Computer question••••is this a virus?

So, my McAfee virus-scan automatically updated yesterday, then WinXP installed a security update. All this is fairly normal--it's happened before with no problems. Suddenly, however, I get a low disk-space warning, which is odd, since half of my HD should be free. I do a little searching and find what appears to be a McAfee file in my temporary files folder that is, get this, 8.5 GB!!! I deleted it, rebooted and it reappeared. I deleted it again, rebooted--this time, it had vanished, seemingly for good. I've rebooted half a dozen times since then, surfed the 'net, opened Word docs, etc, with no problem.

The only thing that seems odd is, I can't seem to go back to the month of August when trying to find a System Restore date (there aren't any dates in September yet). I push on the button and nothing happens. (I thought it might be prudent to use the SR function in this case.)

Any comments/suggestions?

...even though I recently added RAM, it seems slower than normal at times.

It was the temporarily stored version of the virus updates for McAfee.

When you first received the message, it had downloaded them, but doesn't actually delete them until you reboot. It's most likely just poor handling of the downloads by McAfee, and nothing to worry about.

... and grow to that size in minutes as you watch, starting right when you check your e-mail (IF you have the McAfee E-mail scan module running). They continue to grow even if you are not hokked up to the net (I unplugged my cable modem to test this).

On Edit:
I had also re-booted (among the first things I tried) and the files were still there.

After a little testing, I determined that the file (or files, sometimes there were 2 or 3) would immediately start "growing" when I checked my e-mail and the McVSEscn.exe process was running. I think this is the McAfee E-mail scan module they offered (and I downloaded) a few weeks ago.

One of these files got as large as 40GB (!), and, yes, basically disabled my PC, too, by running "out of disk space" . I could only delete them if I closed McVSEscn.exe (using the Taskbar "processes" tab). They would keep growing even after I unplugged my cable modem (I had thought maybe a hacker was at work, but the file growth appears to be automatic, and happens in minutes).

I don't mess w/ "System Restore" functions, so I may not be able to help you with that. But I deleted the McAfee temp files, and the problem recurred when I checked my e-mail later (not every time, though). I think maybe the e-mail scan module automatically started up again after rebooting.

Anyway, I spent half the night trying to get on McAfee tech online support, and this is what they had me do:
- Go to Internet Explorer and delete all files and cookies using the Tools function
- Go to Start... Run... and type "%temp%" (I think)
- This called up the folder where the large temp files would appear (Local Settings/Temp)
- Delete all files in that folder (but not the folders)

Some of these files were temp files for things in use, so I had to close everything. It seems the only files that I could not (and did not) delete before were Acr*.tmp files, which I believe are Adobe Acrobat files. So that really seems to be the only thing "new" I did (I had already successfully deleted the large McAfee temp files).

I was not able to get an answer on WHAT was actually happening, but the guy assured me that this would fix my problem. I tested my e-mail with the scan module running, and the problem did not repeat (yet).

DO YOU have any idea what is going on with these large temp files? Might it be a bug related to the McAfee scan module and Acrobat temp files? As I said, McAfee did not fill me in on this little issue. But even if they fixed my problem, I'd like to know what was actually happening!

I have McAfee too.
Personally, I prefer Norton, but my college won't let me on the network unless I have McAfee on my computer.
Good luck dude!

That is odd.

From Grisoft. You can download it here. I did over a year ago and deleted all my mcafee stuff. No problems. Updates itslef when necessary.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

My neighborhood computer guru (retired air force computer systems guy) told me about it. He's pretty persnickety so if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

... to baloon to HUGE proportions?

Is it a bug with McAfee?
Is it a bug with Acrobat (that's somehow tricking McAfee)?
Is it a virus?
Is it a hacker planting some balooning file structure into PCs?

Why did the McAfee guy seem to think (he actually seemed to KNOW) that removing the temp files would solve the problem? And I don't think this was just removing the giant McAfee temp files. I had already done that. The Acrobat temp files (Acr*.tmp) were the only ones that I had not heretofore removed, so I'm assuming they were the problem.

HELP!

I don't know yet. It's on my laptop at home. I'm on an OSX Mac here...

It sure sounds exactly like what happened, though. It was freaky. I literally saw my HD space disappear before my eyes!

Come to think of it, my Outlook Express was downloading an e-mail when this happened. It just froze.

It's anyones guess. Somewhere, buried in the 45 million lines of code comprising XP is an answer and it's my understanding that Micro$haft openes their source code to a few, select programmers associated with Norton or Dell.

I would make a System Restore Point every two weeks if your HD has enough capacity and clean/defrag your computer at least once a month.