OK, a friend of mine is running a very private FTP (less than 10 people with axx) and has had some serious problems as of late ... I really hope someone can help.

Easiest way to explain is to give an example ...

I uploaded a 2Pac MP3 album which totaled about 80mb in size. It sat there as it should, completely fine, for about 2-3 weeks. Today I went to check on that folder and I find that the folder is now filled with a SLEW of files, ranging in size (according to FlashFXP) from 1/2mb to a couple gigs per file ... and all filenames are now in ASCII text. Therefore, he now has to go into DOS and delete these files and the upload is wasted. This also happened with a large array of other folders ... however, what is really confusing, is that some folders are 100%, completely fine and untouched. :confused:

Here is what I can think of:

- virus

- bad hard drive (but why is the problem limited to entire folders while others remain intact)

- malicious user

If someone can shed some light on this, both the server owner and I would be extremely grateful. thanx in advance. :(

^bump ... still a mystery :(

I would guess a malicious user or one that made an honest mistake. But it would depend on what FTP settings he had enabled for those folders.. e.g. can users modify the files?

well, some of what you said happened to me a while back. It turned out to be a worm.....it made ALL of my exe's, mp3's, gif's, jpeg's, zip's and a few others turn to ascii text, and made a buncha files ranging in size. But they didn't end up to be a coupla gigs, only about a few megs or so. I formatted my h/d, and it was fine.

Hoss ... yes, users can modify files as it is necessary for the resume feature. :(

Now as for the worm theory ... strange that Norton wouldn't pick it up ... Norton picks up just about everything unless it is something quite new. I asked him if he had gotten the latest virus definition updates, but he never responded to that question.

His thought is that it is a combination of both of your theories ... a malicious user who set loose a virus a his PC.

any other fedback is appreciated ... a format is always the last resort but if it needs to be done ... :(

hello m8

it happened to me , i downloaded a prog called WINONCD from imesh , it was about 750kb , i downloaded it and when i tryed to open it , it gave me an error warning.

after i switched off my pc , and started it up again , it was very slow , and my C drive had a huge 3GB taken away.

this virus caused all my files to rename themself , and it even made its own files.

I had to reformat , but even now , i still have problems with it.

its not as if i have a slow pc , its a 1.2GHZ , 160mb ram. 40gb harddrive.

its probably a dodgy user or as the big man said , a total honest mistake