WTF is with my harddrive.

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Asheran Mojomaster
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WTF is with my harddrive.

Post by Asheran Mojomaster »

I think my harddrive must be going out or I have some sort of really fucked up virus. A few days ago I got a message saying I was out of harddrive space (had like 40 megs free it seems), and last I checked I had like 15 gigs of my 36 gig harddrive free. But then I thought, since then I have installed Anarchy Online (RL friend plays it, and is over at my house a lot), Age of Mythology, taken 500+ SSs in EQ, plus downloaded shitloads of porn on Kazaa - Lite, and lots of songs. So I deleted Anarchy (too bad!), HOMM 3 (dont play anymore), SOF demo (wtf do I have this for), and some old songs and shit, back up to like 3.5 or 4 gigs.

Ok today I was downloading some songs and talking with a friend of AIM and I get the out of free space message again, wtf, so I go and check...4 yes FOUR megs free, so I freak, delete a few random folders, back up to 1 gig now but cant seem to figure out what the fuck is going on. Setting up Housecall to run overnight and hopefully find some virus in here that can be fixed, grrr this sucks, not because I might lose my hard drive (that wont be hard to replace) but because I might lose all my songs, porn, and EQ pics.

*Sorry just a bit pissed atm*
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Gaklek
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Post by Gaklek »

I got this random message on both boxes the other night at the same time. "some error windows is shutting down in "90 secs" please close any aplications you have running"

blah blah. So I rebooted and everything was fine. About 20 mins later a cleric in the raid says she got that same message, so had to reboot- she came back fine. Later that night one of my officers had the same error and had all kinds of problems when he rebooted - not being able to acces the start menu, etc etc.

I ran virus check, nothing. Anyone one else have this happen to them in last few days? I have never seen that error before in all the time I have owned a Window OS pc.
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Post by Kilmoll the Sexy »

There are some viruses that will fill your hard drive with junk. Sounds to me like your hard drive is just full though. Run the disk cleanup to eliminate all the temp files, then do a search for any that it misses. Go in and clear your internet cache as well. You could have hundreds of megs of internet temp files alone. Always good to back up everything that is important to you onto CD or DVD as well. Even brand new hard drives can crash and lose everything at any given second.
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Post by Aslanna »

grrr this sucks, not because I might lose my hard drive (that wont be hard to replace) but because I might lose all my songs, porn, and EQ pics.
Invest in a DVD burner. Or a CD burner if money is tight. Problem solved!
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Post by Zamtuk »

buy more memory.
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Post by Moonwynd »

Make sure your DAT files (virus definition files) and scan engine are up to date...then do a full scan including boot sector.

You can also visit

http://www.antivirus.com

This is Trend Micro's website. They have a very good (FREE) online virus scan. The online virus scan is called Housecall. I have had issues with desktops at work becoming infected because people download junk from their Yahoo/Hotmail accounts...and McAfee AV with the latest updates drops the ball....but Trend Micro's Housecall has saved the day.

Give it a shot...if that doesn't work...burn...burn...burn my friend...get that junk off of your HD. Or better yet, quit downloading the pr0n and buy a magazine like we did in the good old days.

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Post by Janx »

If you run XP you might want to see how much space is being used by system restore. (In disk cleanup you can erase all but the latest restore point if you want to free up even more disk space).
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Post by Aslanna »

If you keep stuff that you want only on HD you're just asking for trouble anyway. Having suffered a few drive losses I've learned my lesson. Which is one of the disadvantages of larger drives. People normally wait until they're low on space before archiving.
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Post by Kylere »

System restore
Cache for IE
Temp files
etc

God, find your neighborhood guru, have him actually uninstall apps rather than deleting the desktop icons, and do a clean up and I bet it fixes the problem
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Post by Fallanthas »

Run a defrag as well.


The problem may not be physical disk space, but address space in the FAT.
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Post by Swiiter »

you might wanna take a look at your page file size as well.
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Post by masteen »

If you're serious about keeping your pr0n and/or MP3's (despite the fact that the Pope and the RIAA think you're a sinner), optical back-up is the only way to go.

It also gives you the freedom to simply reformat the drive whenever weird shit like this crops up.
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Post by Melrin_Specclaster »

One way to find this quickly normally is drop to DOS prompt and do this

cd\
dir /s /o:s > temp.txt
more temp.txt

and read through your temp.txt for either huge files or lots of .tmp and such. Its the best way to find things that wont be found by windows. If you dont know DOS though, this way confuse you. I've done it lots on my own and others looking for the same deal. It will also help you locate the directory and/or program thats causing the problem in OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS of cases.
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Post by Winnow »

You can buy DVD-R's for about $1.60 each. It's pretty cheap to back up 4.7Gigs of info. $16.00 to backup almost 50Gigs of your pr0n isn't too bad. If all you have is a CD burner then my last 100 CD-R spindle cost 16.00 or .16 a CD. DVD media is still 10 X's as expensive for less than 10 Xs the storage but they're getting closer in value now.

