Computer Hope

Dear List,

I have a 2.5 year old laptop running windows 10 with office 365.
It only had a 118Gb hard disk but the amount of free Gb on the hard disk seems erratic and to be draining fast.
Also trying to inspect the whole laptop with "This PC" and a file explorer seems to snarl up with a "working on it" message forever..
But when I open disc manager I now have 2.16 Gb hard disk/ C:, It has varied between 256 Mb and 10Gb over the last day
But I've not been saving big files or indeed doing much with it - do I have some malware ?
Here's the zinger !! yesterday while I was out its c: memory dropped to 333Mb causing much panic. I moved some stuff off C: (not much) and ran avast anti virus and rebooted and not sure what worked but suddenly I had 10GB
I have malwarebytes as well as avast
its a mystery and a worry to me 

many thanks for any advice

Hello and welcome to Computer Hope Forum. My name is Dave. I will be helping you out with your particular problem on your computer.

1. I will be working on your Malware issues. This may or may not solve other issues you have with your machine.
2. The fixes are specific to your problem and should only be used for this issue on this machine.
3. If you don't know or understand something, please don't hesitate to ask.
4. Please DO NOT run any other tools or scans while I am helping you.
5. It is important that you reply to this thread. Do not start a new topic.
6. Your security programs may give warnings for some of the tools I will ask you to use. Be assured, any links I give are safe.
7. Absence of symptoms does not mean that everything is clear.

If you can't access the internet with your infected computer you will have to download and transfer any programs to the computer you're using now and transfer them to the infected computer with a CD-RW or a USB storage device. I prefer a CD because a storage device can get infected. If you use a storage device hold the shift key down while inserting the USB storage device for about 10 secs. You will also have to transfer the logs you receive back to the good computer using the same method until we can get the computer back on-line.
*************************************************************************
Please download AdwareCleaner onto your Desktop. AdwCleaner

Before starting AdwCleaner, close all open programs and internet browsers, then double-click on the AdwCleaner icon.

If Windows prompts you as to whether or not you wish to run AdwCleaner, please allow it to run.
When the AdwCleaner program will open, click on the Scan button as shown below.

AdwCleaner will now start to search for malicious files that may be installed on your computer.
To remove the files that were detected in the previous step, please click on the Clean button.

AdwCleaner will now prompt you to save any open files or data as the program will need to reboot the computer. Please do so and then click on the OK button. AdwCleaner will now delete all detected adware from your computer. When it is done it will display an alert that explains what PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) and Adware are. Please read through this information and then press the OK button. You will now be presented with an alert that states AdwCleaner needs to reboot your computer.
Please click on the OK button to allow AdwCleaner reboot your computer.A log will be produced. Please copy and paste this log in your next reply.
*********************************************
Open your Windows Security settings.

Select Virus & threat protection > Scan options.

Select Windows Defender Offline scan, and then select Scan now.

Important: Before you use Windows Defender Offline, make sure to save any open files and close apps and programs.

The Windows Defender Offline scan takes about 15 minutes to run, and then your PC will restart.

Please run Malwarbytes and post the results here.

many thanks for your time and help, SuperDave, I've run the 3 processes you mentionned
my spologies for the delay replying.

just for info I wasn't sure or not if it was a malware issue but when I posted on the "other" board it was suggested I report here. Maybe free hard disk space does rapidly vanish anyway due to temporary files ?? even without malware ??

--- my adware log seems clear (and I didn't quarantine the acer jumpstart thing)
# -------------------------------
# Malwarebytes AdwCleaner 8.4.0.0
# -------------------------------
# Build:    08-30-2022
# Database: 2022-10-10.1 (Cloud)
# Support:  https://www.malwarebytes.com/support
#
# -------------------------------
# Mode: Scan
# -------------------------------
# Start:    03-16-2023
# Duration: 00:00:21
# OS:       Windows 10 (Build 19044.2728)
# Scanned:  32098
# Detected: 1


***** [ Services ] *****

No malicious services found.

***** [ Folders ] *****

No malicious folders found.

***** [ Files ] *****

No malicious files found.

***** [ DLL ] *****

No malicious DLLs found.

***** [ WMI ] *****

No malicious WMI found.

***** [ Shortcuts ] *****

No malicious shortcuts found.

***** [ Tasks ] *****

No malicious tasks found.

***** [ Registry ] *****

No malicious registry entries found.

***** [ Chromium (and derivatives) ] *****

No malicious Chromium entries found.

***** [ Chromium URLs ] *****

No malicious Chromium URLs found.

***** [ Firefox (and derivatives) ] *****

No malicious Firefox entries found.

***** [ Firefox URLs ] *****

No malicious Firefox URLs found.

***** [ Hosts File Entries ] *****

No malicious hosts file entries found.

