Lost drive space after uninstalling avast!

[23skidoo]

I have a machine running Windows 98 with a 4 gig hard drive.

Earlier today I had about 1.4 gigs free space. I then downloaded and installed "avast! 4 Home" registered it and did a virus scan. avast! detected no problems. Then I uninstalled avast! with "add/remove programs" from the control panel. This seemed to work but then I noticed I now had a little less than 700 mb free space. I ran CCleaner which removed a few hundred megs. Not sure if any of those files were from avast! Still had about a half gig less space than I began with. I then reinstalled avast! and uninstalled with the "avast! uninstall utility" but that didn't recover the free space either.

What could be using up all that space?

[olddog]

I don't know about W98, but in XP "Add or Remove" says Avast takes about 78.3MB, and if you go by the properties of the C:\Program Files\Awil Software it is about 82.3MB. These are basic figures, functions like the Web Shield will show varying memory use values in Task Manager depending on what is was last scanning. I would not expect Avast itself would account for 500MB of lost space, particularly after it has been uninstalled.

After un-installing Avast (why did you do this incidentally) did you reboot before checking your drive space?

I suggest you clear any browser caches you have, clear out (delete) all temporary files. Then reboot your computer and recheck the spare space.

[23skidoo]

Thank you olddog for your reply. The mystery here is why so much space was used and why it wasn't freed back up after the uninstall. I've tried all the things you mentioned(clearing the cache, rebooting, etc.) but that didn't help much.

To answer your question about why I uninstalled Avast. I never checked for viruses before and wanted to give my computer a scan. Since no problems were detected I don't think I'll get a virus if I haven't gotten one by now.

I've been using this same computer since 1999 so I know it pretty well and have never had a problem like this before. This definitely seems to have something to do with the Avast install/uninstall.

If olddog or anyone else has any ideas about what's going on I'd appreciate it.

[wyrmrider]

w98 user here
fragmentation
run the avast uninstaller
run ccleaner again
defrag  Norton speed disk works well

what are you using for an AV or is this computer not connected to the internet?

[23skidoo]

I'll try your suggestions tonight and post the results.
Defrag might help.

I shouldn't have to run the avast uninstaller again since it's already uninstalled right?

The only time I've ever used an AV program with this computer was yesterday when I tried Avast. I've been connected to the internet for almost ten years and haven't had a problem for some reason.

Thanks for your suggestions wyrmrider.

[wyrmrider]

If you just installed with add remove programs then running the separate uninstaller would not hurt
How to uninstall our software using aswClear.exe:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html
   1. Download aswClear.exe on to your desktop
   2. Start Windows in Safe Mode
   3. Open (execute) the uninstall utility
   4. If you installed avast! in a different folder than the default, browse for it. (Note: Be careful! The content of any folder you choose will be deleted!)
   5. Click REMOVE
   6. Restart your computer

there is also
http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

did perhaps you download Avast installer to a file where avast uninstaller would not know about it???

you can also go here and do these
What if Windows Security Center Shows AntiVir or other muliple Antivirus products installed

One quirk with AntiVir causes it to still show up in the Windows Security Center even when its been uninstalled properly. If this is the case, please refer to this article to resolve it.

http://www.pchell.com/support/multiple_antivirus_in_security_center.shtml


Using the AntiVir Registry Cleaner

If for some reason the normal uninstall does not work, you may have to download AntiVir's registry cleaner utility to remove all traces of it from the registry and allow you to reinstall it.

1) Click on the following link and download the AntiVir Registry Cleaner to your desktop

http://dl.antivir.de/down/windows/registrycleaner.zip

2) Create a folder on your desktop called Antivir and Unzip the file to your desktop
3) Double-click on the file called RegCleaner.exe to run it

4) Since the program is German, you'll have to click on the button called "keys asulesen" to search the registry for any issues. Then place checkmarks next to the registry entries you wish to delete.

5) Finally, click on the button called "loschen" to delete the keys

6) Restart your computer and try to reinstall your antivirus

Let us know if the regcleaner finds any fragments that the uninstaller missed- Thanks

I really recommend that you run an AV


PS did your machine come with any AV or Security Suite Preinstalled- that could also be the source of an uninstall conflict
If so post back

[23skidoo]

I've tried these suggestions but they don't seem to fix the problem.

Revo Uninstaller doesn't seem to work with Win98.

AntiVir Registry Cleaner gave me the following message:

"Die Registry wurde durchsucht.
Es sind keine Registry Keys vorhanden!"

I am the original owner of this PC and it didn't come with any AV or security software.

Something unusual is happening here. If wyrmrider or anyone else has any ideas about what to do please let me know. I may have to format the hard drive and reinstall windows. Thanks.

