mystery file showed up during defrag

[richard]

I sent a friend a comic streaming video from the Google Video website
and had a copy sent to myself. I have deleted that copy and emptied the
recycle bin. Later that day when I was defragging my hard drive, I
happened to see the title of the video go by--"moving {name of vdeo}.

I thought that was odd and went on to search the hard drive for the file
and it could not be found.

I am not especially concerned about this particular file, but it made me
wonder if previous files that I had deleted to the recycle bin (and then
emptied the bin) are somehow still there in some ghostly form.

Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Sharon F]

I sent a friend a comic streaming video from the Google Video website
and had a copy sent to myself. I have deleted that copy and emptied the
recycle bin. Later that day when I was defragging my hard drive, I
happened to see the title of the video go by--"moving {name of vdeo}.

I thought that was odd and went on to search the hard drive for the file
and it could not be found.

I am not especially concerned about this particular file, but it made me
wonder if previous files that I had deleted to the recycle bin (and then
emptied the bin) are somehow still there in some ghostly form.

Any ideas?
Thanks

Since you'd already emptied the Recycle Bin, the only other places I can
think of where Windows might have the file tucked away would be in a System
Restore point (possible if the file was stored on the desktop before
deleting) or a copy in the browser cache (IE cache is still a bit brain
dead after all of these years).

Or a third party applications may have grabbed a copy: GoBack (similar to
System Restore) or Symantec's Protected Recycle Bin. If using the protected
bin, not only do you need to empty the recycle bin but empty the protected
bin as well.

If I've overlooked another possible hiding place, I'm sure that someone
will mention it.

 

[Mak]

%userprofile%\recent is overlooked for example (I doubt you can see .lnk
being moved in defrag, size is not big enough)
Search with advanced settings on should've picked that up or, dir filename.*
/a /s

 

[richard]

%userprofile%\recent is overlooked for example (I doubt you can see .lnk
being moved in defrag, size is not big enough)
Search with advanced settings on should've picked that up or, dir filename.*
/a /s

Using advanced search (hidden and system files), I have no found two
references: the url of the website that featured the video, and the
video title itself. But there was no path given as to where these two
items reside. Perhaps System Restore??

 

[richard]

Using advanced search (hidden and system files), I have no found two
references: the url of the website that featured the video, and the
video title itself. But there was no path given as to where these two
items reside. Perhaps System Restore??

Correction: should read "I have now found...." Sorry

 

[Sharon F]

Using advanced search (hidden and system files), I have no found two
references: the url of the website that featured the video, and the
video title itself. But there was no path given as to where these two
items reside. Perhaps System Restore??

I would run chkdsk first. Then search again. There may be references in the
MSFT ("descriptors" as the chkdsk report notes) that need cleaning up. If
references to the file are still found in the next search then try using
Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last restore point.

Also, if using Norton/Symantec products, be sure to double check on that
Protected Bin thing. Protected Bin has been known to install "by default."
Often the user isn't even aware that it is there until something like this
comes up.

 

[richard]

I would run chkdsk first. Then search again. There may be references in the
MSFT ("descriptors" as the chkdsk report notes) that need cleaning up. If
references to the file are still found in the next search then try using
Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last restore point.

Also, if using Norton/Symantec products, be sure to double check on that
Protected Bin thing. Protected Bin has been known to install "by default."
Often the user isn't even aware that it is there until something like this
comes up.

I ran chkdsk and the files still showed up. I then ran disk cleanup to
remove all the temporary files, and the two files still showed up after
a search.

I right-clicked on the files and chose "delete" and the popup asked if I
wanted to delete this history item. I chose No, but the term "history
item" suggested that the two files might be in my history file. I have
FireFox automatically delete my history file upon closing the browser,
and I manually cleared the history files as well.

Would it be safe/wise to delete these two items in the Search pane? Or
leave well enough alone?

 

[Sharon F]

I ran chkdsk and the files still showed up. I then ran disk cleanup to
remove all the temporary files, and the two files still showed up after
a search.

I right-clicked on the files and chose "delete" and the popup asked if I
wanted to delete this history item. I chose No, but the term "history
item" suggested that the two files might be in my history file. I have
FireFox automatically delete my history file upon closing the browser,
and I manually cleared the history files as well.

Would it be safe/wise to delete these two items in the Search pane? Or
leave well enough alone?

The reason I brought up system restore: Video files are not something that
XP's System Restore usually tracks. However it does consider the user
folders as part of the "system." The user's folders include their desktop
and a record of their Recycle Bin items.

If the video was stored on the desktop or placed in the Recycle Bin and a
system restore point was created (automatically or manually), there is a
good chance that file was copied to a system restore point.

Later you delete the file from the desktop (or empty the Recycle Bin) but
there's still a possible copy in System Restore. This is why, I recommended
clearing all but the most recent restore point. (NOTE: I've had "deleted"
files reappear in my Recycle Bin after using a previous restore point so
have personally seen this happen.)

