 harddrive continuously loses space, think its a virus. |
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 Mar 17 2005, 10:39 PM
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#1
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New Member  Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729  |
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. |
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Mar 17 2005, 10:57 PM
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 Voted most likely Group: Members Posts: 3,675 Joined: 19-September 04 From: Collingwood, Ontario, Canada Member No.: 2,883 |
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. -------------------- **** We use our powers for good, not evil **** When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslo |
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Mar 17 2005, 10:59 PM
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#3
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
I am using norton. I thought that vsmon was also a worm that can cause problems (undetected by norton)
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Mar 17 2005, 11:00 PM
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#4
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
link to vsmon description
this is where i find info about it. |
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Mar 18 2005, 03:11 AM
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Distinguished Member Group: Members Posts: 641 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 5,839 |
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. -------------------- |
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Mar 18 2005, 11:15 AM
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#6
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Voted most likely Group: Members Posts: 3,675 Joined: 19-September 04 From: Collingwood, Ontario, Canada Member No.: 2,883 |
QUOTE The worm copies itself to a file named vsmons.exe in the Windows system folder and creates the following registry entries: 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. This post has been edited by Leurgy: Mar 18 2005, 11:17 AM -------------------- **** We use our powers for good, not evil **** When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslo |
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Mar 18 2005, 07:43 PM
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#7
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
Well, I have zonealarms, but I am pretty sure it is the virus. I have both program files.
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Mar 18 2005, 07:44 PM
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#8
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
Btw, how am I going to be able to recover all of that lost harddrive space after I delete the virus?
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Mar 18 2005, 08:09 PM
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Voted most likely Group: Members Posts: 3,675 Joined: 19-September 04 From: Collingwood, Ontario, Canada Member No.: 2,883 |
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? This post has been edited by Leurgy: Mar 18 2005, 08:11 PM -------------------- **** We use our powers for good, not evil **** When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslo |
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Mar 18 2005, 08:30 PM
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#10
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
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?
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Mar 18 2005, 09:04 PM
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 26 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,734 |
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 |
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Mar 18 2005, 09:39 PM
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#12
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
it is ntfs. how would changing the cluster sizes help me; wouldn't the space still disappear?
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Mar 18 2005, 09:44 PM
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#13
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
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?
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Mar 18 2005, 10:03 PM
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#14
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Voted most likely Group: Members Posts: 3,675 Joined: 19-September 04 From: Collingwood, Ontario, Canada Member No.: 2,883 |
QUOTE and vsmon.exe (not vsmons.exe) will not shutdown 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. -------------------- **** We use our powers for good, not evil **** When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslo |
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Mar 18 2005, 10:06 PM
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#15
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 14 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 14,729 |
Ok, I will do that. I don't know why it is messing my pc up, though. I have used it successfully for awhile
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