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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Virus Eaten Up All My Disk Space? Os X 10.3.9
ronnieEgg - May 10, 2005 - 4:27 pm
Hello,
I' really really hope you can help me on this....
I'm using a Powerbook 15" G4 1ghz 60MB machine running OS X 10.3.9 (which i installed over my previous 10.3.5 yeterday).
Today while using my computer i noticed that i was getting an error message from os x and logic pro 6.4.3 telling me i was running low on disk space. Didn't pay much attentoin because i had over 17 Gigabytes free. However, i looked at the info for my disk after things began slowing down in iexplorer and safari and before my eyes i saw that somehow i was losing 60+ megabytes every few seconds!
I desperately looked around my system to find any possible cause...nothing. no new programs - no noticable folders... i soon reached 0 kilobytes available! i tried doing a verify and then repair of disk permissions but both stalled. tried deleting a few non essential folders to see if it freed up any more space - nothing still! eventually even safari wouldn't run as it became too slow. i've now shut down and am amfraid that this might be a virus. Funny thing is all my app's and files are untouched - it's only the free space that's all gone.
Please, please help - i thought that mac's didn't get viruses? don't understand what's happening. i've just sorted out a problem in logic that was holding me back from completing a project - and now this has meant that i'm completely stuck. Don't want to plu in my maxtor firewire ext disk as i'm afraid it might get infected.
Should i start up using my system disk? i was going to re-install osx 10.3.5 but realised i need free disk space for it to install....
is this a virus? if so how do i get rid of it?
Any help will be much appreciated.
Rounik
I' really really hope you can help me on this....
I'm using a Powerbook 15" G4 1ghz 60MB machine running OS X 10.3.9 (which i installed over my previous 10.3.5 yeterday).
Today while using my computer i noticed that i was getting an error message from os x and logic pro 6.4.3 telling me i was running low on disk space. Didn't pay much attentoin because i had over 17 Gigabytes free. However, i looked at the info for my disk after things began slowing down in iexplorer and safari and before my eyes i saw that somehow i was losing 60+ megabytes every few seconds!
I desperately looked around my system to find any possible cause...nothing. no new programs - no noticable folders... i soon reached 0 kilobytes available! i tried doing a verify and then repair of disk permissions but both stalled. tried deleting a few non essential folders to see if it freed up any more space - nothing still! eventually even safari wouldn't run as it became too slow. i've now shut down and am amfraid that this might be a virus. Funny thing is all my app's and files are untouched - it's only the free space that's all gone.
Please, please help - i thought that mac's didn't get viruses? don't understand what's happening. i've just sorted out a problem in logic that was holding me back from completing a project - and now this has meant that i'm completely stuck. Don't want to plu in my maxtor firewire ext disk as i'm afraid it might get infected.
Should i start up using my system disk? i was going to re-install osx 10.3.5 but realised i need free disk space for it to install....
is this a virus? if so how do i get rid of it?
Any help will be much appreciated.
Rounik
Seb - May 10, 2005 - 6:11 pm
Hi,
sorry to hear that. There is clearly something going on, you need to know if this is a virus or not.
One possibility is to scan with an antivirus (Norton for instance) with a recent update. (there ARE Mac viruses, they are just not that frequent).
WIth no space remaining, you can't burn CDs, can't run apps.
One possiblilty is to start your computer as a "hard drive" (press the letter T when starting up), after a few seconds you should see a FireWire icon on your display as a screensaver.
You can then plug your computer in another mac using a firewire cable and it will behave as an external hard disk. From this other computer you might fix the problem (Norton antivirus, techtools, Norton utilities to cite a few).
CAUTION I cannot guarantee that your virus will stay contained into your hard disk, that it will not jump into the "host".
