Strange files

Anyone know what these files are on our root drive

&‹6-3-ÀÀÀ°·°@G@---CS³---ÃŒ---ïÿ%Hø¿)ïïÿ-
ïÿ%Hø¿â€°Ã£Ã¯Ã¿---ïÿ%Hø¿ÃƒÃ³Ã¯Ã¿----ïÿ%Hø¿Ã‰Ã©Ã¯Ã¿--
ïÿ%Hø¿Ã•Ã°Ã¯Ã¿---ïÿ%Hø¿Ãðïÿ---â„¢---ü--ÿ

all are empty created from 2/23/003-to 4/01/003 and are archive's
they are not lost file fragments or cross linked files.

curious they are.

Lonny

 

Bump
any ideas ?

 

Hello

I keep delteing these 0 bit files from my only C://root
but they keep coming back, someone said maybe they were
coused by a scandisk setting. But I dont see how since scandisk hasnt ran and I have scandisk set to free lost file fragments and delete cross linked files anyway,

I Have ran an online av scan when this started

Usualy get one once a day, not always and not at same time ,
cant pin it down to what program maybe cousing it.
could this be related to the ~ address book thing.
ive tried renaming them to .wab but they are not a backup of the address book
they have no name no properties
ïÿ%Hø¿1àïÿ
ø
ïÿ%Hø¿¿Ã¶Ã¯Ã¿
`g
ÿ
ïÿ%Hø¿1àïÿ
&‹6

Lonny

 

Lonnie

These look like some program has gotten damaged is trying to write a normal file but.....

Try this.

Delete the files.

Do my DOS cleanup (on ME boot with a 98 floppy).
=============================================
Do the below first in windows
Configure CleanMgr to max settings
Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1

The above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all except compress, then Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1

As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun is the only thing that needs to run.
=============================================

These in DOS
Cleanups
These are for 95 98 ME only!

Boot to DOS (not shutdown to DOS). While booting hit F8 to startup menu. Chose "command prompt only ".

NOTE: Win ME cannot boot to DOS so you must get a Win98 install boot floppy and boot to a: So get one somewhere.

Or go here from the computer you are using now and d/l the win98 boot disk http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm . Get the one that says Windows 98 SE OEM.

After downloading this to your HD execute it with a floppy in drive a: and it will produce the disk. Make the disk and boot from it!

Type these commands exactly hit enter at the end (do not type the notes that are in parenthesis like this). Or paste them into a bat file and put on floppy.

deltree/y c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)

deltree /y c:\windows\*.swp

deltree /y c:\windows\shelli*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\temp\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\history\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\taskmon.exe

deltree /y c:\windows\applog

Remove floppy hit CTRL ALT DEL to reboot the computer into safe mode and try to find these files.

If they are not there start executing programs that are normally used. See if they will recreate.

If they will not recreate, then there is a startup that does it in full mode, or a program that will not run in safe mode like IE or OE.

So test other programs again like you did in safe mode.

Leave IE and OE untill you are sure that nothing else seems to cause it. Then test them.

But the cleanup may cure it.

After booting back to Windows then a scan & defrag.

Good luck,
Mike

 

Ok great Idea's
I think though the eqivalent of win98's "command prompt only ".
Is minimul boot in ME can you confirm,,?

at command prompt I cant even change directorys-from a to c

and why this "deltree /y c:\windows\taskmon.exe "
Is this shelliconcache > shelli*.*

Whats all this "¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ "
Will post back with results later thanks
Lonny

 

Lonnie

I would make a 98 disk and now that I think about it I don't believe ME has deltree you may need to d/l it.


The graphic you asked about is my fault ignore.

Yes that is the shelliconcache.

Taskmon and its Applog is useless, search the BBS slows down scans and defrags and is running in memory also.

Mike

 

No it is not eqivalant to 98 Command Prompt.

Do not compare ME to 98. They are totaly different. Especially on the DOS side of the House.

Win98 Command prompt only is selected from the F8 menu at boot up. And is a limited boot ( DOS only ). I do not think ME has that.

The Command Prompt in ME is the same ( or similiar to ) the MS DOS Prompt ( NOT MS DOS Mode ) in 98. But in ME it is somewhat limited compared to 98 because of the Watered down version of DOS.

I think that may be why they changed the name.

BillyBob

 

Hi Mike , BB , all
"The graphic you asked about is my fault ignore."
? Explain please ? drawing a blank on that one..>DU<

Had done most everything mentioned already (did everything again), recently deleted content's of applog ,cleanmgr /sageset:1 &cleanmgr /sagerun:1 and had already done the scandisk -thorough & defrag
with a few exceptions I don't let disk cleanup delete downloaded program files but rather keep a close eye on it.
I did do the dos deal finally,,, already had a boot disk, Good idea to have a recent one say make a new one at-least one every two months right..?
deltree isn't on it but in \windows.

So I was right (in a way BB) everything went fine with win ME's minimal boot.
I got no conformation with either of the swaps files, didn't see it do anything, nor was there any cannot find etc--
I'll leave taskmon.exe alone for now,, I don't have any scheduled tasks except PC health -- I know how to get rid of it should I ever want to,ie delete the task and uncheck in msconfig, simply unchecking does no good,..Or delete task mon.plus above.

Like you said (i think) try to determine what causes it.open all the programs I use one at a time and each time see if the weird file reappears (right) goes without saying to refresh the view.
then do same in safe mode . will do OK have been but not hard enough.

May take awhile because It seams to not be created opening and closing programs but rather on some odd schedule , every time I think I know about when it changes .

Next step uncheck everything in msconfig watch and wait for that strange file to appear.

So is there such a thing as minimal boot in win 98 ?


I'm aware there are more tools on the disk you recommended But I better not.
Back in about um 1994 ER 3 with win 3.1 ,,before the Amiga,
I WAS one of the infamous people running around
double clicking on exe's., still have nightmares about it, good thing format wasn't found
good thing it wasn't my PC too in dos I was worse,,,,,everything worked out in the end I fixed it good.twice.then right ===though the mirror image was gone for good.
whats that got to do with dos you ask -- well win 3.1 was dos to me,, and now unlike then I don't do nothing unless sure about it.(almost) anyway I thought you'd get a kick out of that,


Bye for now

Regards
Lonny

 

Hi all

strange file story gets deeper and deeper

seams the only other file modified or created when the strange file appears is shelliconcache,,, on the other side of the story I can delete the shelliconcache and upon next few startups the
strage file never appears,,,

I do have a few twek utilitys that can change the size But they only do there thing when told to.

I just tried to yesterday and guess what ,,,, windows will eventualy GPF then I restart and windows runs scanreg fix
restart all is fine,,
the two tweeks I speak of are well know and respected
Cacheman has an option to set the size
and IconCache Fix. Win 9x
found at :http://aumha.org/regfiles.htm

what is wierd is I know ive toggled or used both in the past without bad results.
So I need to figure out (I think) how and what I can remove from
the registry that iconfix.reg did, becouse I dont know what was there beforehand..

Lonny