Disk Cleanup has the capability of cleaning up all restore points except
the most current one. If your system is running fine, create a new restore
point. Then run Disk Cleanup, click on the tab for the More Options page.
Then click the Clean Up button in the System Restore section.

On the other hand, if you're reluctant to do this/want to keep your restore
points - System Restore has a set size limit. As new restore points are
created, old ones are deleted. In other words, if there is a copy of the
file in System Restore, it will eventually disappear on its own. No extra
steps needed for this to happen besides waiting for enough time to go by
for the restore point(s) to be removed.

For the history items that you've asked about - these are simply history.
References - bits of text - that refer to a file that exists or existed
since the last time History was cleared. These do not take up a huge amount
of space. We're talking teeny tiny bits of text (usually path statements).
I wouldn't worry about these at all.

NOTE: There is "history" for the browser such as firefox and there is also
"history" for the Windows Shell such as most recent files, most frequently
used programs, current Windows Explorer paths so that you can go "forward"
and "backwards" in the file browser, search history, etc. Some of this
history is stored in the registry (which also has its own history trail).
Sounds like a lot but these really are just tiny bits of text references.

 

[richard]

The reason I brought up system restore: Video files are not something that
XP's System Restore usually tracks. However it does consider the user
folders as part of the "system." The user's folders include their desktop
and a record of their Recycle Bin items.

If the video was stored on the desktop or placed in the Recycle Bin and a
system restore point was created (automatically or manually), there is a
good chance that file was copied to a system restore point.

Later you delete the file from the desktop (or empty the Recycle Bin) but
there's still a possible copy in System Restore. This is why, I recommended
clearing all but the most recent restore point. (NOTE: I've had "deleted"
files reappear in my Recycle Bin after using a previous restore point so
have personally seen this happen.)

Disk Cleanup has the capability of cleaning up all restore points except
the most current one. If your system is running fine, create a new restore
point. Then run Disk Cleanup, click on the tab for the More Options page.
Then click the Clean Up button in the System Restore section.

On the other hand, if you're reluctant to do this/want to keep your restore
points - System Restore has a set size limit. As new restore points are
created, old ones are deleted. In other words, if there is a copy of the
file in System Restore, it will eventually disappear on its own. No extra
steps needed for this to happen besides waiting for enough time to go by
for the restore point(s) to be removed.

For the history items that you've asked about - these are simply history.
References - bits of text - that refer to a file that exists or existed
since the last time History was cleared. These do not take up a huge amount
of space. We're talking teeny tiny bits of text (usually path statements).
I wouldn't worry about these at all.

NOTE: There is "history" for the browser such as firefox and there is also
"history" for the Windows Shell such as most recent files, most frequently
used programs, current Windows Explorer paths so that you can go "forward"
and "backwards" in the file browser, search history, etc. Some of this
history is stored in the registry (which also has its own history trail).
Sounds like a lot but these really are just tiny bits of text references.

Thanks, Sharon, for your good explanation.
richard

 

[PopS]

Or, in Recent Files?


: On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 23:08:52 -0500, richard wrote:
:
: > I sent a friend a comic streaming video from the Google Video
website
: > and had a copy sent to myself. I have deleted that copy and
emptied the
: > recycle bin. Later that day when I was defragging my hard
drive, I
: > happened to see the title of the video go by--"moving {name
of vdeo}.
: >
: > I thought that was odd and went on to search the hard drive
for the file
: > and it could not be found.
: >
: > I am not especially concerned about this particular file, but
it made me
: > wonder if previous files that I had deleted to the recycle
bin (and then
: > emptied the bin) are somehow still there in some ghostly
form.
: >
: > Any ideas?
: > Thanks
:
: Since you'd already emptied the Recycle Bin, the only other
places I can
: think of where Windows might have the file tucked away would be
in a System
: Restore point (possible if the file was stored on the desktop
before
: deleting) or a copy in the browser cache (IE cache is still a
bit brain
: dead after all of these years).
:
: Or a third party applications may have grabbed a copy: GoBack
(similar to
: System Restore) or Symantec's Protected Recycle Bin. If using
the protected
: bin, not only do you need to empty the recycle bin but empty
the protected
: bin as well.
:
: If I've overlooked another possible hiding place, I'm sure that
someone
: will mention it.
:
: --
: Sharon F
: MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

 

[Sharon F]

Thanks, Sharon, for your good explanation.

You're welcome, Richard. Reviewing my response, I'd like to make a minor
correction: *some* folders in the user hierarchy are monitored by System
Restore, not all of them. The user's personal Documents folder, for
example, is not monitored.

 

[Sharon F]

Or, in Recent Files?

Possibly but that would just be a shortcut. Something that should fly by so
fast that chkdsk wouldn't have time to display its name.