Avast 6.0.1367.0 (paid), WindowsXP SP3
Computer SOMETIMES mysteriously running very slow. No crashes, error msgs, etc.
Noticed MANY unp*******.mdmp files in folder Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\AVAST Software\Avast\Log. There are groups, by date, of several dozen to 200+. Nearly 30GB of files leaving only a couple gig’s of disk space remaining.
Thought I’d better check the forum prior to deleting the older files. It seems from other posts that these files might indicate problems with Avast and/or other app’s. So, what IS the purpose of these “.mdmp” files and can/should they be removed? Thanks for any help.
They are generated if you have a problem with avast, whilst that problem may be minor of not noticeable the file can be used by developers to trace a problem.
Are you experiencing any problems with avast ?
There is or should be no problem in deleting older files, though you may need to disable the self-defence module in the avast settings, troubleshooting (though possibly not). The older they are the less worth they are, I wouldn’t keep anything more than a week old.
Thank you, DavidR, for your response.
I should note that this is a friend’s machine and I don’t know the specific time it is being actively used. There is a scheduled daily full scan but the files’ time-stamps indicate they are not created during that process.
There is generally a single group of files each day created at close intervals over a half to two hour span. I see no pattern as to when that time occurs. A group may contain relatively few or more than 200 files. I will delete most of these but am troubled that you and others have stated the files are perhaps created because of a problems with Avast. What problems and what actions sould I take about them?
Avast does not display unusual messages or behavior nor are the problems we ARE having on this machine directly attributable to Avast.
In fact, the ONLY problem is a slow-down of anything/everything (from the user’s perspective). This is probably caused by Windows XP’s drivers reverting to a slow PIO mode rather than the normal faster DMA5 mode for disk access. This has happened off and on for several weeks, now, with new drives, new main board, completely different machine, and fresh installs of WindowsXP and limited “benign” app’s. Things may be fine for days or weeks and then slow down again for no discernable reason. The only hard clue is the (usual) change to PIO disk access. We had hoped the upgrade to paid version of Avast might detect a virus or rootkit the free version missed.
Normally, there shouldn’t be any of those file there. Their presence means that there’s something wrong. Would be interesting to check a few of the most recent oned to see what happened…
That’s the problem in most cases there are no errors displayed to the screen and to all intents and purposes things seem to be fine. I occasionally see these created on my installation (avast and XP Pro), but generally it is in the few rather than hundreds. As I haven’t experienced any issues with avast I periodically delete them.
So I don’t really know what the underlying reason might be for their creation, but if there were disc access issues (that you mention) that may cause problems scanning a file and that may generate the mini dump file.
This is obviously a bit of speculation on my part as I’m an avast user and not an avast developer. But now you have had a response from one of the developers.
THAT documents and settings seems to be a locked folder in win7 
I get access is denied
Then the user should gather several of the latest ones in one ZIP (or 7z or whichever) archive (with some unique name as “username-date-nn.zip” for example), then add a “readme.txt” file also to the archive with a link to this topic and relevant info, and then upload the archive to the write-only ftp ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming. After that, the user should post here the exact name of the archive uploaded.
Hmm…i cant say if ccleaner does clean it…
I will investigate that and report back…
Which if you had read my first post, you may have to disable the avast self-defence module. There is no Documents and Settings folder in Win7, it is C:\ProgramData\ and may be protected in win7 (not just avast’s self-defence protecting its files).
There certainly is on my Windows 7 system in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\AVAST Software\Avast\log
Weird, I didn’t see it on my win7 netbook when I looked, checked again and mine are under ProgramData.
Same here, definitely no Documents and settings in win 7.
The Documents and Settings access may depend on the way Windows Vista/Seven was installed: from a clean install, or from some kind of upgrade.
Clean install here it was on the system, so no upgrade from Vista.
Mostly, it could be different when upgrading from an XP system. From a clean install, in most cases you would need special permissions to access such “folder” (which is not a real folder in a clean install of Vista / Seven).
The picture I posted was from my Windows 7 system that was a clean install.
Then your clean install is different from the rest of us. ;D
Maybe this shed’s a little light on the subject:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Where-are-my-files-and-folders-after-upgrading-from-Windows-XP-or-Windows-Vista
On using mighty uncle google i found this:
I did not upgrade from XP nor Vista as it was a total clean installation of Windows 7 64bit installed on a brand new hard drive I purchased at the same time I purchased Windows 7 64bit.