Large files in \_avast4_ temp directory

[Hirvi]

Hi!

I recently noticed that my 'Temp\_avast4_ ' directory was filling up with files of about 500meg in size, this was causing me to run out of disk space. I deleted the files, rebooted, scanned my system and the files came back. I'm reasonably new to using Avast and this may not be related. Has anyone else had a similar problem?
Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help that you can offer!
 
 

[DavidR]

1. That is where avast unpacks archive files so that they may be scanned.
2. Since they are in a temp location they should be able to be deleted/cleared.
3. What were you doing at 10:57 yesterday that generated a large number of files (which appear to be the same) at that time (a scan perhaps)?

You don't appear to be doing anything wrong but 3. above might shed some light on it.

[Hirvi]

Yes I was running a scan @ 10:57 yesterday

Can I set Avast to delete these temporary files automatically
or will I have to do it manually after each scan? 
I can't afford the disk space to allow nearly 90Gigs of temporary
files on my system.
 
Thanks!

[szc]

I believe those files should be automatically erased after checking those packages... My folder is completely empty, but I'm sure it's full when performing a scan.

[DavidR]

Yes I was running a scan @ 10:57 yesterday

Can I set Avast to delete these temporary files automatically
or will I have to do it manually after each scan? 
I can't afford the disk space to allow nearly 90Gigs of temporary
files on my system.

What strikes me as strange that they would all be identical in size (198 of them) so it is likely that they are either all the same type of file, possibly in the same location, so you may be able to exclude these (if they are a low risk of infection and don't leave you vulnerable).
Do you have any idea what files related to these unpacked temp files?

As Sasha said normally they would be removed once unpacked, scanned and found to be clear, perhaps they didn't finish correctly, were there any errors or entries relating to corrupt files at the end of the scan? Currently there are no files in my \_avast4_ folder.

There are a number of programs that can help with cleaning temp folders to make the removal of temp files less of an onerous task (see below), that would be treating the symptom rather than finding the reason why the files remained after a scan.

ClearProg - Temp File Cleaner or CCleaner - Temp File Cleaner, etc.

[igor]

What I find strange (except for the fact that the file are there, because they certainly should be deleted automatically) is that they have all the same timestamp. I mean, they were certainly not "unpacked", because writing 90GB of data would certainly take longer than a minute!
They may come from some corrupted archive... but it's hard to say more without having the guilty archive. So, if possible, could you please try to find the archive, Hirvi?
For example, delete the content of this folder and scan your disk on folder at a time, checking if the temp files were created after each of them. Once you find the top folder, try each of its subfolders, etc. Or, you may be looking at the progress and the folder to judge where approximatelly they were created - but that would mean spending quite a lot of time, watching the scan.
Thanks!

[Lisandro]

But that would mean spending quite a lot of time, watching the scan.

Won't be just checking the 'Ok' files into the report settings?
I mean, if the scanning crashed or stopped at the guilty file... if not, ok, Igor is right, the user has a 'normal' scanning and will have to look the scanning progress 

[Lisandro]

My folder is completely empty, but I'm sure it's full when performing a scan.

Mine is empty even running a scan...
I think the files are created and erased immediatly, one by one, not only when the scan is finished...
I can't see any unp* file there even when running a scan with archive files option checked? 

What am I doing wrong?

[Hirvi]

Firstly I'd like to say thanks for all the speedy and helpfull advice, on a Saturday too 

I'm still scanning my system to trace what is creating this problem. So far I've found that one of my zip archives is causing Avast to pop 99 files of 499,968KB into the Temp directory this was reported by Avast as 'Compressed file is too big to be processed' (not sure how I missed this earlier) the 'compressed archive' was 499,968KB in size.

Posted by: igor     
What I find strange (except for the fact that the file are there, because they certainly should be deleted automatically) is that they have all the same timestamp. I mean, they were certainly not "unpacked", because writing 90GB of data would certainly take longer than a minute!

