unavailable space on hard drive after virus infection. (25 gigs!!!!)

Hello all,
I have a problem trying to retrieve some lost disk space after a virus infection. System restore is off. I think the problem lies in the IBM RRBackups folder. But I can't access it and have deleted all backups through my IBM THink Vantage. This didn't solve the problem. Spacemonger app finds the space which it relates to as unscannable and includes, system volume information, RRBackups, Preboot and Minint. What is Minint? I haven't come across it before.

Thanks for your help, because I'm beat on this one.

IBM X61s , Windows XP Pro sp 3.

 

Hey welcome to majorgeeks. As far as my understanding goes, minint is something that windows can use to reinstall the OS without a disk. I am not really sure beyond that. It would not, however, be using 25 gigs. Something to always check if your drive has sudden unexplained lost space is the recycle bin and its sub-directories. The recycler is a bit touchy at times in windows, and sometimes if it starts to delete something (maybe even caused by a virus?) then does not finish it can be real hard to find. Im running Vista right now, but I will try to recite this from memory....Some things may have a SLIGHTLY different name:-o.

Try this:

1. Open up any folder, then click on "Tools" and then "Folder Options."

2. Check "Show Hidden Files and Folders" AND UNCKECK Hide Operating System Files. MAKE SURE you UNCHECK the hide operating system files!!!

3. Now just go to My computer and double click.

4. You should see something called Recycler, or Recycled, or Rycycler.bin or something like that. It will be a folder. Double click.

5. Inside, you will see some other folders. Just search around in these for files that you may think should be deleted (or saved).

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This trick has saved me in the recent past. I had lost over 30 gigs and got them back by looking like this.

ALSO- You should probably run a checkdisk.

GOTO My Computer, right click on the drive in question, click on properties.

Open up the Tools tab and click on the Check Disk For Errors. Might as well.
Let us know if this worked or not so we can give some more suggestions. Hope all goes well!!

 

Hi,
Thanks for your answer. I found the problem in the. Somehow my IBm software had misfunctioned probably due to the virus infection. So I uninstalled Rescue and Recovery even though it didn't show any backups and my problems were solved. I got back about 24 gigs. That said I have disabled system restore in windows but the system volume information file still holds around 500 Mbs. I can't access it although I have followed your instructions. Although i have xp pro, there doesn't seem to be a security tab in SVI properties. Is this normal? (both the lack of the security tab and the 500 Mbs in the SVI file.)
Thanks again for your reply.
Matta