[wyrmrider]

 I knew you were running W98
I run it also
but I did not know revauninstaller did not support  thanks
-hmmmm thinking
did you run norton disk doctor? or scamdisk? (ok bad pun- or Freudian)
any chance of bad sectors?
do a "find" on Avast

half a gig is a lot and much too much to just be avast
ps does your bios suport such a large drive?  directly?
4 gig drive is getting old- better check it out

[H.Seldon]

Have you tried analyzing your disk usage? It may at least tell you where the space is being used. I did some searching and found Disktective to be quite good. You can find it here:

http://www.freewarefiles.com/Disktective_program_23436.html

I hope this will be useful.

[23skidoo]

Gave Disktective a try and it showed "c:\windows\Temporary Internet Files" as being about 300mb larger than windows explorer showed. Some other folders also were shown to be larger according to Disktective than win explorer said. While others came up as the same size in both programs down to the last byte.

Found this article in the ms "knowledge" base:

Temporary Internet Files Use More Disk Space Than Specified
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301057/EN-US/

1.In either My Computer or Windows Explorer, create a new folder.

2.In Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools menu.

3.On the General tab, click Settings under Temporary Internet Files.

4.In the Settings dialog box, click Move Folder under Temporary Internet Files folder.

5.Click the folder that you created in step 1, and then click OK.

6.If you are prompted to log off, click Yes, and then log on to Windows again. If you are not prompted to log off, click OK to close all of the dialog boxes.

7.In either My Computer or Windows Explorer, delete the old Temporary Internet Files folder, and then create a new folder in the same location with the same name.

8.Repeat steps two through six again, but in step five, click to select the new folder that you created in step seven.



This "workaround" wasn't exactly for the problem I'm having but I gave it a try.
Funny thing was when I did step 6 the old Temporary Internet Files folder disappeared without me deleting it.

Not sure what's going on is it normal for Window Explorer  & Disktective to show drastically different file sizes. If so why are other folders exactly the same size in both?

wyrmrider: I ran 'scamdisk' and the Windows ME improved version of defrag. According to them the disk in fine. & my Bios does support it. Don't have
Disk Dr. though. An avast search of my drive only comes up with a file in c:\windows\temp from when I had it installed I guess. 0 bytes. & a couple of cookies from this website.

Thanks H.Seldon and wyrmrider.

Any  Ideas?

[wyrmrider]

can you have explorer list by date and not by filename?
then scan for large files near date
you would think that ccleaner would have cleaned out that temp file

did you perhaps create a permanent swap file?

If you do not use Drivespace why do you care if it's Lost?

[H.Seldon]

wyrmrider brings up a good point. After installing Avast, did you ever get a warning that Windows was increasing the size of your pagefile? If there is a minimum setting, and it is suddenly too low, I believe Windows will increase that minimum. I have no idea how much it would increase, but if it becomes permanent, then you would have to resize it yourself in order to get the space back. I've never run Windows 98, so some of this is just guesswork. Perhaps some other Win98 user can provide better info.

[PotatoMan]

Gave Disktective a try and it showed "c:\windows\Temporary Internet Files" as being about 300mb larger than windows explorer showed. Some other folders also were shown to be larger according to Disktective than win explorer said. While others came up as the same size in both programs down to the last byte.

Found this article in the ms "knowledge" base:

Temporary Internet Files Use More Disk Space Than Specified
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301057/EN-US/

1.In either My Computer or Windows Explorer, create a new folder.

2.In Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools menu.

3.On the General tab, click Settings under Temporary Internet Files.

4.In the Settings dialog box, click Move Folder under Temporary Internet Files folder.

5.Click the folder that you created in step 1, and then click OK.

6.If you are prompted to log off, click Yes, and then log on to Windows again. If you are not prompted to log off, click OK to close all of the dialog boxes.

7.In either My Computer or Windows Explorer, delete the old Temporary Internet Files folder, and then create a new folder in the same location with the same name.

8.Repeat steps two through six again, but in step five, click to select the new folder that you created in step seven.



This "workaround" wasn't exactly for the problem I'm having but I gave it a try.
Funny thing was when I did step 6 the old Temporary Internet Files folder disappeared without me deleting it.

Not sure what's going on is it normal for Window Explorer  & Disktective to show drastically different file sizes. If so why are other folders exactly the same size in both?

wyrmrider: I ran 'scamdisk' and the Windows ME improved version of defrag. According to them the disk in fine. & my Bios does support it. Don't have
Disk Dr. though. An avast search of my drive only comes up with a file in c:\windows\temp from when I had it installed I guess. 0 bytes. & a couple of cookies from this website.

Thanks H.Seldon and wyrmrider.

Any  Ideas?

What version of Windows 98 are you using?
What are your computer specs? RAM, Processing, etc

1. Uninstall any security apps on your computer (Spybot, Avira, AVG, etc)
2. Run the Avira Antivir registry cleaner again. (Keys Aushcen or something to scan)
3. Click Duschen to delete those keys
4. Go to www.malwarebytes.org and download Malware Bytes Anti Malware.
5. Do a full scan with MalwareBytes and post the log here

I think there is something here.