[Paul 62]

Hi Adam,

I really don't know... I don't believe I have anything on the drive that should require this much space.  

It looks like the biggest hog is Windows?  

Do you see anything taking up more than it should?

Thanks Adam.

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Hi Paul, 

 

Work through the following, and let me know how you get on. Having completed the below, how much space do you have on your HDD? 
 
Do you use the hibernate feature? If not, please do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button, type CMD in the search bar, right-click CMD.exe and click Run as administrator. 
• Type powercfg.exe -h off and press the Enter key.
• Reboot your computer.
   

Proceed with:

• Run Disc Cleanup by following these instructions.
   
• Click the Windows Start button, type CMD in the search bar, right-click CMD.exe and click Run as administrator. 
• Type sc config vss start= disabled and press the Enter key. 
• You should receive confirmation the command was successful.
• Reboot your computer.
   

• Press the Windows Key + r on your keyboard at the same time. Type appwiz.cpl and click OK.
• Scroll through the list of programmes, and uninstall any you no longer use. 

 

• Open AdwCleaner.exe. 
• Click Uninstall. 
• Follow the prompts.

[LiquidTension]

Hi Paul, 

 

Work through the following, and let me know how you get on. Having completed the below, how much space do you have on your HDD? 
 
Do you use the hibernate feature? If not, please do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button, type CMD in the search bar, right-click CMD.exe and click Run as administrator. 
• Type powercfg.exe -h off and press the Enter key.
• Reboot your computer.
   

Proceed with:

• Run Disc Cleanup by following these instructions.
   
• Click the Windows Start button, type CMD in the search bar, right-click CMD.exe and click Run as administrator. 
• Type sc config vss start= disabled and press the Enter key. 
• You should receive confirmation the command was successful.
• Reboot your computer.
   

• Press the Windows Key + r on your keyboard at the same time. Type appwiz.cpl and click OK.
• Scroll through the list of programmes, and uninstall any you no longer use. 

 

• Open AdwCleaner.exe. 
• Click Uninstall. 
• Follow the prompts.

[Paul 62]

HI Adam,

I ran the programs and only found one file (CCCleaner) to delete.

I've now got over 13Gig free now. This might be as good as it gets?

I'm very happy if the malware has been removed to not eat it up again... do you think we got it all?

Thanks Adam.

Paul

[LiquidTension]

Hi Paul, 
 

I've now got over 13Gig free now. This might be as good as it gets?
I'm very happy if the malware has been removed to not eat it up again... do you think we got it all?

Whilst we have removed adware/malware from your machine, it wasn't this that cleared the 13GB on your HDD. 
The last step, which concentrated on temporary files and hiberfil.sys, was the reason. 
 
The last two scans (MBAM + ESET) confirms that your machine appears free of malware. 
 
Lets try one last round of troubleshooting with Folder Size.

• Open Folder Size.
• Click your C:\ drive, followed by the Scan Selected Drive button.
• Upon completion, increase the width of the Size column so I can see the full numbers. 
• Expand Windows, and scroll down to WinSxS. Take a screenshot. 
• Expand Users, and expand Paul. Take a screenshot.
   

I know you've just uninstalled CCleaner. I would actually like you to reinstall the programme for the time being.

• Download and install CCleaner.
• Open CCleaner.
• Click the Applications tab, and take a screenshot of the check-able items in the column. 

[Paul 62]

HI Adam,

I am headed out of town and not returning until Monday night.  I'll get at this on Tuesday.

Thanks for your help.  Paul

[LiquidTension]

No problem, Paul. 

[Paul 62]

HI Adam,

I'm back.

These are the screen shots of Folder size.  One is the main screen and the second is of the winsxs folder.  There are hundreds of AMD64, MSIL, WOW64 and X86 filers in this folder... what I've captured for you is obviously only a fraction of them.

I'll do CCleaner, next 

Thanks

Paul

[Paul 62]

sorry forgot the IMGUR URL... its http://imgur.com/uTVVMb8,FL7vwtw

[Paul 62]

Here is the IMGUR of the Cleaner Applications tab:

http://imgur.com/ddC1mf4

Thanks again.

Paul

[LiquidTension]

Hi Paul, 

 

It looks as if your Windows Side by Side (WinSxS) is occupying nearly 10GB of space on your HDD. 

Luckily, we can reduce this. 

 

Please read through the following instructions on how to do so. 

This is essentially an additional step to the Disc Cleanup I had you run earlier. 

 

Once done, please open CCleaner. Referring to this image, please check the following items and click Run Cleaner. 

 

Let me know the free space value afterwards.

[Paul 62]

Hi Adam,

I've done both and now have 12.3 gig free space.

Thanks

Paul

[LiquidTension]

Hi Paul, 
 
I think this is going to be as good as it gets. Let me summarize what we've done to free up space. 
 
- Removed AVG, and all the bundled software that came with it
- Removed a lot of adware
- Disabled hibernation (thus removing hiberfil.sys)
- Checked for unneeded programmes
- Ran disc cleanup
- Ran disc cleanup as administrator to clear out system files
- Cleared temp files
 

Your HDD is ~55GB in size. 

Windows 7 x64 requires at least 20GB of space (23GB on your machine). Minus the space we've cleared, this leaves ~20GB. 
MS Office 2010 takes up 3GB; add on the size of the rest of your programmes and we're talking ~7GB. Pagefile.sys is 8GB.
All in all, that leaves about ~5-6GB left. So you can see, pretty much all of your HDD space is accounted for. 

 
Lets update your vulnerable software.
 
STEP 1
 Update Outdated Software
Outdated software contain security risks that must be patched. Please download and install the latest version of the programmes below.

•  Adobe Flash Player (Uncheck the Optional Offer)
•  Mozilla Thunderbird
•  Follow these instructions to check for and download the latest Windows Updates.
   

STEP 2
 Remove Outdated Software

• Press the Windows Key  + r on your keyboard at the same time. Type appwiz.cpl and click OK.
• Search for the following programmes, right-click and click Uninstall one at a time. 
• Note: The programes below may not be present. If not, please move on.
  • Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX 
• Follow the prompts and reboot if necessary.
   

STEP 3
 Security Check

• Please download SecurityCheck and save the file to your Desktop.
• Double-click SecurityCheck.exe and follow the onscreen instructions inside the black box.
• A log (checkup.txt) will automatically open on your Desktop.
• Copy the contents of the log and paste in your next reply.
   

======================================================
 
STEP 4
 Logs
In your next reply please include the following logs. Please be sure to copy and paste the requested logs, as well as provide information on any questions I may have asked.

• checkup.txt
• How is your computer performing? Are there any outstanding issues?

[LiquidTension]

Hi Paul, 

 

How're you getting on?

[LiquidTension]

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