This is weird

[geoscomp]

So here I am with a Windows xp pro sp1 machine with Norton antivirus 2002, zone alarm pro, hardware firewall, and two days ago i noticed some strange files populating the root directory of my E drive..they were copies of various system files, mostly *.ini..and each one was 0 bytes in size..then yesterday, there were copies of copies of the same files..about 90 in all. I ran the Norton..which is always upgraded..ran both the trend micro and the panda software online virus scans..nothing. Ran a trojan check..nothing. ran spybot and adaware..nothing. tried to delete the files, but when I got to a certain point, they would repopulate. Tried doing a search for files with the word copy in them..found them all, but wouldn't delete..said "unable to read from the source drive". in both regular and safe mode. Finally, on a whim, I ran System Mechanic in the find and remove junk and obsolete files..and found an odd file hidden on my C drive called copyyour.ini which didn't show up looking at the dir for C. deleted that and some other garbage..ran the find duplicate files and folders with the appropriate options..and was then able to delete all the copies of copies, etc. Now the machine runs perfectl;y..no new files showing up despite rebooting frequently to test. Anyone seen anything like this?..can't find any info anywhere, but it sure looks like a hack or virus to me.

[emr]

You didn't keep a copy of the suspicous file that you found by any chance?

You could have submitted it to SARC.

emr

[Archer]

Did`nt Norton have a problem with mutiple O byte file production under certain circumstances,I`m sure I remembered a recent post about it?

[geoscomp]

Don't remember that post Archer..but I'll look for it..and yes, emr..already sent a copy to sarc. Have noticed only one strange happening since all the above. My macromedia flash plugin seems to be gone and won't reinstall.