Very large unknown files
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    Surrey, UK
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    Very large unknown files

    What ho one and all,

    Should be preparing for Santa's arrival, but I am posting this question instead!

    Running XP sp3 (still); every few months, I clean the HDD with a few utilities, scan for any virus / malware etc and defrag C: which is a 100gb partition. Generally, around 50 gb is in use; the largest files are a VM, AutoCAD and probably Photoshop.

    After a recent defrag, I was amazed that I only had 25% free. Using Space sniffer, I found six, recently created (last few months) files ranging in size form 500kb to 6gb. Typical file name was A2F66F1B127C0036C4539DB3AF7E20D1F0548574 with no extension.

    I have deleted them, back to around 45% free space and no adverse affect.

    What could these be? How and why were they created?

    Grateful for any suggestions.

    Rex

  2. #2
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    Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
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    What folder were those files in?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    I have now deleted them all and not having any issues, so can only assume that they are rubbish files.

    But to answer your question, they were in the C: directory, along with all the other XP os files.

    If they return, I will copy the actual file name; I only got the name again for this thread by using an 'undelete' program.

  4. #4
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    One way to test what happens before you delete a file or folder in the future is to add .old as a temporary extension. That will render it effectively invisible to anything on the computer to see if deleting it would have any effect.

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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    You are right and I should have done that. But since they were all dated in the last four months and certainly prior to that, there had been no issues, I took the executive decision to delete.

    Regained all the space and no issues arising.

    Happy new year

    Rex

  6. #6
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    And a happy new year to you too!

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