How to clean stubborn hiding media file?

June 7, 2006 6:54 AM

How do I clean a large, stubborn, aborted media download from my PC, and how do I interpret all this strange, buggy behavior that has plagued me since I terminated the download?

A week ago I tried to download a media file using Utorrent. Two thirds of the way through the computer started to hang, so I terminated the download, and checked for viruses. Spybot found Haxdoor.H and Trend Housecall found win32.alemod. I cleaned them, and deleted the Utorrent program, and went back to not having anything to do with any of this new Torrent technology ever again. I blame it all on the Cylons (hint... hint...) anyway.

Since then, my PC continues acting very buggy. (Windows 98, 4 GB hard drive, PII processor.) Problems are mainly two:
a) My C drive properties list still shows something - from the original media file download? - taking up 275 MB of my disc space from the aborted download. I can’t seem to clear it or find it. Looked through the sytem files, temp files, registry. Asked on a Torrent oriented forum. No luck.

b) Computer still acting buggy – slow, looses passwords, gets hung with “Program not reponding” messages, cannot shut down or restart using Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Does not shutdown automatically after the “Windows is Shutting Down” screen. When I boot up, a very brief screen of DOS info comes up after the first opening “Windows 98” screen, which then shows a message mentioning C:\Windows attrib sys –s-h-r Cannot find Sertgs.dll. … A google finds that Sertgs.dll is part of the Haxdoor virus that I have already cleaned.

Getting a new PC or drive is not an option for now – no spare cash. I know the PC is old, but it has survived a lot and been declared dead by Ask me several times, but it still runs. Help me save my zombie computer, please!

posted by zaelic to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Download JDiskReport and run it on your C drive. It will show you all the directories and their relative sizes, allowing you to track down the location of the offending file.
posted by pmbuko at 7:16 AM on June 7, 2006

For the record, downloading a media file from a torrent will not infect you with a virus.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:25 AM on June 7, 2006

Do you have the media for Win98 around? My general advice after a virus infection is to wipe the machine and rebuild it.
posted by stupidcomputernickname at 7:44 AM on June 7, 2006

Stupidcomputernickname: I have the original 98 install disc. I have reinsatalleed several times. The bug - particularly the one that prevents windows from shuttingt down properly - is not affected by reinstalling.

The last time I had that symptom it was only fixed after I had a BIOS crisis and had to reinstall using a floppy reinstall disk after a complete loss of windows following a virus.

And pmbuko: Thanks. Found the huge files and deleted them as per yuou suggestion.
posted by zaelic at 8:07 AM on June 7, 2006

Bugs that are not effected by wiping the OS and reinstalling from original media are usually hardware problems.

It's also possible you're getting reinfected by something you think is safe; such as a pirated copy of some software a 'friend' gave you...

Also, if you're connecting a Windows 98 machine to the internet without a firewall you should expect the machine to be hi-jacked/bot-ed in as little as 2 mintues, depending on the connection type.
posted by tiamat at 8:46 AM on June 7, 2006