How do I recover HD space after virus removal?

[MarkJohnson]

I always seem to have a problem restoring hard drive space after the removal of malware from my computer. I usually just ignore it as I usually have tons of free space, but this time I bought a SSD of 60GB for my dad's computer and it is almost completely full (it should have over 30GB free). It seems these malware programs use up a lot of space on the hard drive, but when I search my folders I can never seem to find any unusually large folders to delete. It seems as though they are hidden, but even with hidden files and folders revealed I find nothing unusual.

I have run ccleaner to remove unwanted files and folders and registry entries and it usually clears up several GB of space, but never all of it.

I run Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, and NOD32 for protection, (and of course they never catch anything, they just let me know I'm infected after the fact and only after I've manually scanned)

Can anyone shed some light on restoring some HD space?

-=Mark=-

Edited November 9, 2009 by MarkJohnson

[herbalist]

This is pretty much a job that's done manually. Look in Program files for odd named folders, often using the names of adware. Delete or erase their contents. Look in program files>common files for similar items. Clean the temp folders and temporary internet files, especially its content.ie5 subfolders which are not always visible when using "Open" but are when using "explore".

Scanner is a little utility will show you your hard drive usage as a pie chart. It's available here.

Unless you actually need some of what's on that drive, some app that you can't replace, or certain user files, etc , it's a good idea to wipe any used drives completely. A used drive can contain malicious code that is missed by an AV. If it's NTFS formatted, it can even contain rootkits. I strongly suggest wiping it with a utility like DBan before using it any further, then reinstall a fresh OS. If you must explore that drive, use an app like SandBoxie to isolate anything on it that might get executed. Use the online AVs to completely scan that drive.

Edited November 9, 2009 by herbalist

[beats]

You didn't specify what OS it is, but over time, stuff like System Restore, Indexing Service, etc. eat up a lot of space too.

[MarkJohnson]

OK, I used that scanner program with the pie charts and it is awesome!!! I quickly found the culprits.

First being the email folder being almost 10GB by itself. I forgot my dad doesn't comprehend group emailing and will make a half dozen or more individual email jokes he forwards that are usually pictures or videos (1022 in about a month's time- lol)

second was an IOMETER test file that was 10GB, I forgot to finish reading the instructions where it said I needed to manually delete the test file every time I use it.

lastly was my 4GB+ pagefile. I put it to the minimum of 200MB as Dad has 4GB ram on an email machine with some slots games he loves playing.

and now I have almost 30GB free space!!

Thanks for everyone's help

-=Mark=-

PS. my email program still has 8GB used space. Thee program shows all emails gone, but I went to the folder and it still shows all my email files I deleted still being full. I emptied my trash can and everything, but for some reason it never deleted my emails completely. Is this on purpose? or am I missing something? also, there are two files of each my main folders in my email program. ie - sent.msf (41k) which seems an index file and a sent (2.5GB) data file which seem to be emails, but I have deleted them already.

PSS. I'm also using Windows 7 Ult. x64 and Thunderbird for email.

PSSS. sorry for typos. I'm on my dad's computer and he has a laptop style keyboard and it always double clicks every other letter or misses letters completely. I think it took longer to edit this than it did to write it. lol

PSSS. I'm also planning on a reinstall as soon as a FW get released for my SSD (supposedly this month). It's suppose to be done, just waiting for the manufacturer to put it into the flash program.

[herbalist]

I believe that Thunderbird stores each e-mail folder as a single file. I'm pretty sure that Thunderbird also has an option to compress the individual e-mail folders. Right click on the e-mail folders (inbox, sent items, etc) and look for a compress folder option. There should be an option that will compress them automatically.

[submix8c]

herbalist is correct - I use OE6 and the same applies. Suggest compressing folders individually though. A note on that - OE6 creates a "backup" in the Recycle Bin which has to be deleted so it might also apply in your case (T-bird).

[MarkJohnson]

I found the option under the file menu. Thanks for all your help

-=Mark=-

[jaclaz]

OK, I used that scanner program with the pie charts and it is awesome!!! I quickly found the culprits.

And now that you have become familiar with pie charts, you should learn about the "real thing", i.e. "treemaps":

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoe...on/sequoiaview/

jaclaz