weird system files

[John]

I have a number of files marked as system files which shouldn't be.
jpg's zip's other picture files doc files etc. etc. They were copied
from disks of one sort or another.

How does this happen? How can I reverse it? When I defrag it leaves
these files spread out all over the disk. Every time I go to manipulate
them in some way xp complains about it.

Help

Thanks

John

 

[Guest]

John-

You may have a virus. Have you tried running a virus scan from within 'Safe
Mode'? That may solve some of your problems.

jewels

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "John" <[email protected]>

| I have a number of files marked as system files which shouldn't be.
| jpg's zip's other picture files doc files etc. etc. They were copied
| from disks of one sort or another.
|
| How does this happen? How can I reverse it? When I defrag it leaves
| these files spread out all over the disk. Every time I go to manipulate
| them in some way xp complains about it.
|
| Help
|
| Thanks
|
| John


Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

It is a self-extracting ZIP file that contains the Kixtart Script Interpreter {
http://kixtart.org Kixtart is CareWare } three batch files, five Kixtart scripts, one Link
(.LNK) file, this PDF instruction file and two utilities; UNZIP.EXE and WGET.EXE. It will
simplify the process of using up to 3 different Anti Virus Command Line Scanners to remove
viruses and various other malware.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode. This
way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor’s web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Exit the menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file.

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE and/or FTP.EXE to go
through your FireWall to allow them to download the needed AV vendor related files.

* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[John]

I'm pretty sure I'm virus free. I use Avast, PestPatrol, and Win Patrol.
I'm also very caeful. Also running XP 2 so it tells me if the virus
thing isn't up to date.

I believe it has something to do with transfering files from cd's and my
little hard disk usb port thing. They are all picture files.

I used sophos for awhile but had truoble updating it.

John

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

As long as you're sure they're not virus files, or other malware, click Start, Run and enter CMD. Enter ATTRIB /? for the command line options for ATTRIB (Attribute). You can clear the System bit on one, or more files.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

I'm pretty sure I'm virus free. I use Avast, PestPatrol, and Win Patrol.
I'm also very caeful. Also running XP 2 so it tells me if the virus
thing isn't up to date.

I believe it has something to do with transfering files from cd's and my
little hard disk usb port thing. They are all picture files.

I used sophos for awhile but had truoble updating it.

John

From: "John" <[email protected]>

| I have a number of files marked as system files which shouldn't be.
| jpg's zip's other picture files doc files etc. etc. They were copied
| from disks of one sort or another.
|
| How does this happen? How can I reverse it? When I defrag it leaves
| these files spread out all over the disk. Every time I go to manipulate
| them in some way xp complains about it.
|
| Help
|
| Thanks
|
| John


Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

It is a self-extracting ZIP file that contains the Kixtart Script Interpreter {
http://kixtart.org Kixtart is CareWare } three batch files, five Kixtart scripts, one Link
(.LNK) file, this PDF instruction file and two utilities; UNZIP.EXE and WGET.EXE. It will
simplify the process of using up to 3 different Anti Virus Command Line Scanners to remove
viruses and various other malware.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode. This
way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor’s web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Exit the menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file.

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE and/or FTP.EXE to go
through your FireWall to allow them to download the needed AV vendor related files.

* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[Sparda]

I have a number of files marked as system files which
shouldn't be.
jpg's zip's other picture files doc files etc. etc. They were
copied
from disks of one sort or another.

How does this happen? How can I reverse it? When I defrag it
leaves
these files spread out all over the disk. Every time I go to
manipulate
them in some way xp complains about it.

Help

Thanks

John

in explorer go Tools > Folder options >tab> View then in then uncheck
"hide extensions for knowen file types" this will alow you to change
the file extensions of all files except .lnk’s.

 

[John]

They are AlbumArt files. AlbumArt apparently is something created by
Java. A brief scan in google found that. I don't remember ever using
Java for that and don't know how to stop it. Do you?

Thanks

John

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "John" <[email protected]>

| I'm pretty sure I'm virus free. I use Avast, PestPatrol, and Win Patrol.
| I'm also very caeful. Also running XP 2 so it tells me if the virus
| thing isn't up to date.
|
| I believe it has something to do with transfering files from cd's and my
| little hard disk usb port thing. They are all picture files.
|
| I used sophos for awhile but had truoble updating it.
|
| John

Avast and others can miss infectors. It happens a lot. That's why the tools provides
three different AV vendor scanners. One may catch what another may miss.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

If the filenames are similar to

AlbumArt_{047EC5B9-8031-467B-A09E-3097C945C5CF}_Small.jpg

They're files that are downloaded to display album covers when you're listening to music in Windows Media Player.

 

[John]

That is them... they are all hidden system files. Ugh!

John

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Open a Command Prompt window and enter

CD My Documents\My Music

Next enter

ATTRIB ALB*.jpg -s -h /s

This will clear the System and Hidden attributes on all JPG files starting with ALB in the filename. You can take it out to Album*.jpg, if you want.

 

[John]

Thanks, I did that (being an old dos user since 1982). Then I remembered
I NEVER use them so I deleted them, 7,237 of them on 3 hard disks. The
problem was that after a defrag those things were scattered all over my
hard disk since defrag won't move system files.

I'm going to go ask mediaplayer folks why they believe their picture
files are important enough to be system files. I've dumped mediaplayer
and gone to real for music. Thanks for the help.

John