Good luck, and remember that we're glad to help if you had other questions
seb
--------
My advices are ONLY advices but STILL advices -
ronnieEgg - May 11, 2005 - 5:43 am
Hi Seb
thnx.
don'y know if i'm confident enough to plug in to my girlfriend's computer - because she has a lot of important work on the go....
but i was wondering if it's possible in os x to view invisible folders or files or to find files that have been modified very recently.
i've never used a virus checker on the mac because i was told there are no virus threats. however, is there a list of trojans/viruses that have infected macs - and possible sources...solutions. would it be better to just erase my entire laptop and start from scratch?
i would lose a lot of info - but i don't want to risk transporting the virus to my external hd or to my girlfriend's computer.
Thanks again Seb for your help so far - really appreciate your quick reply.
rounik
thnx.
don'y know if i'm confident enough to plug in to my girlfriend's computer - because she has a lot of important work on the go....
but i was wondering if it's possible in os x to view invisible folders or files or to find files that have been modified very recently.
i've never used a virus checker on the mac because i was told there are no virus threats. however, is there a list of trojans/viruses that have infected macs - and possible sources...solutions. would it be better to just erase my entire laptop and start from scratch?
i would lose a lot of info - but i don't want to risk transporting the virus to my external hd or to my girlfriend's computer.
Thanks again Seb for your help so far - really appreciate your quick reply.
rounik
Seb - May 11, 2005 - 12:58 pm
Hi Rounik,
you can find many info on viruses including trojans etc. @ www.symantec.com (both for Mac and PC)
For instance check this one out :
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
Another option is that you might boot your computer from a recent Norton SystemWorks CD (contains Norton Antivirus AND Disk Repair). This way your computer is passive and can be scanned and repair.
There is a deal right now on Amazon (still 75 bucks) :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=507846
You have to make sure that it is actually possible to start up from a completely full computer.
seb
--------
My advices are ONLY advices but STILL advices -
you can find many info on viruses including trojans etc. @ www.symantec.com (both for Mac and PC)
For instance check this one out :
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
Another option is that you might boot your computer from a recent Norton SystemWorks CD (contains Norton Antivirus AND Disk Repair). This way your computer is passive and can be scanned and repair.
There is a deal right now on Amazon (still 75 bucks) :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=507846
You have to make sure that it is actually possible to start up from a completely full computer.
seb
--------
My advices are ONLY advices but STILL advices -
Saxphile - May 11, 2005 - 10:32 pm
Hi Rounik,
There's very, very little chance your computer is infected by a virus. In fact, if that turns out to be the case you should sell your story to MacWorld, and they'll make it the headline.
I hope you have not used any Norton product on your computer yet. I've seen them causing more problems than they fixed. Ironically, Norton Antivirus is known to cause problems like yours under some circumstances (writing 30GB of junk to hard drive). Plus, there's never been a virus that fills up people's hard drives. Not even in the windows world.
You can use this program to determine what files are eating up your space:
http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php
But we'll need to identify the cause of the problem, otherwise it's definitely going to happen again. First, please tell me the files that are occupying the space. Also check out if any of the following applies to you.
** Do you happen to have iShock (USB Gamepad) installed on your computer? It is incompatible with OS X 10.3.8 and above and writes log entries to your hard drive at a rate around 60MB/minute. If so, you can find the fix here:
http://www.macally.com/techsupport/faq/faq_ishock.html
** Have you used BitTorrent? It can cause this problem a times.
** Data Recycler? Get rid of it as soon as you can.
Lastly, once you recover your lost space, boot from your Mac OS X installation CD and repair your hard drive. Filling up a HFS+ volume like yours often have detrimental effects on directory structure that will eventually lead to data loss.
Let me know if you got it working.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
There's very, very little chance your computer is infected by a virus. In fact, if that turns out to be the case you should sell your story to MacWorld, and they'll make it the headline.
I hope you have not used any Norton product on your computer yet. I've seen them causing more problems than they fixed. Ironically, Norton Antivirus is known to cause problems like yours under some circumstances (writing 30GB of junk to hard drive). Plus, there's never been a virus that fills up people's hard drives. Not even in the windows world.
You can use this program to determine what files are eating up your space:
http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php
But we'll need to identify the cause of the problem, otherwise it's definitely going to happen again. First, please tell me the files that are occupying the space. Also check out if any of the following applies to you.
