Strange Folders Appearing

Stats:

Dell XPS
Vista Home Premium
Quad Core
AVG
COMODO
Spybot
Advanced System Care Pro

Problem:

I have 2 HDD's installed actually "In" the machine. One runs my OS and all installed software, the other is for dumps and storage. It is a 200G SATA II..

Here is a picture of the contents of the drive.



Outlined in blue are two folders that just started appearing today.

The "Recycling" folder can be deleted, but when I do, it just appears back.
The other folder : "System Volume Information" says I do not have access, yet shows as empty. I am the Administrator and logged on as such.

1. Does anyone know what the folders are?
2. Are they harmful?
3. How do I get rid of them?

Thanks for any help

Semper

They are hidden folders, go to your documents folder and select the organize button, from there select layout and make sure menu bar is checked. on the menu bar select tools, then folder options. once inside folder options select the view tab and then select do not show hidden folders from the options it will give you in the advanced settings menu.

Sounds like a virus, my opinion is that you should start your computer in safe mode and make a full scan of the computer and the two hard disks. Install and use avast if you can, it is the best anti-virus I have seen, even the free version is powerful enough to detect all viruses.

Otherwise format that drive alone, if it is not the parent drive.

As the Anonymous ATS user said, they are system folders used by Windows, but they are usually hidden.

The "System Volume Information" is the folder where the restore points are saved, the "$Recycle.Bin" folder is ... the Recycle Bin!

You can see that they are somewhat "faded", meaning that they are system files (I think that is meaning ).

So, if you change your options to hide system files, those folders will "disappear".

ArMaP

I did and they did in fact disappear..

Question:

Why is there a folder in my 2nd drive for the recycle bin?

Thanks for jumping in as well!!!!

I need the help...

Semper

Every disk has a Recycle Bin folder, the use of the Recycle Bin is per disk, you can choose to have it in some disks and not in others.

If you right-click on the Recycle Bin and choose "Properties" you will see that you can tweak the amount of space used by the Recycle Bin or even turn it off for each disk you have on your computer.

Cool

Thank you

I hate a mystery and now it is solved

Semper

to be safe try googling for "system volume information malware" .. other people might have the same problem you're having.

reply to post by toreishi


The problem is that if you have malware installed and make a restore point, then that folder will get the malware, so, it is easy for an anti-virus program, for example, to find some malware inside those folders, they are there because they were included in the restore point, in the same way they will be present in any backup from an infected system.

The presence of this folder does not mean that you have any malware on your computer, they are normal system files.

Arp is correct in what he said.

And as for your avatar, Officer, I have been bad..........:shk:

OH MY GOD, YOU'VE GOT VISTA!!

Hidden folders...
I'd be more suspicious of the yahoo folder but I'm glad you fixed it.

Btw, semper:

You will see these folders on internal hard-drives, external hard-drives and even flash drives left in for a while.

Always good to be alert as to what is normal and what seems to just appear, as that is usually a problem.