[lizkkk]

First week in January my computer crashed due to malware. Got it back from Big Box store and still had issues even though Big Box had to do full backup on my computer. Other issues lingered so I 'hired' a local geek to come to the house and he helped fine tune some issues I had.

I am into photography and photoshopping with multiple photoshop programs on my computer.

Then yesterday I get a scratched disk full error. Go to my C-drive and the pie chart there now showed the drive was full, whereas when the geek left my house I know for a fact that I had at least 40% disk space to use.

Now the status is: 216 used, 6.01 free with 2.22 capability. I on on Windows XP.

I did a disk cleanup including the recycle bin. One thing I did not clean up with this was a file called office setup files at 672,220. Thus, when I do file clean up that shows up and I did not delete them last night.

I have a geek friend who on line tried to help. When he suggested to defrag, I attempted that, but was stopped because of a message to run "chkdsk". He told me how to run it, and I did, but afterwards still could not defrag because the message came up again.

He said because I did not have 15% space to work with, defrag could not work.

I work at home so I am going to try to deal with that aspect of my computer today, and avoid anything to do with photography or photoshopping.

So, in summary, how to delete/remove/fix whatever got my computer to fill up so quick as it did. Note: I do have external hard drive that I have saved all of my photos on. There were some photo files last night that I tried to delete to clean up space but had a very minor effect.

Some of the files I could not delete because I would get an error message that they were in use. Well, they are not, but the ones I could delete I did.

When I look on my computer, the listings are in highlighted blue for the C-drive and where my photo files are is not highlighted with that blue color.

I have been into my files area, myself, more so than ever in the past and I do not know if I unintentionally triggered this either, or the geek did. I was trying to do a raw camera upgrade and had to work with Adobe web site to get that issue resolved, but I was in files myself.

Also in the box for drive C, both boxes on the bottom are checked, related to file size and the one for indexing. When I am on my laptop, I note both are not checked whereas on my laptop both are not checked. This is the only difference I notice off the bat between the two computers and the same drive.

Thanks in advance for any help. I can call the geek to come, but am scared that whatever he helped me with may have triggered this error that I now have.

Liz
Helpless in Charlotte

PS Note: I am very computer stupid so any help you give will have to be in baby steps. I have used this site before with great success. I hope it happens again!

Edited by lizkkk, 03 February 2010 - 05:08 AM.

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Hi - Thanks for posting.

I do not know if you advice will help or not. Will want to hear more feedback.

My issue is not only that the computer is full right now, my primary concern is what is it that caused it to fill up so quick and how to avoid that happening again.

[lizkkk]

Hi - Thanks for posting.

I do not know if you advice will help or not. Will want to hear more feedback.

My issue is not only that the computer is full right now, my primary concern is what is it that caused it to fill up so quick and how to avoid that happening again.

[rshaffer61]

Got it back from Big Box store and still had issues even though Big Box had to do full backup on my computer

I'm surprised they did this but I bet they charged to do it also.
Depending on what they backed up your system may be infected again and that is what is causing drive space to be used up.
Since there appears no reasonable reason for the space to be used up I suggest you go to the Malware Removal and Spyware Removal Forum and run all the steps located in the
START HERE. These self-help tools will help you clean up 70% of problems on your own.
If you are still having problems after doing the steps, then please post the reguested logs in THAT forum.
If you are unable to run any of the tools then start a new topic in the malware forum and put this in the subject line...I am unable to run any malware tools

If you are still having problems after being given a clean bill of health from the malware expert, then please return to THIS thread and we will pursue other options to help you solve your current problem(s).

Add a link to this topic so that malware tech can see what steps have been taken here

[lizkkk]

Big Box kept my computer two weeks including me having to call Adobe to get backup disks (could not find at home) and then paid for the backup. Much $$$ and time wasted with them.

I will attempt to do what you are leading to me on the malware this morning.

QUESTION: Did the malware get into my external hard drive you think and that reinfected the computer?

Or simply surfing the net???

I have Norton on this computer and it has been active from what I can see with the prompts.

But..... infected again? My husband will have a fit.

Will get back to you after I print out instructions and give it a try.

[rshaffer61]

If any files on the external were infected then it is possible everything is infected all over again.

Edited by rshaffer61, 03 February 2010 - 07:19 AM.

[lizkkk]

Stupid question then: I have not attempted yet to start on the fix. Have to have a morning coffee and a double shot of Jim Beam (JOKING).

The stupid question: Will the fixes provided on your site also fix the external hard drive?

[rshaffer61]

Let the malware tech know by posting in your initial post in that topic that you believe the external may be infected also. They will help you scan that also.

[lizkkk]

Last stupid question: Do the repairs as listed for malware and THEN post and mention external drives. (I actually have 2.)

Or post a post and mention external and THEN do cleanup with variations suggested by your Geek team???

I promise this is my last question before actually going through the removal guides on GTG.

[rshaffer61]

Same issue if you have two externals that have backup files from the then infected system. Just let them know you would like to make sure they are all clean.

[lizkkk]

Please close topic. Problem resolved.

Edited by lizkkk, 04 February 2010 - 07:59 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Can you explain the resolution as this may help someone in the future with the same problem. Glad to hear everything has worked out for you. Thank you for choosing GTG for assistance with your issue.

[lizkkk]

The aforementioned Geek had iniatiated a copy of files (from external drive) just as he was leaving the other week. Without him around, I had to abort it because the message came up that there was not enough room in the C-drive.

Unknown to me, even though I had stopped it, those files had filled up C-drive to almost full. It took a week of activity on my computer for me to actually reach the point that the C-drive was 99% full.

End of story. Got other issues but those have to go elsewhere.

Thanks for the prompt to provide a summary.

[123Runner]

So your "geek" started a automatic copy of your external backup drive back to your C drive?
That was nice of him.
Did he offer any reason why?

Thanks for letting us know the resolution.

[lizkkk]

I asked him to copy a particular file that had a lot of photos. (I am a amateur/semi-professional photographer). Even though they were in external drive, I wanted double protection.

Thus the transfer of files by him.