** Do you happen to have iShock (USB Gamepad) installed on your computer? It is incompatible with OS X 10.3.8 and above and writes log entries to your hard drive at a rate around 60MB/minute. If so, you can find the fix here:
http://www.macally.com/techsupport/faq/faq_ishock.html
** Have you used BitTorrent? It can cause this problem a times.
** Data Recycler? Get rid of it as soon as you can.
Lastly, once you recover your lost space, boot from your Mac OS X installation CD and repair your hard drive. Filling up a HFS+ volume like yours often have detrimental effects on directory structure that will eventually lead to data loss.
Let me know if you got it working.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
Saxphile - May 11, 2005 - 10:32 pm
Hi Rounik,
There's very, very little chance your computer is infected by a virus. In fact, if that turns out to be the case you should sell your story to MacWorld, and they'll make it the headline.
I hope you have not used any Norton product on your computer yet. I've seen them causing more problems than they fixed. Ironically, Norton Antivirus is known to cause problems like yours under some circumstances (writing 30GB of junk to hard drive). Plus, there's never been a virus that fills up people's hard drives. Not even in the windows world.
You can use this program to determine what files are eating up your space:
http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php
But we'll need to identify the cause of the problem, otherwise it's definitely going to happen again. First, please tell me the files that are occupying the space. Also check out if any of the following applies to you.
** Do you happen to have iShock (USB Gamepad) installed on your computer? It is incompatible with OS X 10.3.8 and above and writes log entries to your hard drive at a rate around 60MB/minute. If so, you can find the fix here:
http://www.macally.com/techsupport/faq/faq_ishock.html
** Have you used BitTorrent? It can cause this problem a times.
** Data Recycler? Get rid of it as soon as you can.
Lastly, once you recover your lost space, boot from your Mac OS X installation CD and repair your hard drive. Filling up a HFS+ volume like yours often have detrimental effects on directory structure that will eventually lead to data loss.
Let me know if you got it working.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
There's very, very little chance your computer is infected by a virus. In fact, if that turns out to be the case you should sell your story to MacWorld, and they'll make it the headline.
I hope you have not used any Norton product on your computer yet. I've seen them causing more problems than they fixed. Ironically, Norton Antivirus is known to cause problems like yours under some circumstances (writing 30GB of junk to hard drive). Plus, there's never been a virus that fills up people's hard drives. Not even in the windows world.
You can use this program to determine what files are eating up your space:
http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php
But we'll need to identify the cause of the problem, otherwise it's definitely going to happen again. First, please tell me the files that are occupying the space. Also check out if any of the following applies to you.
** Do you happen to have iShock (USB Gamepad) installed on your computer? It is incompatible with OS X 10.3.8 and above and writes log entries to your hard drive at a rate around 60MB/minute. If so, you can find the fix here:
http://www.macally.com/techsupport/faq/faq_ishock.html
** Have you used BitTorrent? It can cause this problem a times.
** Data Recycler? Get rid of it as soon as you can.
Lastly, once you recover your lost space, boot from your Mac OS X installation CD and repair your hard drive. Filling up a HFS+ volume like yours often have detrimental effects on directory structure that will eventually lead to data loss.
Let me know if you got it working.
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
ronnieEgg - May 13, 2005 - 5:59 am
Hi Charlie,
thank you very much for your unexpected help!
I was almost ready to sell my story to macworld....but luckily your advice has been spot on.
I was about to visit the apple store, london to see if i could get the "virus" situation sorted out....and buy norton anti virus. you've saved me the time and the money. thnx again.
well, as it turns out i bought the ishock usb game controller last year but returned it. however, i hadn't taken the driver off from my hard disk. oops!
it seems that ishock is/was the culprit.
i downloaded "whatsize" which is a fantastic app. and it showed the 17gb as the log file.
i found all the ishock drivers and deleted them also from the activity monitor.
then i went to the macally ishock website and tried to follow their instructions using "terminal" - it only worked up to a point though and i didn't find it helpful because it moved the file to a new hidden location on my computer in the dev/fd directory which i intially couldn't delete.
it helped being able to boot up from my maxtor firewire and use the system disk and somehow the file was deleted completely from my Powerbook drive!
anyway, i have taken your advice and verified and repaired the permissions and disk integrity. Now everything is working fine! And i am SO happy being able to make music in Logic pro again.
