Dozens/hundreds of 200mb Avast files in C:/

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello all

I have a problem with my Avast Premier. It takes up several hundred GB on my C: drive. These files stem from a scan 20 days ago and since then my 500GB hard drive has been full.

I can see all those hidden files when I analyze my hard drive with SpaceSniffer. Each file is 200MB and hidden directly in C:/. I assume, based on the time stamp, that these are files from an Avast scan. How can I delete those?

Edit: The file names are like this, quote from properties: ~0000, Type of File: File, Description: ~0000, Location: C:/, Size: 200MB, Attributes: Hidden

The only way I figured out was deleting one by one, but that takes forever.

Thanks!

2

I would like to reply that I am experiencing the same issue with a client computer.

We are left with ~170GB worth of unreadable (probably encrypted) hidden files in the root of the C:\ drive. These files seem to be filling up the capacity of the hard drive.

Analysis of the “shredder.log” file within Avast shows entries for each of the randomly generated (named in hex “~0000” through “~0352”) with the following:
[2017-09-20 20:34:31.872] [warning] [ ] [ 2668: 248] Could not open file “C:~0000” to determine alternate data streams.

Can someone from Avast! support specifically say that the generation of these files was caused by something within the Avast Data Shredder (or perhaps MFT cleaner utility).

There is also a “~CLEAN.MFT” folder located on the drive which contains a file named “!!,x” at around ~4GB of size. This file also appears unreadable and/or encrypted. Is this a result of the Avast Data Shredder erroring out?

Additionally, the last 4 lines of the “shredder.log” file (pasted below):

[2017-09-20 20:34:32.444] [warning] [ ] [ 2668: 248] Could not create temporary cleaning file.
[2017-09-20 20:34:32.444] [error ] [ ] [ 2668: 248] Cannot clean free space
[2017-09-20 20:34:32.447] [error ] [ ] [ 2668: 248] Error deleting “C:~CLEAN.MFT”. ErrorCode:145
[2017-09-20 20:34:32.448] [info ] [ ] [ 2668: 248] Done CleanFreeSpace

3

Reported to Avast.

4

I still have the problem. It really bothers me as I paid way too much for Avast anyways (I dislike its modular price structure). My 500GB hard drive is still full of these files. Is there no solution?

If I would delete Avast altogether, would the files be deleted too? If that is the case, I could at least get rid of this issue.

Thanks to anyone helping and thank you @bob3160 for reporting it to Avast. Have you heard anything from them?

Edit: Meanwhile I tried deactivating the Avast Data Shredder. But that doesn’t help either.

5

I’ve again reported this to Avast. A bit stronger than the last time. Hope by Mon. you’ll have an answer. :frowning:

6

Thank you so much!
According to YouTube videos this has been a known issue since years (the vid I saw was from mid 2017 and the guy said this problem has been there for a long time).

7

I don’t have it so can’t confirm or submit anything further.

8

Uninstall Avast or disabling/uninstalling the Data Shredder would have no effect.

The most likely cause for this is the Data Shredder was run but terminated before the task successfully completed. All the files mentioned in reply #1 are created by the Data Shredder component but should be removed automatically once the process has been completed.

Bob has reported it to Avast and they should reply on Monday.

9

Hi,
these files are created by Shredder to clean free disk space. Usually they should be deleted when shredding is done. If not you can delete them after PC reboot (or antivirus service restart) as admin.
The only way I found these files to remain on disk is BSOD during shredding. Could this be the reason these files are on your disk?

10

Thank you for the reply.

I do not know what BSOD means. I bought the Avast subscription so I wouldn’t have to worry about my notebook and now I have troubles with my notebook because of Avast. :-/

If it means that the shred was suddenly interrupted I would say no. My laptop has never crashed yet.

Are you saying I will have to find each single one of these hundreds of files manually?

11
I do not know what BSOD means
BSOD = https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death
12

Change to your admin user.
Set your Explorer so that is shows hidden files.
Sort for size or filenames.
Then you can delete them together.

13

Thanks.
Unfortunately I don’t see these hidden files (but I do see hidden folders). And I verified with SpaceSniffer that the files are still there, directly in C://.

I am the administrator, and the explorer is set to show hidden items (under “view”).

14

https://screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1525116714016-22105.png

15

Edit: Nevermind, it was the setting “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” and I was able to delete the files.

I do have the settings right, I guess:

https://i.imgur.com/GvC6mYs.png

I still don’t see any of these files in C://

16

Thank you all for helping me out. This worked! :smiley:

I hope I can now go back and be a happy Avast customer… :wink: But I deactivated the shred option, I still think the software should be able to locate and delete these files. My notebook now went from 15GB free to 349GB free.

17

Maybe it’s time to clean out your Recycle Bin ???