Computer randomly deleting files....

Ok so i've noticed that a few files that I'd try to open wouldn't open. After looking at them through Windows Explorer, I notice that they are of size "0 KB"...I did a search for all files of that size and its worse than i thought:

Files from almost every type are affected. .dll's, music, photos, videos, .pdf's....you name it...something's attacked them...

I've been using MSE and scan's have come up clean. Just wondering if there are any ideas as to why this is occurring...

Thanks, Ricky!

EDIT: checking the MSE log shows that it detected "Virus:VBS/Stages.A" earlier in october...but i did the recommeded action on it as soon as it spotted it

EDIT2: I checked the HDD's smart data:



Any of this look like it could have caused it?

 

Bump?? Any takers...I may just reformat my hard drive and begin anew if no one has any suggestions.

 

Could have been done before the virus got detected. Do you have files going boom after the detection? If you do, I recommend installing a on-demand scanner from a couple of other reputable av companies (avast, malwarebytes, avira...)
A format is in order.

 

Go to tweaks.com/forums. You'll find a lot of help there; and the response times are really quick. Good luck!

 

Click start, type in the SEARCH box,
CMD

when CMD appears in the start menu, right click and choose RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR

type
chkdsk /r
at the command line

Hit enter, say yes, reboot, take a walk.

Go to event viewer, look for wininit under the APPLICATION log...check for data in BAD SECTORS line.

Anything?

 

I'll report back to ya! Rebooting now!

 

So...it rebooted but only scanned for a second or so tops...The screen changed from the "Starting Windows" splash screen to chkdsk and it said Checking...The Volume is clean...then it proceeded to dump me into Windows.

I don't think it ran for some reason....Event Viewer doesn't show any wininit anywhere...

EDIT: OK.....I'm getting epically strange behavior when I'm attempting to filter the current log to show wininit entries. I'll scroll in "event sources" dropdown with my mouse wheel and hear beeps....not beeps from windows but beeps from the system speaker....

 

It should take at least a half hour if not more. Which computer in your sig are you seeing this? Does it have a SSD drive?

 

Ye olde D630 and no....definitely not an SSD, just a 7200 RPM drive. Too rich for my college student blood.

 

Running what OS? Did you try running chkdsk a second time?

 

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, I'll try running it again

 

Here's what the winint entry says after running chkdsk the second time:

Code:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  146688 file records processed.                                          File verification completed.
  841 large file records processed.                                      0 bad file records processed.                                        2 EA records processed.                                              60 reparse records processed.                                       CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  190394 index entries processed.                                         Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                           0 unindexed files recovered.                                       CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  146688 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                         Cleaning up 148 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 148 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 148 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
  21854 data files processed.                                            CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  37647568 USN bytes processed.                                             Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  146672 files processed.                                                 File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  1551840 free clusters processed.                                         Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

  97167748 KB total disk space.
  90645780 KB in 96229 files.
     61616 KB in 21855 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    252988 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
   6207364 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
  24291937 total allocation units on disk.
   1551841 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 3d 02 00 4f cd 01 00 b0 43 03 00 00 00 00 00  .=..O....C......
d5 05 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....<...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

There's nothin in bad sectors apparently...unless it fixed them lol...

 

No, no data in bad sectors is good.

Do another search...list some files that are showing up as 0 byte or that you are trying to open

 

Ok Here's the files:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3146/emptyfiles1.png
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/781/emptyfiles2.png
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5517/emptyfiles3.png
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4520/emptyfiles4.png
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7586/emptyfiles5.png
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7382/emptyfiles6.png
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7454/emptyfiles7.png

Oddly, it's showing the modified date as the date I actually saved the files...not the date that they were deleted (that would count as a modification right? lol) but as before, it spans a wide variety of file types and I'm not terribly sure if it's done deleting things or not given the whole Modified thing isn't working...

 

Wait, these are files that are DELETED already and are showing up as 0 byte files?

Or are they actual file that still exist that you want to access still? I am confused looking at the list and reading your last post

 

those are files that I haven't touched myself....they refuse to open and show up as 0kb files in windows explorer, however I'd like to be able to open them. its like:

you buy 20 jars of peanut butter and put them away...maybe eat a bit

*fast forward to a few months later*

You come back to the cabinet to find that, while the jars are still sitting there....someone scraped out all the peanut butter inside of them. I can double click on one of those word files, for example, and get just a blank document. If I try a .pdf, reader throws a "file may be damaged" error. If I try a music file, I get a WMP error...its like whatever happened somehow "ate" the contents of each file but left behind the "wrapper" (hopefully that makes some sense...)

 

0 byte files (or empty files) are generally files resulting form unsuccessful downloads.

I thought you were dealing with files that you had used, then returned to later and could no longer use.

These are just junk files. Delete them

 

I have used these files...created them in a few cases....like the product key word doc, my keyboard photos as well as screenshots I took... I do appreciate you helping though!

 

I would still delete them, then check to see if more occur. A 0 byte file is useless to you at this time.

are you sure these are no duplicates of files you have elsewhere?

 

I'm fairly certain..as it took out half of my music collection in WMP D:

Deleting the files will give me a chance to see if anything else gets eaten...Thanks again.