Help! Did System Restore, lost around 14 GB of hard drive space!

[Steve Brandon]

Hi,

My computer has a hard drive that has about 20 GB of memory, of which
15 GB or so was empty up to last week.

Something went totally wrong with one of the DLLs that affected both
Internet Explorer and AOL Instant Messenger (I don't remember which
DLL and I don't think it's important to my problem) and I downloaded
various trial versions of programmes like registry cleaners and such
and nothing did the trick, and some other problem was preventing me
from reinstalling Internet Explorer, so, as a last resort because I
didn't want to re-Format my hard drive and reinstall Windows ME and
everything else, I decided to try System Restore.

It took something like half-an-hour and it fixed the problem with
Internet Explorer and AIM, but now I have a bigger problem. My hard
drive went from having 15 GB free, to less than one GB, and I had to
delete a whole bunch of files just to get the system stable enough to
run any Internet browser and my firewall. Now I have about 1.7 GB
free, but I honestly have no idea how I can get the other 14 MB that
has been eaten up by... something I did. And the 1.7 GB keeps on
shrinking.

And I searched for files bigger than 100 MB, but I didn't see anything
I didn't already recognize from before the troubles began.

I'm totally clueless, and I couldn't find any problems resembling my
own doing a Google search. What is it exactly that I need to delete,
and how do I go about deleting it?

Please help. I don't want to have to re-Format my hard drive. :(

Thank you in advance,

Steve Brandon
Kiyone at tokyo dot com

[Noel Paton]

I suspect that one of three things has happened
1) You have a rampant virus infection, spawning files everywhere
2) System Restore has got corrupted, and isn't cabbing files the way it
should do
3) your HD is mis-reporting free space for some reason.

Run Scandisk from a DOS boot with a boot floppy - see what that says.

Check the System Restore status - Open Windows Explorer, and go to Folder
Options - make sure that you have the settings set to enable viewing of
System and Hidden Folders/files.
Look at the C:\_Restore folder - right-click on the icon, and select
Properties. How many files/folders does it report? - How much filespace is
it using?
if it has the 14GB, then your only option is to clear it, and lose all you
restore points.

Boot to DOS, using your Startup Disk (if you don't have one and can't make
one from Start | Add/Remove Programs, then download a diskmaker from
www.bootdisk.com, and create the floppy by running the file)

At the A:\> prompt, type the following commands (followed by [return])

ATTRIB -S -R -H C:\_RESTORE

REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

When the A:\> prompt returns, remove the floppy, and reboot the PC. The
Control Files will be rebuilt, and a Restore point should be created.

Then delete the C:\OLDREST folder, and reboot again.

Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder

If it's only about 2GB, then don't worry -
You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/stinger.exe

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com, install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such nasties from
your system.

See if that lot helps.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Steve Brandon" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi,
>
> My computer has a hard drive that has about 20 GB of memory, of which
> 15 GB or so was empty up to last week.
>
> Something went totally wrong with one of the DLLs that affected both
> Internet Explorer and AOL Instant Messenger (I don't remember which
> DLL and I don't think it's important to my problem) and I downloaded
> various trial versions of programmes like registry cleaners and such
> and nothing did the trick, and some other problem was preventing me
> from reinstalling Internet Explorer, so, as a last resort because I
> didn't want to re-Format my hard drive and reinstall Windows ME and
> everything else, I decided to try System Restore.
>
> It took something like half-an-hour and it fixed the problem with
> Internet Explorer and AIM, but now I have a bigger problem. My hard
> drive went from having 15 GB free, to less than one GB, and I had to
> delete a whole bunch of files just to get the system stable enough to
> run any Internet browser and my firewall. Now I have about 1.7 GB
> free, but I honestly have no idea how I can get the other 14 MB that
> has been eaten up by... something I did. And the 1.7 GB keeps on
> shrinking.
>
> And I searched for files bigger than 100 MB, but I didn't see anything
> I didn't already recognize from before the troubles began.
>
> I'm totally clueless, and I couldn't find any problems resembling my
> own doing a Google search. What is it exactly that I need to delete,
> and how do I go about deleting it?
>
> Please help. I don't want to have to re-Format my hard drive. :(
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> Steve Brandon
> Kiyone at tokyo dot com