I have my EQ directory backed up on a DVD for easy reinstallation. EQ doesn't mess with your registry so reinstalling the EQ folder is all you have to do. This is a hell of a lot faster than reinstalling all the expansions and then waiting for endless patches.
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Post by Asheran Mojomaster »

Well see, I am 16, just turned 16, dont even have my car yet. So cash to buy these things (DVD or a CD burner thats better than the one I have now, since they dont make CDs for the one I have now anymore) is really hard to come by. Thats only reason all my EQ pics \ music \ EQ drive isnt backed up already. Really I just have to hope I guess haha. Oh and Gak, I guess that error thing must have happened to me last night when Housecall was running, I left it on over night and woke up this morning with my computer off, but my alarm clock wasnt reset as it would be if the power blinked. Oh and thanks Melrin, if Housecall doesnt find some gay virus thats doing this, I will have to try that.
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Post by Aslanna »

My latest CD Writer was $15 after rebate. The 100 CDs I bought with it were $18. More than the drive! It's pretty cheap these days to save stuff.
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Post by Truant »

I was going to say, CD-R drives are pretty damn cheap nowadays...Just don't try and find the platinum edition 5738021573109x writer that comes with 20 inch chrome wheels and you're set
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Post by Xouqoa »

Yep, I got a Norcent CD-RW at Best Buy for $20 after rebates. Can't beat that with a stick!
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Post by Denadeb »

Yep, I got a Norcent CD-RW at Best Buy for $20 after rebates. Can't beat that with a stick!
I did but thank god it had a warranty.
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Post by masteen »

Asheran Mojomaster wrote:...since they dont make CDs for the one I have now anymore...
I wasn't aware that CD-R technology had changed. AFAIK any burner can burn to any CD-R; it's only the CD-RW, R+ and that other re-writable shit that was drive specific.
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Post by Jezdziec Znikad »

I was having the same problems. Here's what I did to get rid of it.

1) Ditch Kazaa. Get Kazaa lite (http://www.kazaalite.tk/). Regular Kazaa is full of spyware that slows down your computer and fills it with all sorts of junk.

2) Enter Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Remove regular Kazaa and anything that doesn't look familiar (for example: My Way search bar, Gator, etc).

3) Enter your (C) drive and start with the first page. Remove anything that doesn't look familiar. Enter Document and settings. Remove. My downloads. Remove. Unzipped, temp, etc. Everything that doesn't look familiar or old that you don't use anymore get rid of it.

4) (Be careful with this step) Enter Program Files and remove unfamiliar programs. Look for things like gator, Myway Search bar, Anti-Leech. They're all spyware. If you're not sure about a program, leave it and look it up on http://www.google.com. Someone has probably posted what the hell it does and if it's not necessary for your computer.

5) Get back online and get Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/). Download the standard version of the program. Run it and click the check for updates link. Update the program then, run Ad-Aware. It the most aggresive spyware killer out there. When it finishes, select all the programs (right click, select all) and delete them.

6) Now that all the junk is out of your computer, run a virus scan and defrag.

It's a lot of work but your computer will run a lot better now. Also, try to keep a mental note of what programs you have on your (C) when you complete the cleaning process. That way, you'll know when you've picked up a new spyware program (Mysearch, SearchPlus, Gator, Anti-Leech etc.)

Hope this helps.
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Post by Asheran Mojomaster »

Hrmm I didnt know CD-Rs were so cheap now, I'll have to go get a new one soon, I think even I could afford one at that price haha. Oh and btw, I DO have Kazaa Lite, wouldnt touch normal Kazaa. Just easier to just say Kazaa instead of adding Lite every time haha.
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Post by Taly »

Gaklek wrote:I got this random message on both boxes the other night at the same time. "some error windows is shutting down in "90 secs" please close any aplications you have running"
Gah i cant believe im even doing anything remotly positive here dealing with this person but ohwell, for the good of others.


I have had this same thing for the passed 2 days myself. nothing prior to 2 days ago. some program and its been the same one the times i get this 90 sec shut down bit.
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Post by Mr Bacon »

I'm sure deleting the porn will clear up 90% of your hard drive!
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Post by Fallanthas »

AFAIK, there is no windows message that gives a user "90 seconds" before a shutdown.


I would seriously suspect a virus of some sort. I have been working with Windows administration for eight years and I have never, ever seen a timed shutdown warning.

Run an online scan and get an adware/spyware blocker. Something ain't right there.
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