Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Hard drive usage

Jan 24, 2015 7:32AM PST

Last night, my son found Trojan.Poweliks and removed it.

Yesterday, on my 750 GB had drive, I had used 340 GB and free 358 GB. I have installed nothing since then. Today I have 398 GB used and 299 free.

I'm confused. What could have caused that change? I checked my GB usage and this was what I found: Windows 31, Program files 83, Users 149. One user, me.

Thank you for any insights.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
More details please...
Jan 24, 2015 7:37AM PST

such as machine, OS, how was the trojan removed.

- Collapse -
PS.
Jan 24, 2015 7:42AM PST
- Collapse -
who knows without any real info
Jan 24, 2015 4:10PM PST

dont look like your used space lost much. check to see if you have any new partitions.

- Collapse -
reply
Jan 25, 2015 3:55AM PST

I lost about 50 GB of free space, that's a lot to account for overnight. My son takes care of my computer for me. I emailed him, and he said he didn't do anything that would account for the loss of free space. He had done a full defrag and fully backed up my information.

He found about the trojan from Semantics, and how to remove it. I had run Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware, and they hadn't found the trojan.

My son is an electronic tech, and he built my computer. I have a 64-bit operating system.

- Collapse -
run a full drive Search
Jan 25, 2015 12:23PM PST

for all files created in the last few days, then again for all files modified in the past few days. Maybe you will find something interesting.

- Collapse -
Thanks
Jan 25, 2015 3:30PM PST

I will let my son do that Friday. He knows my computer, keeps it up to date and safe, knows how to work with the system files.