Strange thing is that the files do pop into the temp folder pretty much all together, there was a 1 second time difference between the first and last files' time stamp.

Posted by: igor
They may come from some corrupted archive... but it's hard to say more without having the guilty archive. So, if possible, could you please try to find the archive, Hirvi?
For example, delete the content of this folder and scan your disk on folder at a time, checking if the temp files were created after each of them. Once you find the top folder, try each of its subfolders, etc. Or, you may be looking at the progress and the folder to judge where approximatelly they were created - but that would mean spending quite a lot of time, watching the scan.

Thanks for this pointer! I've been scanning my system for several cans of beer quite some time now and I've still got a long way to go, damn these 200gig hard drives  :'(

Posted by: Tech     
I think the files are created and erased immediatly, one by one, not only when the scan is finished...

Yup I can confirm this after watching several of the files get created and deleted once they have been checked.

sometime later...

I've just located another file that is reporting the same problem 'Compressed file is too big to be processed' It's a BIN file, 449,267KB  and has caused Avast to dump 99 files all of the same size as the archive into the temp directory (449,267KB).

Does anyone know why Avast dumps 99 files equal in size to the archive when it comes across this problem?

I've deleted the offending file together with the temp files I'll keep you posted if I get any more problems.


Thanks again for all the help and advice!

[igor]

I'm still scanning my system to trace what is creating this problem. So far I've found that one of my zip archives is causing Avast to pop 99 files of 499,968KB into the Temp directory this was reported by Avast as 'Compressed file is too big to be processed' (not sure how I missed this earlier) the 'compressed archive' was 499,968KB in size.

That's probably the one. I would certainly like to take a look at the file... what is inside?
Would it be possible for you to upload this file to our FTP (ftp://ftp.asw.cz/incoming), or is it too big?

Thanks!

[Hirvi]

Posted by: igor
That's probably the one. I would certainly like to take a look at the file... what is inside?
Would it be possible for you to upload this file to our FTP (ftp://ftp.asw.cz/incoming), or is it too big?

Thanks!

Will take me about 6 hours with my measly upstream

One of the files causing this problem (Mod for Unreal Tournament) can be found here: 
http://download.beyondunreal.com/fileworks.php/roadkill/public_alpha01/rkw_umod.zip

I just downloaded and scanned it and got the same problem 'Unable to Scan:- compressed file is too big to be processed' ~ and 99 files equal in size to the archived file were dumped to the Avast temp directory!

//edit: File name is 'rkw_umod.zip' 227Mb

[Lisandro]

Will take me about 6 hours with my measly upstream

I suppose you're trying to upload a compressed archive file and not the extrated files themselves...

I just downloaded and scanned it and got the same problem 'Unable to Scan:- compressed file is too big to be processed' ~ and 99 files equal in size to the archived file were dumped to the Avast temp directory!

If you click 'Settings' in my signature and browse for the section [Scanner] and check your options.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15908#msg15908

[igor]

One of the files causing this problem (Mod for Unreal Tournament) can be found here: 
http://download.beyondunreal.com/fileworks.php/roadkill/public_alpha01/rkw_umod.zip

OK, thanks - I'll check it tomorrow.

[Hirvi]

Posted by: Tech      Posted on: December 11, 2005, 11:11:09 AM
I suppose you're trying to upload a compressed archive file and not the extrated files themselves...

Yep, the file I was referring to is still almost 500Mb zipped and my upstream is only 20KB/Sec.

Posted by: Tech      Posted on: December 11, 2005, 11:11:09 AM
If you click 'Settings' in my signature and browse for the section [Scanner] and check your options.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15908#msg15908

Ok I'll have a look at this thanks! My stettings are pretty much the default ones tho, as I haven't changed much since install.

[Lisandro]

Ok I'll have a look at this thanks! My stettings are pretty much the default ones tho, as I haven't changed much since install.

Probably you'll need to 'add' that settings as the default avast4.ini file could not have even the section [Scanner].
If you read there you'll be able to avoid crashing on such big archive files.