Bellzemos Posted February 11, 2010 Report Share Posted February 11, 2010 Hello!I've been using uTorrent without any problems for quite some time now on my Windows XP system.Today I encountered a really weird thing, please tell me how is this possible and if it's uTorrent related (I think it is).I scanned some files with my anti-virus in the uTorrent's active downloads folder and my anti-virus read an AVI file (which is now downloading) as an ISO file (which I downloaded a few days ago and then deleted).I first tought that it's a problem with my anti-virus program, but then I tried to mount that AVI file as it really would be an ISO and it did mount! Mounted it's cca. 650 MB, but the AVI file is only 350 MB, so there's something really weird.I tried to defragment that file, but it's not fragmented. It's like my system "thinks" that this new AVI file is the old ISO file that was here before.I hope that this is a uTorrent thing that will go away and not some serious hard-disk failure.Please comment, any help is greatly appreciated!Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moogly Posted February 11, 2010 Report Share Posted February 11, 2010 Stop previewing incomplete files that are downloading. Just a memory allocation game (ghost files). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellzemos Posted February 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2010 I wasn't previewing them, I just scanned them with anti-virus.So, what you said - does that mean that this is a normal thing and my hard-disk is allright?But, what if that ISO file would contain a virus, would it be a problem then?And when the file will be normal (a real AVI and the ISO will be no more)? When the download is finished or before?Thank you!PS: I mistakenly reported your post before, I clicked on "report" instead of "reply". I apologise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switeck Posted February 11, 2010 Report Share Posted February 11, 2010 The old data still exists even if a file is deleted. It is only "zeroed out" if it is overwritten by something else. It is much quicker for uTorrent to just re-allocate space for a new file that was used by an old file than write a bunch of 0's into it...so that's what it does.You're seeing ghosts and getting jumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellzemos Posted February 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2010 Thanx, but what if that old ghost ISO file would contain a virus?Can the ISO contents (files) be extracted and executed from that AVI file?And when exactly will that ghostoly ISO disappear for good, when the download of AVI is finished?Please answer me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moogly Posted February 14, 2010 Report Share Posted February 14, 2010 The thing is the software (your AV, some media players too like VLC) is able to find and read some ghost files previously deleted. It's just a software artifact, forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switeck Posted February 14, 2010 Report Share Posted February 14, 2010 When a download is 100% complete, it has 100% overwritten what was previously there.Even if an ISO had a virus, it'd be in compressed form...trying to read it as an AVI file would be harmless, except that the media player might crash just because it's trying to play "garbage". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellzemos Posted February 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2010 Thanx for help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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