Re: Could this be a virus

'gym' wrote:
| Free Space reported by Monger 31.3Gb, 42%used
|
| Computer Mangament
| Cdrive 74.52Gb NTFS Healthy (one section)
| Only other drive is CD drive showing 0 no mecia
_____

You posted 'Free Space reported by Monger 31.3Gb, 42%used'. Is this a typo?
Because the label in the free space block should be something like
( these example numbers are for the 80 Gbyte hard drive formatted for NTFS
that is the C: drive (system) in the computer I am using to post )

<Free Space: 75.5%>
56.2 Gb Free
Files Total: 127192
Folders Total: 8549

Is the display you actually get

<Free Space: 42%>
31.3 Gb free

rather than what you posted

'Free Space reported by Monger 31.3 GB, 42% used'?

The numbers you actually posted indicate that 31.3 GBytes is used and 31.3
GBytes is free, with (74.5 - 31.3 - 31.3) = 1l.9 GBytes not accounted.


If you have an 80 Gbyte hard drive most likely the formated size for NTFS is
74.5 Gbytes. The unused portion is reported as 31.3 GBytes, 42 % of 74.5
GBytes, indicating that 43.2 GBytes, 58 % of 74.5 GBytes IS used.

The 'Show hidden and system files' box in the 'View' tab of 'Folder Options'
in Windows Explorer must be checked.

* Now for some checks with 'Space Monger':

Click on the 'Free Space' button at the top of the 'Space Monger'
screen so that file blocks fill the entire window, with no free space shown.

The area of blocks represent the proportion of used hard
drive space the folders occupy.

Two blocks should be bigger than the rest:
'Program Files'
'Windows' (if that is the name of the folder for
your Windows XP installation)

If you let the mouse pointer hover over the block that
encloses the folder the total size of that folder with all its included
folders will be displayed. If you right click on the block, a property
sheet will appear

Hover the mouse pointer over the 'Windows' block; it should
be a few GBytes (I have a 'Windows' folder that includes much more than the
average installation and its size is 3 GBytes.)

Hover the mouse pointer over the 'Program Files' block; it
should be a few GBytes unless you have games and game demos installed there
(one game installation can use more than 1 GByte of drive space (again,
using my system as an example, my 'Program Files' is 7 GBytes.

Other large blocks for your system should be
'Documents and Settings' (perhaps many GBytes, includes
Outlook, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer data along with 'My
Documents'
'pagefile.sys' ( ~ 1 GByte or more)
'hiberfile.sys', may not be present ( ~ 1 GByte {equal
to installed RAM + Display memory})
Some programs that may have been installed outside of
'Program Files'.
These four or five large blocks plus programs installed in other folders
should contain almost all the used space on your hard drive. If the total
agrees with what you have added up before,

THEN



Have you contacted technical support at the manufacturer of your system?

If so, and have no resolution at this point all I can suggest is the
Microsoft Knowledge Base article suggested by 'Art' earlier in this thread.

If you can't resolve the problem with that information, then
#1. Keep in mind that there may be some very simple explanation that
you don't see, and that, not being at the computer, we can't see (in which
case a good computer repair shop might be the best way to a solution.
#2. If your hard drive is otherwise healthy, and you are not too
pressed for free space (which you are not at the moment), then you could
just ignore the problem while checking for new clues from time to time with
a Google search or posts to this newsgroup.
#3. It is possible that your hard drive may have a problem ( a VERY
large percentage of bad clusters) that may get worse (try to obtain a hard
drive diagnostic program from the manufacturer of your hard drive.
#4. Ultimately, you could try backing up the entire drive, then
a. on the original C: drive, delete all the folders but the
system folder (usually named 'Windows'), defrag the result, and then check
the free space.

IF space is still missing
b. consider
(1.) purchase a new hard drive and restore the backup to
this new hard drive
(2.) reformat your original C: drive, then do a clean
install of Windows XP, followed by all the Windows XP updates and patches,
followed by all your anti-malware programs, followed by all your
applications, followed by all the data from your backup.

It all depends on what your time is worth to you and how painful the cost of
a new drive.

On the plus side
a. you may be able to get an in-warranty replacement drive
b. the cost per GByte for hard drives continues to fall rapidly; as
examples, 250 GByte hard drives can be had in the USA for under $200 US
(plus an average 6% - 7% State/County/City sales tax, no tax on Internet
purchases) and 80 GByte hard drives can be found on sale for as little as
$40 US.

If you do end up with a new drive, then if a thorough check of the original
C: drive reveals no defects, then you can use that drive for backups.

(The system I am using to post this message is where my older drives get a
new life: one 80 GByte hard drive, two 40 GByte hard drives in RAID 0, and
two 40 GByte hard drives. I use one 40 GByte hard drive for data storage
{other than music and digital images}, the 80 Gbyte hard drive as the C:
system drive, and the 80 GByte RAID 0 for music and digital images, and the
40 GByte drive to back up data other than music. The rationale for larger
and larger drives is broadband and digital imaging devices and content - it
would otherwise be hard for most users to justify even a 40 GByte hard
drive. I use Napster music service ($9.95 US per month) and have 7500 tunes
downloaded, requiring 40 GBytes storage space and my digital camera produces
RAW files of 13 MBytes per image (or ~ 3 MBytes for high quality jpeg.)

I must say that in the course of using personal computers since 1981,
installing several hundred hard drives, and using the NTFS file sysem since
Windows NT 3.51 I have never run across the problem you present.

The first hard drive I bought cost $500 US for 5 MBytes! And the first hard
drive I used ( 7.24 MByte IBM disk drive with 14 inch diameter platters,
removable) leased for ~ $1000 US per month, equivalent to ~ $6000 US in
2006.

Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to give you some background that may
help you solve the problem yourself, especially if you have trouble getting
an in-warranty replacement.

Good luck, and please let us know the outcome; it should be interesting.

Phil Weldon

"gym" <jjjwillis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1148199452.803059.270280@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Phil
| Free Space reported by Monger 31.3Gb, 42%used
|
| Computer Mangament
| Cdrive 74.52Gb NTFS Healthy (one section)
| Only other drive is CD drive showing 0 no mecia
|
| Thanks for help
|
| James
|


.

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