20Gig it had 11Gig used up to 26/12/2993. at 13:30hrs, 2.5Gig in 2 hidden files appeared.
Localsettings\temp\wed17\tmp and wed17\tmp_pk. Later more stuff appeared. I know they are temp files but were hidden and 8 years of browsing and working everything from pre windows co,mputers to now I've never had 8Gigs of files suddenly appear on my com
puter so suspected virus. But no sign even with the latest antivirus downloads. I can delete the files, but still puzzled how they appeared. Mike

[walter k]

Are you using McAfee Virus Scan?

I've read that a process called "McVSEscn.exe" writing enormous .tmp files
(such as McV13.tmp). This is part of a process call worm-stopper or
script-stopper. Other symptoms include "low disk space" message, task
manager may display CPU usage, even at idle, using 90-95 percent of CPU
cycles. Though I'm not sure if this applies to you.

The temporary fix is to open the task manager, end the process called
McVSEscn.exe.

I've also read that Norton AV 2004 may have similar enormous temp files
creation. In theory, the temp files supposed to be self-deleting. I assume
that each of the two anti-virus products may have already had a patch out to
fix this issue.

- - - -- --
> Michael Cook wrote:
>
> My hard drive went from half full to full, suddenly. There are now lots
of large "hidden" files,
> in C:\Docs & settings\name\localsettings\temp also lots of windows files
\prefetch \system32 etc.
> What happened? How can I recover? Help much appreciated. Running Xp
disk format is NTSF.
> Also chkdsk will not run. It aborts, and chkdsk /F says "cannot unlock
drive".
> Thanks
>

[Michael Cook]

Walterk, many thanks for info. I'm using McAfee VisusScan. Error message was low disk space, delete some files.
I have cleared Localsettings\tmp directory, and will now watch out for McVSEscn activity. McAfee did give me program updates to down load dated 12/22/2003 or there abouts. This may be the patch you mentioned.
Again thanks for input.

----- walter k wrote: -----

Are you using McAfee Virus Scan?

I've read that a process called "McVSEscn.exe" writing enormous .tmp files
(such as McV13.tmp). This is part of a process call worm-stopper or
script-stopper. Other symptoms include "low disk space" message, task
manager may display CPU usage, even at idle, using 90-95 percent of CPU
cycles. Though I'm not sure if this applies to you.

The temporary fix is to open the task manager, end the process called
McVSEscn.exe.

I've also read that Norton AV 2004 may have similar enormous temp files
creation. In theory, the temp files supposed to be self-deleting. I assume
that each of the two anti-virus products may have already had a patch out to
fix this issue.

- - - -- --
> Michael Cook wrote:
>> My hard drive went from half full to full, suddenly. There are now lots
of large "hidden" files,
> in C:\Docs & settings\name\localsettings\temp also lots of windows files
\prefetch \system32 etc.
> What happened? How can I recover? Help much appreciated. Running Xp
disk format is NTSF.
> Also chkdsk will not run. It aborts, and chkdsk /F says "cannot unlock
drive".
> Thanks
>