Hi,
This is my first time to these forums, but I am fairly computer literatue. Anyways, lately, I have been noticing sluggish performance from my pc. It also seems to be constantly losing space on the harddrive. For example, two days ago i had 107gbs left. Without intstalling, downloading, etc, today I turn it on and I only have 96gbs left! I don't know if that is a virus problem or something else, but it is bothering me.

Also, today i checked my task manager, and I noticed that i had vsmon.exe. I have heard that this is a pretty bad worm. Can anyone help me get rid of it? would this have anything to do with my harddrive problem? Point me to some links if this has already been discussed. Thanks a ton.

Hi volta 06 and welcome to BC

vsmon.exe is part of ZoneAlarm so thats ok.

A worm virus can write useless data to your hard drive in an attempt to fill it up and crash your machine.

What AV are you using? If its not picking it up one of the online ones might help. Take a look at this site.

I am using norton. I thought that vsmon was also a worm that can cause problems (undetected by norton)

link to vsmon description

this is where i find info about it.

Check your PC with Sophos then.

Read these instructions

Download Sav32CLI if your using winxp/2k/nt

Sophos Dos Rescuedisk if your using Win9x

If sophos finds nothing then your not infected, if it dectects the virus it will clean it for you.

If your using XP etc... you might want to use RescueME which will download SAV32CLI and doesn't require you to enter in the command line parameters.

Once run download hijackthis and post a log in this section of the forum to double check that everything has been removed.

Many viruses use thinly disguised common file names to hide themselves. That quote is from the link you gave us. Do you have vsmon.exe or vsmons.exe? The first one is a ZoneAlarm file and the second is the virus.

Well, I have zonealarms, but I am pretty sure it is the virus. I have both program files.

Btw, how am I going to be able to recover all of that lost harddrive space after I delete the virus?

Download the fix from Sophos and use that to remove the virus. It will clean everything. The Sophos page does not mention anything about this worm filling a hard drive so perhaps you have a separate problem.

What anti-virus program do you use? Do you have any disk cleaning utilities?

Right now, I am using norton. The only disk cleaning utility I have is the windows one. Could I use that to get rid of the files?

How big are the 'cluster' sizes?
If youve got them set at 32kb that would explain the rapid disappearence of space too.
Better set them to 4Kb. (default in XP)
Is your file system FAT32? Consider converting to NTFS
http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/fatntfs.php


Sim

it is ntfs. how would changing the cluster sizes help me; wouldn't the space still disappear?

Ok, i ran rescueme with sophos. My harddrive is still using up space, and vsmon.exe (not vsmons.exe) will not shutdown, and is using up must of my cpu. What do I do now?

Thats ZoneAlarm. Good luck trying to stop that and if you do it may lock your browser from the internet. You could uninstall it and use Kerio or Sygate for a firewall. If you find your browser stops working find and delete vsdata95.vxd.

To clean up those excess files use Ccleaner. Its much more effective than Windows Disk Cleanup.

Ok, I will do that. I don't know why it is messing my pc up, though. I have used it successfully for awhile

ok, i deleted the vsmon.exe for awhile, but it came back. This is really pissing me off.

Anyways, I found the folder where all of the harddrive is being used up. It is in windows and is called internet logs. The files (ex:xDB2CB1.tmp) continue to pile up, even after i clean it. Anyone know what could be causing this?

The OS builds them.
Internet logs are pages cached to provide it (the OS) with alternatives
in how it displays pages.
Or the Zone Alarm builds 'em because you set it (configured it) to do that.
Or it does it by default.
Or a combination of all. (likely)

They do build up as you use the internet.
They are not reqired for the accurate operation of your PC.
If the firewall is contributing, well it's a waste of space
unles you are using them for some reason,

Thats why they are called .tmp = temporary.

It is, however, up to you to do something about it.

Those files are storing information about little details of each page you visit.
Like bleeping computers HTML codes for everything a page has on it.
These pages have a lot on 'em

They change data all the time.
Your temporary files are telling the OS basic and also all those changes.

basically a waste of space to keep them.

You have several options.

A cleaning program.
Like these good free ones:

CleanUp!
C(rap)Cleaner (mentioned in this thread already)
SystemSecuritySuite

Or use utilities built into winXP:

Start|Run|(type) cleanmgr and follow the prompts

and/or

Delete Temporary Internet Files use:
Start Button-->Internet Explorer-->Tools-->Internet Options-->General tab-->Delete Files button.
Also:
Put a checkmark in Delete offline content.
Press the OK button.
This may take quite a while,
but when it is done your Temporary Internet Files will be deleted.

Delete Temp Files
To clean out your temp files use:
Start-->Run-->type in: %temp% and press the ok button.
This should open up the temp directory that your machine uses.
Please delete all files and folders found in the temp folder.
If you get an error when deleting a file, skip that file and delete all the others.

Doing this in Safe Mode you should be able to delete all the files.
(how-to)
Reboot into Safe Mode by tapping F8 until
the DOS screen appears.
Choose: Yes.
Use the up arrow to choose safe mode.
Hit enter.
OK your choice.

The options are available.
Check them out and see for yourself.

Temporary means just that.

As for cookies, remember that some contain automatic logon
ability information at sites like this.
Others might incorporate stuff useless to you.

Password remembered by the OS might be wrapped up in cookies.
That will be something you'll have to determine yourself.
It isn't in temp folders or temporary Internet Files though.

About ZONE ALARM.
I had problems with it on winXP SP2.
As mentioned previously, you can use another firewall program (free).
I like Sygate. No problems & less use of the system resources than ZA.
Small (11.& MB) on disk. Good company, with a good reputation
for building software of this kind for much bigger situations than just
personal computers in the home, in fact.

Sygate Personal (free)

If you've used Zone Alarm, you'll have no problem using Sygate.
I think it is easier or at least no more difficult than Zone Alarm.
Let it adjust itself for a few days.
It keeps logs, too.
512KB maximum displayed,
or you choose using a right click option
or a toolbar to reduce it. (Filter, I think)

Clean your temp files more regularly.

You might also need to clean your registry.
I'd use a shareware program if I were you.
To begin with.
RegSupremePro
If you're not already accustomed to using one.

Of course now that I've said all that,
Defragment your drive once it's all cleaned up.
It will need it.
Even if the program built in to Windows says you don't.
It's mistaken.

Then again, I might be.
I don't have those particular problems, though.

Good Luck.

That folder is placed there by ZoneAlarm and vsmon.exe is a ZoneAlarm file. If you want to get rid of those two then you have to first uninstall ZA through add/remove programs. Be careful about what you do here as an improper uninstall of ZA will lock your browser (IE, Firefox, Mozilla etc) from accessing the internet.

Thanks guys, I fixed it. I reinstalled zonealarms because my browsers locked, and eveything works fine now. Thanks a ton.

Glad you got it figured out. Ccleaner will remove those temp files you posted about.

Happy computing.