Joan
Sat Aug 14 15:59:05 CDT 2004
Courtesy of MikeM.
Joan
There really is no need to be concerned about any virus in the _RESTORE
archive as they are harmless there and can only cause problems if you
later
choose to restore to a checkpoint created AFTER infection and BEFORE you
cleaned your system. Something I doubt you will be doing. Any worms,
trojans
and viruses in the _restore archive will automatically be discarded in due
course as newer data is archived and the older files discarded The
problem
with disabling system restore is that it flushes the _restore archive and
whilst that removes any virus remnants it also removes any good usable
checkpoints you might have and you never know when you might want to use
that
lifebelt.
If you really are worried about this, then there are two approaches to
resolving your problem:
Firstly try reducing the space allocated to the System Restore archive as
this
could flush out these unwanted files. Do this using the slider found at
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and reduce the allocated
space
until you flush out the unwanted files.
If that fails, reset System Restore:
System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable
System Restore", Apply and IMMEDIATELY reboot. This will flush you
restore
folder and erase all checkpoints, then,
System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and uncheck "Disable
System Restore", Apply and again IMMEDIATELY reboot. This should now
automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart.
Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder,
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore
slider
to your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than
adequate
for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to be available
although increasing this to perhaps 400-500MB for a few days during
periods
of
large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.
See also MS KB 263455 - "Antivirus Tools Cannot Clean Infected Files in
the
_Restore Folder" (
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=263455).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP
mcmaltby@hotmail.com
Bob wrote:
> My virus detector (Freedom) detected some files that were
> infected but was not able to clean them and suggested I
> delete the files.
> I tried to delete the files but the message said unable to
> delete the file - it is in use by Windows. The file was
> in the Restore\temp.
> I am running Windows ME.
> Thanks in advance
> Bob