Weird files in Root Directory of XP Pro

J

JoeGensheimer

New Member
My Dell D410 and now Vaio SZ generate weird files in the C: directory. They have names likes1gk.1d, s3ps.3c. They are from 0 to 4Meg, and often are emails I have sent using Outlook (I can open many of them with Wordpad but not all of them). Under type of file, they have various designations that follow in order: 3A, 3B, #c, etc. or just numbers 30 file, 31 file, 32 file. The computer can generate thousands of these per week. Any ideas? I have checked many forums and can't find an answer; neither can my computer savvy friends.

Thanks for helping.

Joe
 
If you are not infected with a virus, malware, spyware. and less likely adware Windows itself may have a cross link to a program you are running. Anything sent with Outlook should never appear at the root directory of the hard drive itself. I can readily advise a few removers with the links here to see if you do find that something has infected the drive.
AVG 7.1 Free edition http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
Windows Defender beta 2 http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Spybot Search and Destroy along with several freewares and sharewares can be tried out at http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html
You can also get AdAware SE Personal free at http://www.lavasoft.com
 
Thanks for your quick reply. I have windows firewall on, Norton anti-virus on, Trend Micro anit-Virus 3.0, have run deep scans all coming back negative. I looked at netstat to see if I was connecting to some other IP address than my ISP and nothing. My computer friends all tell me this is impossible until I show them--and tehn they can't figure it out either.

Joe
 
Something is running on your system to cause this. If no virus or spyware is found you will have to reduce the amount of startups to the bare basics with just about thing disabled to start one at a time to see they stop and start again. You will most likely find that you have some type of trojan downloader posing as a legitimate software. Microsoft does have a malware remover along with the Defender you could try as well. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...e0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I have downloaded and run both programs and nothing malicious was detected. I've gone to Putlook help and XP help--nothing on topic.
 
Have you tried the free version of AVG or other types of removers in the meantime? It does sound like a virus or sometime of malware like a trojan got on your system. Without finding a tool to remove it you want to consider posting a log with HiJack This to get a look at your system registry. http://www.hijack-this.net/ for free copy. Here's another site that offers some instructions as well as several links for other removers. http://www.pchell.com/support/hijackthistutorial.shtml
 
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