Mystical files in C directory

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

The following files are shown in the root directory of my C drive, no
file type is shown, 5 of them are 0 bytes and 1 is 12Gb. I would be
grateful for some indication of what they are and if I can delete the
12Gb one to free up some memory.


t180.1 0
t18g.1 0
t18k.1 0
t190.1 12,482,932,736
t194.1 0
t194.2 0

Thank you,
John.
 
John said:
The following files are shown in the root directory of my C drive, no
file type is shown, 5 of them are 0 bytes and 1 is 12Gb. I would be
grateful for some indication of what they are and if I can delete the
12Gb one to free up some memory.

t180.1 0
t18g.1 0
t18k.1 0
t190.1 12,482,932,736
t194.1 0
t194.2 0
Click to expand...

When were they last modified? Could be you are running software
(whether goodware or malware) that is creating and updating those files.
If they have been updated recently then use a file monitor (.e.g.,
SysInternals' ProcMon) to see what process is touching those files
(other than your anti-virus program). Then you'll know what created and
modifies those files. Deleting them could result in a program you want
no longer functioning or losing data you really wanted to keep. See if
you can tell what uses them before deleting them.

Have you tried loading the non-zero byte file into an editor (e.g.,
Notepad) to see if you can happen to see some recognizable strings? You
could also use SysInternals 'strings' commands to list the strings it
finds within the file. Pipe the output of strings.exe into 'more', as
in "strings.exe t190.1 | more" so you can page through the long output.
For 'more', hitting Return advances by one line and hitting Spacebar
advances by a page.
 
John said:
The following files are shown in the root directory of my C drive, no
file type is shown, 5 of them are 0 bytes and 1 is 12Gb. I would be
grateful for some indication of what they are and if I can delete the
12Gb one to free up some memory.


t180.1 0
t18g.1 0
t18k.1 0
t190.1 12,482,932,736
t194.1 0
t194.2 0
Click to expand...

A couple of installation setup programs use the .1 and .2 file
extension.... Inno Setup and Setup Factory.... but these files could
also be from something else.

Open the 12-GB file in Notepad or WordPad, and look for readable text
that might tell you what it is related to. That's time-consuming for a
12-GB file.

If you have MS Word installed, open Word and then use its File> Open
menu. In the file type menu scroll down to "Recover text from any file
(*.*)" and select it. Then navigate to, and select, the 12-GB file.
Word will parse the file and extract any text in it, opening the text as
a new document.
 
A couple of installation setup programs use the .1 and .2 file
extension.... Inno Setup and Setup Factory.... but these files could
also be from something else.

Open the 12-GB file in Notepad or WordPad, and look for readable text
that might tell you what it is related to. That's time-consuming for a
12-GB file.

If you have MS Word installed, open Word and then use its File> Open
menu. In the file type menu scroll down to "Recover text from any file
(*.*)" and select it. Then navigate to, and select, the 12-GB file.
Word will parse the file and extract any text in it, opening the text as
a new document.
Click to expand...


Thank you, Notepad, Wordpad or Word will not open it

Notepad - The C:\t190.1 file is too large for Notepad. Use another
editor to edit the file.
Wordpad - Failed to open document.
Word - There is a serious disc error on file t190.1

They were created and accessed -

t180.1 27/09/2011 08:52
t18g.1 01/08/2011 07:50
t18k.1 20/05/2012 09:29
t190.1 04/04/2012 07:48
t194.1 20/01/2011 09:56
t194.2 11/03/2012 09:40

John
 
John said:
Thank you, Notepad, Wordpad or Word will not open it

Notepad - The C:\t190.1 file is too large for Notepad. Use another
editor to edit the file.
Wordpad - Failed to open document.
Word - There is a serious disc error on file t190.1

They were created and accessed -

t180.1 27/09/2011 08:52
t18g.1 01/08/2011 07:50
t18k.1 20/05/2012 09:29
t190.1 04/04/2012 07:48
t194.1 20/01/2011 09:56
t194.2 11/03/2012 09:40
Click to expand...

Did you use the option in Word to "Recover text from any file (*.*)"
when you tried to open it? If you tried to open the file in Word using
just the regular File> Open option, you could get that error.
 
Did you use the option in Word to "Recover text from any file (*.*)"
when you tried to open it? If you tried to open the file in Word using
just the regular File> Open option, you could get that error.
Click to expand...


Thank you, yes, it immediately comes up with "There is a serious disc
error on file t190.1".

John.
 
Mike said:
Thank you, yes, it immediately comes up with "There is a serious disc
error on file t190.1".
Click to expand...

It may be a corrupt file, or there may not be enough free space left on
your hard drive, or in the partition/volume where you have your Temp
folder. Or, you could have a hard drive error. Check the Event Viewer
to make sure no hard drive (atapi) errors are listed for the drive.

Copy the files to another drive or to a writeable CD or a flash drive,
then delete them from their current location. Wait a week or so, use
all your programs, then check back and see if any are re-created or if
any programs complain about them being missing. If neither of those
things happen, you can delete the copies you made and "move along,
nothing to see here."
 
It may be a corrupt file, or there may not be enough free space left on
your hard drive, or in the partition/volume where you have your Temp
folder. Or, you could have a hard drive error. Check the Event Viewer
to make sure no hard drive (atapi) errors are listed for the drive.

Copy the files to another drive or to a writeable CD or a flash drive,
then delete them from their current location. Wait a week or so, use
all your programs, then check back and see if any are re-created or if
any programs complain about them being missing. If neither of those
things happen, you can delete the copies you made and "move along,
nothing to see here."
Click to expand...

Thanks for this advice, I am very grateful to you.
John.
 
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