***** [ Preinstalled Software ] *****

Preinstalled.AcerJumpstart   Folder   C:\Program Files (x86)\ACER\ACER JUMPSTART


AdwCleaner[S00].txt - [1470 octets] - [16/03/2023 10:02:43]

########## EOF - C:\AdwCleaner\Logs\AdwCleaner[S01].txt ##########

---the windows defender scanned seems to run without issue. when my laptop rebooted the free space on my hard disk had increased from under 1 GB to over 9 GB. I think rebooting always restores some space (but it soon reduces, maybe thats normal or the estimates of free space aren't accurate

--- my malwarebytes log is here
Malwarebytes
www.malwarebytes.com

-Log Details-
Scan Date: 16/03/2023
Scan Time: 18:42
Log File: 3cecce52-c42a-11ed-9ea0-14f6d829ff35.json

-Software Information-
Version: 4.5.23.241
Components Version: 1.0.1927
Update Package Version: 1.0.66794
Licence: Premium

-System Information-
OS: Windows 10 (Build 19044.2728)
CPU: x64
File System: NTFS
User: LAPTOP-KUT598MH\berna

-Scan Summary-
Scan Type: Threat Scan
Scan Initiated By: Manual
Result: Completed
Objects Scanned: 310486
Threats Detected: 0
Threats Quarantined: 0
Time Elapsed: 11 min, 54 sec

-Scan Options-
Memory: Enabled
Startup: Enabled
Filesystem: Enabled
Archives: Enabled
Rootkits: Disabled
Heuristics: Enabled
PUP: Detect
PUM: Detect

-Scan Details-
Process: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Module: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Key: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Value: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Data Stream: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Folder: 0
(No malicious items detected)

File: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Physical Sector: 0
(No malicious items detected)

WMI: 0
(No malicious items detected)


(end)
many thanks again

best wishes

bnorth

Download Security Check by screen317 from the following link and save it to your desktop.

Security Check

* Double-click Security Check.exe
* Follow the on-screen instructions inside of the black box.
* A Notepad document should open automatically called checkup.txt
* Post the contents of that document in your next reply.

Note: If a security program requests permission from dig.exe to access the Internet, allow it to do so.

thanks, SuperDave,

I downloaded that tool and double clicked but got a "file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" error
I was looking at this site https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-10-fix-the-file-or-directory-is-corrupted-and-unreadable-error/ and tried restarting and moving the file to on avail - maybe I need to run the diagnostic tool ?
other files in that directory are available so its not the directory as a whole thats corrupted
sorry to take your time

Okay. Forget about that. Just tell me what you're using for Anti-virus?

I have avast and avira and malwarebytes

free versions of avira and avast .. by the way my free GB on C: had dropped to 1.75GB but I rebooted and its back up to 8.55 GB - thats seems to be what happens. On googling I wonder if I have a memory leak ??

Please uninstall Avira and Avast. Multiple Av's can cause a lot of problems.
Run hard drive diagnostics: tacktech.com
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: imgburn to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.
For Toshiba hard drives, see here:

Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here
____________________________________________________________
When was the last time you defragged your hard drive?

thanks, Superdave,

I've uninstalled avira and will uninstall avast soon (removing avira seemed to help for a bit... it rebooted and my free Gb went from 3 to 11 GB - its now back down at 7.65 Gb just in an hour )

re tacktech .... I don't actually have a CD - I have an external hard disk but its got files on (I'd be nervous if it was overwritten for an external boot drive) - actually I'm nervous generally re booting from an external drive. I can buy another usb stick if thats what an external boot needs. I use this laptop for work so wouldn't want it out of action ...
sorry to ask questions but what does tacktech actually do please ?
Also - this maybe should have been my first question - I cant see a downloadable app to run on https://www.tacktech.com/
Sorry. I see sections of the website for news categories (antispyware etc) and "technical updates" etc

I didn't defrag for a year or more but I did recently - I went to the defragger just now and it said I did a "trim" 6 days ago. It didn't seem to do much though

I think the problem is with your Av's. Make sure that all other Av's are uninstalled and just use Windows Defender to protect your computer. You can go the website of your harddrive and use their harddrive scanner. You should also do a disk cleanup.

thanks for all your help, SuperDave,
I think you're right about the av's. I've removed avira and avast now (but kept malwarebytes and that new adware one).
when the laptop rebooted I had about 12Gb free .. it drifted down to 5.7 Gb over the day (sometimes increasing again a bit if  closed firefox and the reopened it) - so thats better than before.
I just reran the windows defender scan and when it rebooted I have 12.5 GB again. So its better than before.
thanks again

Windows requires at least 15% (17 Gb) of free space to operate. You will need to free up some space. You can do this by removing/uninstalling no longer used or unwanted programs. You can also transfer important documents, photos, music and videos to an external harddrive or DVD's.