Really Bizarre Hard Drive Problem

[stevem326]

I have an 80GB HD that up until tonight had over 60GB of free space. I booted up my PC a few minutes ago and got a message from Windows that I was dangerously low on free space. So, I went to My Computer and saw a file I've never seen before with the following name: ~rwc{}$$.rwd

This file is 62.6GB in size and so now I have only 122MB of free space left on my hard drive! I have no clue where this file came from. I haven't downloaded anything that big or added any files that big so this is really odd. The folder is full of files ranging in size from 1KB to 262,144KB and they have all sorts of different names like Zz{--$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ --or-- ZE1e~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ and the "file types" are called E615 file, D435 file, F241 file, etc...

Does anyone have any idea where in the world this folder came from? I joined a networked computing project a few weeks ago called BOINC so I wonder if someone hacked into my system somehow and downloaded this file to my hard drive?

I tried to run Check Disk a few minutes ago and it froze once at step 2 of 5 and a second time at step 4 of 5. Sounds like I've got a problem here for sure.

I'm going to wipe this file with a utility and see if that will destroy it and free up the space, but maybe I should just rebuild the whole OS at this point? Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[trueimage]

install any new programs lately?

Cosmos Creator?
NRG Symphonie Raw Wind Data?
Math Works?

Games: Kohan II?

 

[Bobthelost]

Burn all vital info to DVD now.

 

[stevem326]

Originally posted by: trueimage
install any new programs lately?

Cosmos Creator?
NRG Symphonie Raw Wind Data?
Math Works?

Games: Kohan II?

I installed a racing demo called GTR2 from GameSpot two weeks ago. The download was 460MB in size. I played it for a week and then uinstalled it. Maybe it left this huge file behind or something?

 

[stevem326]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Burn all vital info to DVD now.

Luckily I've got everything backed up already on DVD and an external hard drive. Do you think I should wipe this 62.6GB file or just killdisk the whole HD and reinstall?

 

[trueimage]

delete the file and run a virus scan etc
it might just be some temp file that got corrupted and out of control

 

[stevem326]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I deleted the folder and now I'm back to 60GB of free space. I also ran scans for viruses, spyware, and defragged...everything came back normal. I'll run check disk and the Western Digital HD diagnostic tonight as well.

A few days ago I actually had to do a hard boot when I had several applications open so perhaps that's what caused this file to be created...who knows.

Anyway, thanks again!

 

[opmike]

Yea, out of control files and processes can get pretty crazy. On my old PC, I once had 980+ instances of devldr32 that would keep increasing until it used up all my RAM and page file.