Weird Recycle Bin Thing

[scalifash]

I'm having a really weird recycle bin error. (I haven't made any modification to it in the registry or anything) I emptied it a couple days ago and haven't moved anything in to it since then. It mysteriously showed up with the "Full" icon yesterday when I booted up and when I open it there's nothing there (I even tried showing hidden files nd nothing appeared). When I click "Empty the Recycle Bin" it asks me if I want to delete "WINDOWS." I am using Windows XP Pro (and my windows folder is indeed spelled and formatte as "WINDOWS"). I'm just wondering what on earth is going on here; I haven't emptied the recycle bin for fear of toasting my windows install and having to reinstall. Attached is a screen shot. Thanks!

[cuffs007]

Hi scalifash

I would definitely do a virus scan first and see if anything pops up... perhaps also do an AdAware or Spybot scan while you're at it... Let us know the results

Good luck

[scalifash]

I'll set Norton to do that and get SpyBot updated. I'll post the results when they're done (could be a couple hours, we all know how long Norton can take)

[scalifash]

According to Norton I had a couple copies of Netbus 2 trojan horse on there. So I'm going to make the assumption that while I had my firewall down for 10 minutes the other day (I was setting up networking) that someone got in and was messing around. So here's the big question then (assuming my theory is correct) how do I get this hidden Windows folder out of the recycle bin. There is no way I can access it, it doesn't appear as an icon regardless of wether hidden icons are supposed to be shown. I've also tried Ctrl+A and then moving or copying or restoring it and nothing happens.

Serves me right for turning my firewall off I suppose, but whoduthunk someone would get in and do that in 10 minutes.

Attached is a screen shot of Norton's scan results.

What should I do?

[cuffs007]

Have your rebooted since you ran Norton? It appears Norton has already deleted the virus', so reboot if you haven't and see if that fixes your problem.

One way to clear the recycle bin is to place any junk file in there (such as a photo type file you don't want) and then empty it out. This will clear the bin. As for it emptying Windows, I'm not 100% sure, so perhaps someone else will pipe in with a better reply.

[scalifash]

I rebooted and that didn't seem to have any effect. I also tried moving another file in there and restoring it. I haven't tried to empty the bin yet because I don't want windows to disappear.

Also, I looked to make sure everything in my WINDOWS directory seemed ok and it did. I didn't really notice anything out of place.

[cuffs007]

well... hate to say it... might be fine, might not if you empty that sucker out... so, to be prepared, go ahead and make back ups of everything you like... find your Windows cd... then go ahead and empty the bin... reboot... see if it's OK.. if not, at least you're ready to reinstall Windows... hopefully, someone will reply that has encountered this before and can relate their story to ya...

i couldn't find anything comparable on the Windows website, FYI...


Good luck

[scalifash]

Hmm, I think I'll hold out a little longer, maybe until I get a new hard drive (going to put a fresh install of XP on it). I reinstalled windows about two months ago and I hate doing it, it's such a pain in the neck setting everything up again and reinstalling programs. I should probably buy Norton Ghost some time too, then I wouldn't have to worry. Anyways, until that time comes I'll just look at that full recycle bin icon. Maybe I'll change it to empty just cuz.

Thanks for your help!