Help.. my hard drive suddenly run out of space

[valiant_aleksei]

my hard drive suddenly lost a large amount of storage without me installing anything. this happend after i deleted a virus deteted by my Avast. then my hardrive(40 gb) having a free space of i think 20+ GB suddenly became 1.7 gig. i dont know what happend. so can anyone please help me? i will be very grateful for your help.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 11:18:56 PM, on 12/8/2005
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe
C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoctrl.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\PV92Tray.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\pctspk.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Mixer.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\ymsgr_tray.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\HijackThis.exe

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.ocx
O2 - BHO: bho2gr Class - {31FF080D-12A3-439A-A2EF-4BA95A3148E8} - C:\Program Files\GetRight\xx2gr.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {58F07DD3-924D-4141-BC74-299F523A95F1} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: UberButton Class - {5BAB4B5B-68BC-4B02-94D6-2FC0DE4A7897} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yiesrvc.dll
O2 - BHO: YahooTaggedBM Class - {65D886A2-7CA7-479B-BB95-14D1EFB7946A} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\YIeTagBm.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11b] C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel Graphics 12\Languages\EN\Programs\Registration.exe /title="CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12" /date=121405 serial=DR12WEX-1504397-KTY lang=EN
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PV92TRAY] PV92Tray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PCTVOICE] pctspk.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [C-Media Mixer] Mixer.exe /startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avast!] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Yahoo! Pager] C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\ypager.exe -quiet
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NVMCTRAY.DLL,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.exe.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.EXE
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Yahoo! Search - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycsrch.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Download with GetRight - C:\Program Files\GetRight\GRdownload.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O8 - Extra context menu item: Open with GetRight Browser - C:\Program Files\GetRight\GRbrowse.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &Dictionary - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycdict.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &Maps - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycmap.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &SMS - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycsms.htm
O9 - Extra button: Yahoo! Services - {5BAB4B5B-68BC-4B02-94D6-2FC0DE4A7897} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yiesrvc.dll
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\REFIEBAR.DLL
O9 - Extra button: Researcher - {9455301C-CF6B-11D3-A266-00C04F689C50} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Encarta Researcher\EROPROJ.DLL
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {B205A35E-1FC4-4CE3-818B-899DBBB3388C} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Encarta Search Bar\ENCSBAR.DLL
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{3BB310BE-F0FD-48ED-A362-618ABDEDF001}: NameServer = 202.78.97.2 202.78.97.3
O23 - Service: avast! iAVS4 Control Service (aswUpdSv) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe
O23 - Service: avast! Antivirus - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe
O23 - Service: avast! Mail Scanner - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe" /service (file missing)
O23 - Service: avast! Web Scanner - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe" /service (file missing)
O23 - Service: ewido security suite control - ewido networks - C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoctrl.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe

[DMR]

1. You still have one HijackThis log entry left over from the infection. Run HJT again and have it fix:
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {58F07DD3-924D-4141-BC74-299F523A95F1} - (no file)

2. I can't tell you exactly what happened in terms of the lost space at this point, but I can you that it isn't a normal side effect of infections (or removing them). There could be a few different reasons for the problem, though; let's see if we can narrow it down:

A) Look for "bloated" files or folders:

- Open Windows Explorer, and in the Folder Options->View settings under the Tools menu, select "show hidden files and folders", and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" and "Hide extentions for known file types".

- Click on the Search button, and in the resulting "Search Companion" pane:

* Leave the "All or part of filename" and "word or phrase in file" boxes blank.

* Click on "When was it modified" and specify a date range that would most closely reflect the time during which the loss of disk space occured.

* Click on "What size is it? and select "Don't remember".

* Click on "More advanced options", select "all files and folders" for the type of file, and put a check mark next to the search options for system, hidden, and subfolders.

Let the search run, and when it completes, look for any items whose size looks abnormally large. Give us the names of any such items you find.

B) Mis-reported disk space can be caused by corruption of the filesystem information that Windows maintains for drive (in the Master File Table, for example). In other words, the space you lost may not really be occupied by data, but Windows thinks that it is.

Running the chkdsk utility in read-only mode will check your disk for such inconsistencies; more info on this can be found in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

[valiant_aleksei]

ei thanks alot i followed your advise and saw a folder name _avast4_ containg chunks of files ranging from 0kb to 425 mb of size about a total of 26 gb in all and i just deleted it and there is no problem.. thanks for helping me find those useless files.. you guys are really dependable

[DMR]

Glad we could help :)

I don't use Avast!, but the folder you describe sounds like it could be Avast!'s virus quarantine folder or something similar; that would account for its growth.