"SpaceSuckingFile" created by Norton AntiVirus

MacFixIt reader Michele de Simone recently reported the presence of a mysterious file occupying a large amount of disk space.

Michele writes:

"There is an invisible file on the invisible folder private with the name 'spacesuckingfile.xxxxxx', the file that i found was of 175.3 GB with data of creation the 23 of January and it was securely an incremental filesize. I couldn't say if it was a program or a file that a program create. I found it with 'Where is my disk space?' and i removed it."

The file "spacesuckingfile.xxxxxx" is actually spawned by some versions of Norton AntiVirus after it has completed a virus scan. It is a temporary file that Norton AntiVirus creates when scanning archives on your computer to help determine the amount of free space available on the disk before it begins unstuffing and scanning archives. The file contains no actual data and may be deleted. Normally, Norton AntiVirus deletes this file when scanning the archives is complete, though it may not be deleted automatically.

Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 9.0.1 fixes this problem. Symantec says "Please run LiveUpdate to update to the latest version of your Symantec Macintosh software."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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