Dirty Virus eating up space

[System_Error]

I've got a virus that multiplies over and over and over. I mean, I was running really low on space and didn't think anything about it untill I deleted a program to free some space. Right after that almost all of that free space was eaten up immidiately. Now, I'm running a virus scanner which is showing more than 30-40 thousand infected files, and whenever it tries to delete them that space is filled back up.

What do I do?

[nothingofvalue]

Did you search Symantec for the virus name that is being fond to see if they have a removal tool? What is the virus name?

[RobDog888]

You could go to Trend Micro's site to do a free online scan.

[System_Error]

Is there a way I can delete hidden directories?

These viruses are contained in directories I cannot see, even after selecting show hidden files and directories from the folder options.

[RobDog888]

The virus checker picked them up, could it also remove them too?

[System_Error]

I think the problem here is the virus vault will only hold so much. There's so many files that it won't contain all of them, but I can delete a batch of about 6-10 thousand at once. That also means free space, and by the time I scan again that free space is already filled back up. Although, it does seem to be making progress this time. I was able to stop it from the start up menu so it's not running right now. Hopefully that will give me the chance to get rid of all of them.

[RobDog888]

Which antivirus are you using?

[visualAd]

Have you tried starting you PC in safe mode and disabling all the programs which run at startup except those which are absolutly neccessay? You can see a list of startup programs by typing msconfig in the Start Menu -> Run.

Have a look at the list of startup programs and google any which you don't recognise. If any are a virus you'll find information about it and how to remove it on one of the anti virus sites.

[Jacob Roman]

Is there a way I can delete hidden directories?

These viruses are contained in directories I cannot see, even after selecting show hidden files and directories from the folder options.

Did you also uncheck Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommened), which is a couple options below what you selected? Hidden System files are even more hidden than regular hidden files. I went through this same problem when I accidently ran my own virus program, which was a folder flooder. Found out the hard way that folders take up space since it maxed out my harddrive.

[RobDog888]

Ha ha, your here. I was thinking of your Folder Flooder™ app when I read this thread. See, and you thought it wouldnt be harmful.

[Jacob Roman]

Ha ha, your here. I was thinking of your Folder Flooder™ app when I read this thread. See, and you thought it wouldnt be harmful.

Yeah. I thought it was harmless too. I had to make myself an anti-folder flooder app since Windows was taking forever deleting them. And it took my program 24 hours to delete 10 gigs worth of folders.

[RobDog888]

Did you give yourself a negative Rep for it?

Anyways,... I dont know what AV hes using but an online scan from trendmicro should help if he can get online. Its free

[System_Error]

First of all, I was using avg free version. I think I finally got all the viruses and infected files cleaned up(cleared up 9 gigs), but it's EXTREMELY slow. I've ran adaware and every spy killer I can find, but there's still a few pop ups and stuff. I did run the trend micro(which is cool by the way) which had found 3 viruses the other didn't pick up, but I got a blue screen during the scan!

I think the best thing to do is a repair install, but I have A LOT of work that I can't lose. Is there some folder or something that ensures that data wont be lost if I do a repair install?

[thegreatone]

Why don't you throw the files to disc, it may take forever but at least you'll have them, or send them to another PC over LAn or w/e, just back them up in normal ways.

Your PC may be slow because the hard drive is now heavily fragmented, you could try running Defragmenting tools before your last resort of a repair install ?

My $0.02 worth.