Author Topic: Email file folder empty  (Read 5791 times)

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Email file folder empty
« on: September 21, 2005, 09:45:58 PM »
After encountering compatability issues w/AVG recently, I uninstalled and installed the home version of avast! today.  During the scan, it showed a virus and suggested I "move" it.  I did...now an entire email file folder is empty.  I am going to assume the virus was in that folder, but since I never click attachments from people I don't know and aren't expecting an attachment from, it never would have activated, particularly since I scanned just before uninstalling AVG.  Where is my folder, and how do I retrieve it?

Laurie

Offline Eddy

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2005, 09:50:59 PM »
What OS?
What email client do you use?

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2005, 09:59:47 PM »
I use Outlook Express...the scan finished and it seems to have moved the entire file into a new spot in the virus chest.  I did not realize it would move the entire file folder and think investigating through the help info how to put it back and then re-do the scan, would be best if I can identify which email has the virus it picks up.

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2005, 10:19:41 PM »
I went ahead and restored it...then re-scanned based on the particular file folder.  Apparently there is an old trojan horse that became inactive over a year ago.  I'm going to try and isolate it by the date of the particular file and then just delete that from the mail folder.  But since it's now inactive, I don't think anything bad is going to happen, and I'm fairly certain I cleaned it up at the time, which may explain why avast! couldn't "repair" when I selected that during the second scan.  But just to be sure, I downloaded the Virus cleaner tool and am running that.

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2005, 10:33:08 PM »
Apparently there is an old trojan horse that became inactive over a year ago.
Inactive? I imagine that the inactivity is related to the level of infection in the wild, in the Internet.
Inactive does not meas secure or clean as far I could imagine.

Which may explain why avast! couldn't "repair" when I selected that during the second scan.
Repair into the inbox (.mbx file) is ont possible. The entire email (or even the entire file) will be deleted.
It's not related to an old email you've deleted.

Suggestion: criate a new folder in Outlook, transfer all your emails to there and let the inbox clean. Backup the new folder (copy the .mbx file).
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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2005, 10:50:13 PM »
Hmmm...I have always run anti-virus software, and indeed can track back to the date of the affected file to see that I'd run processes/affected changes at the time.  But if I understand you correctly, I should go ahead and create a new file, move all the email from the affected file into it, and then either clean or delete the affected file folder?  It's not the in-box/new mail file, but an ancillary one to accept mail from a secondary address.  The file has a .dbx extension, not .mbx.  And the virus was win32:Beagle, which according to avast! turned itself off in 2004.  Still, if I've got the suggestion correct - and please confirm that I do - I'll try that.  Better safe than sorry.

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2005, 10:51:10 PM »
One last thing...here is what avast! Virus Cleaner's results were:
C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_1b8.dat... file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\Temp\ZLT048d5.TMP... file could not be scanned!
No virus body found.
Files scanning finished  (98505 files, 0 infected, 752.2s).
Drives scanned: C:



Offline Lisandro

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2005, 10:58:29 PM »
Hmmm...I have always run anti-virus software, and indeed can track back to the date of the affected file to see that I'd run processes/affected changes at the time.  But if I understand you correctly, I should go ahead and create a new file, move all the email from the affected file into it, and then either clean or delete the affected file folder?
No, I was talking about your 'future' action, suggestions for next time.
Not to handle your old infection or the actual inbox.
As far I could know, you've already solve this problem... so, my suggestion is for the future, to avoid losing all the inbox file when an email is infected.

It's not the in-box/new mail file, but an ancillary one to accept mail from a secondary address.
If you use this folder frequently, I suggest the same: keep in it only the 'last' (today) emails. The others you should move to a new folder (so, to a new file).

The file has a .dbx extension, not .mbx.
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Offline Lisandro

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2005, 10:59:08 PM »
C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_1b8.dat... file could not be scanned!
C:\WINDOWS\Temp\ZLT048d5.TMP... file could not be scanned!
Probably, both file are legit, just in use and could not be scanned.
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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2005, 11:01:44 PM »
Okay...I'll make another file and only keep new stuff in it.

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Re: Email file folder empty
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2005, 11:01:56 PM »
Thanks!