I have a couple of questions for you still.
1) is it common knowledge that ishock driver causes these problems in osx 3.8+?
2) is it worth getting a virus scanner for the mac. if so which one would you recommend? I never warmed to norton when i used to use pc's - so is macafee a better bet? also do the major companies still support os9 as my girlfriend swears by os9 on her mac? Is it necessary to get a virus checker?
well, that's all for now. but i'm so glad i found this website/forum and thanks again for all your help. Much appreciated!
Rounik
thank you very much for your unexpected help!
I was almost ready to sell my story to macworld....but luckily your advice has been spot on.
I was about to visit the apple store, london to see if i could get the "virus" situation sorted out....and buy norton anti virus. you've saved me the time and the money. thnx again.
well, as it turns out i bought the ishock usb game controller last year but returned it. however, i hadn't taken the driver off from my hard disk. oops!
it seems that ishock is/was the culprit.
i downloaded "whatsize" which is a fantastic app. and it showed the 17gb as the log file.
i found all the ishock drivers and deleted them also from the activity monitor.
then i went to the macally ishock website and tried to follow their instructions using "terminal" - it only worked up to a point though and i didn't find it helpful because it moved the file to a new hidden location on my computer in the dev/fd directory which i intially couldn't delete.
it helped being able to boot up from my maxtor firewire and use the system disk and somehow the file was deleted completely from my Powerbook drive!
anyway, i have taken your advice and verified and repaired the permissions and disk integrity. Now everything is working fine! And i am SO happy being able to make music in Logic pro again.
I have a couple of questions for you still.
1) is it common knowledge that ishock driver causes these problems in osx 3.8+?
2) is it worth getting a virus scanner for the mac. if so which one would you recommend? I never warmed to norton when i used to use pc's - so is macafee a better bet? also do the major companies still support os9 as my girlfriend swears by os9 on her mac? Is it necessary to get a virus checker?
well, that's all for now. but i'm so glad i found this website/forum and thanks again for all your help. Much appreciated!
Rounik
Saxphile - May 13, 2005 - 7:17 am
Hi Rounik,
I'm very glad to help. Knowing that your computer is now back in action really made me feel very good.
To answer your question:
1. No. It is definitely not common knowledge that iShock sucks. I just happened to know it. Although if you search the Apple discussion forum properly you'd have got that info, too.
2. It is so far unnecessary to install an antivirus software on Mac OS X. The only function they have now is to stop Office macro viruses, which aren't that common anymore. I'm not saying that there won't be viruses for Mac OS X, but they are MUCH harder to write compared to Windows. OS 9, however, is prone to various viruses (it is about as secure as Windows 95). I think your girl friend should probably install the latest version of Norton Antivirus on her computer. Norton hasn't always been bad, but their recent products are problematic at best.
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to use our service again.
Cheers,
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
I'm very glad to help. Knowing that your computer is now back in action really made me feel very good.
To answer your question:
1. No. It is definitely not common knowledge that iShock sucks. I just happened to know it. Although if you search the Apple discussion forum properly you'd have got that info, too.
2. It is so far unnecessary to install an antivirus software on Mac OS X. The only function they have now is to stop Office macro viruses, which aren't that common anymore. I'm not saying that there won't be viruses for Mac OS X, but they are MUCH harder to write compared to Windows. OS 9, however, is prone to various viruses (it is about as secure as Windows 95). I think your girl friend should probably install the latest version of Norton Antivirus on her computer. Norton hasn't always been bad, but their recent products are problematic at best.
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to use our service again.
Cheers,
Charlie
--------
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
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