.bak files

17 years ago

I have a Compaq Presario, XP, and use Norton. I delete a lot of photographs and empty the recyle bin fairly often. When I started to empty it this time, there are a lot of .bak files in it. I have never seen anything like it before. They all seem to be the folders in Outlook Express and there are at least 3 sets in the bin. I checked properties on several of them and December 16 seems to be the earliest date on them. In my memory, that is about the date when I last emptied the recycle bin.

Someone (a computer repair person) told me a Trojan is causing this and I should restore all of them- not delete them. Supposedly if they are deleted it will cause problems with Outlook Express.

Norton scans once a week and so far there have been no problems, as far as I know.

Sorry this is kind of long. I would like to get opinions from others before either restoring the files or deleting them.

Thanks.

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Comments (7)

owbist
17 years ago
Perhaps you could create a folder with a recogniseable name and transfer all these .bak files into it while you investigate. These are backup files and may well be junk but best to make sure first.

Norton is a somewhat vague expression as they have everything from the full suite to just the anti virus from what I have read. What do you have? And how come you only scan once a week, surely all incoming emails and downloads are scanned by default?

If you feel you have a Trojan or three then go online and run 2 or three free scans - unless you have all the Norton bells and whistles and all definitions are right up to date. Symantec, which is Norton, offers are very good online scan you might consider
gmom74
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks Owbist. I have Norton 2007 and below are what I assume were installed, according to Belarc. I keep the definitions up to date- I'm not sure it is done automatically like it was with Norton 2004. It seems to check incoming email because once in a while a notice will let me know that something was deleted because it had a virus.

A full scan is done once a week and I occasionally scan individual things that might be suspect. So far, the weekly scan has caught a tracking cookie or two. I also use ad-aware.

I will do the online scans and see what they come up with.

One thing I don't understand is why the files showed up in the recycle bin in the first place. Something must have told them to go there.

After I do some investigating, I will let you know what happens.

Thanks, again.

Microsoft - Works 7.0 69406-OEM-0400003-00000 (Key: TM66R-2Q86K-HXPBD-CQ9TR-9WTQY)e
Symantec Corporation - AppCore 1
Symantec Corporation - AV 1
Symantec Corp - Internet Worm Protection 1
Symantec Corporation - Norton AntiVirus 1
Symantec Corporation - Norton Protection Center 1
Symantec Corp - Symantec 1
Symantec Corporation - Symantec Real Time Storage Protection Component 1
Symantec Corporation - SymNet 1
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ritaotay
17 years ago
gmom74, although I'm not 110% sure, I'm fairly certain that Mikie hit the nail on the head with the post below...

Do you get the .bak files when you tell Outlook Express to compact all the folders?

I do and I just Empty the Recucle Bin.. If you find out anything different I'd sure like to know..

Rita

Here is a link that might be useful: Another post
gmom74
Original Author
17 years ago
Rita- thanks. This does throw a little more light on the subject. It's just that I had never seen those files in my recycle bin before and I did wonder if it might have something to do with compaction since there are three batches of them at regular intervals, according to the dates- if that makes sense. It will be interesting to see if they show up again after the next OE compaction.
mikie_gw
17 years ago
FYi
Outlook Express keeps a key counter to decide when to compress the email folders, perhaps this is the same key for Outlook and newsgroups too . There's probably other triggers but for the average user, cycle or close OE 100 times is the default counter for windows to offer the compress email option.
gmom74
Original Author
17 years ago
Mikie, that is interesting. I don't know what the default counter might be but it nags me till I finally compress.
ritaotay
17 years ago
Had to call my tech on another matter today and asked him about it and he agreed, 100%, with Mikie... ( I should have known Mikie's a pro... lol )

Rita

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