Something invisible eating 30+GB of HD. (HJT log included)

[johnhenry]

Hi All-

I'm running XP Home SP2 on a Pentium D 3.0 with 2 GB Ram.
I have a 120 GB and a 250 GB Hard drive.
The 120 is partitioned into C and G Drives.

I just did a clean install of XP onto the C Drive, which is where my operating system has always resided.

The problem is: An 'Unknown' file/folder is using up 35.1 GB on my C drive.

Nothing near this large is visible in Explorer, even when I checked 'Show hidden files'.
I've used WinDirStat, and it shows an 'Unknown' something using up the space, but cannot identify it or delete it. I've used the Clean Drive utility. I've run SpyBot and AdAware, as well as done AVG virus scans in Safe Mode. I even defragmented and scanned for disk errors.

My Page File is not on the C Drive.

I have no idea what it could be. Here's my HJT log:

I'm not sure if anything related to my problem would show up on this HJT file.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks,
John

PS: I also posted this in the Windows OS forum, as I'm not sure if this is an OS or a malware problem.

 

[LinkedKube]

you could always low format the drive, but that's extreme, goodluck

 

[johnhenry]

That would erase everthying though, right? I'd rather not do that, as I have a fresh XP install.

 

[rf6647]

mr. backfire reports similar problem

A posting by mr. backfire @ https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic74022.html is reporting the same problem of comparable magnitude. No progress info available.

Google 'content.ie5' explains one trick used by Microsoft to use the 's' attribute to hide files. The site name is somewhat offensive: http://www.f**kmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml. Substitute for the **.

My reply to mr. backfire involved an external usb drive that had been resized by Partition Magic, was protected by Norton Recycle bin, the disk was protected by System Restore, and over time it had several drive letters assigned. The problem disappeared on its own. I had addressed all the stressors except for Partition Magic and the possibility that the MFT was corrupt.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Please visit this link http://virusscan.jotti.org/
* Click the Browse... button
* Navigate to the following file H:\setup.exe
* Click Open
* Please let me know the results.

Also, read this thread HERE and post a fresh HJT log.

Regards Howard

 

[johnhenry]

Thanks Howard.
Apologies for the Cut+Paste HJT Log, I'd forgotten the protocol here.

Anyway, I went ahead and reformatted my C drive and reinstalled XP. I just couldn't stand the feeling of uncleanliness!

Hopefully my HJT log is now clean. Do you mind taking a look?

Many thanks,
JH

 

[wolfram]

I say your HJT log looks clean. However, wait for Howard's advice

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Your HJT log is clean as a whistle mate.

Sometimes a reformat is the easiest way of sorting a problem like yours. I trust everything is ok now?

Regards Howard

This thread is for the use of johnhenry only. Please don`t post your own virus/spyware problems in this thread. Instead, open a new thread in our security and the web forum.

 

[johnhenry]

Thanks Howard and Wolfram.

Everything is running well now.