Help, i think I have a virus in my trash

[delmar93]

Hello,

I think i may have a virus in my trash can. it's got funny characters that says "nul" over and over. see attached pictures

when i delete my trash, it goes away, but always comes back mins or secs later.

if i try to move the file, or get info, it disappears. it's very sneaky. but it always comes back

Any help would do. Thanks a bunch!

I have a Mac Pro 2.6Ghz, 5gigs of ram, a few hard drives but everything else is stock.

OS 10.5.4 with all the updates. also running bootcamp XP SP2 on a separate hard disk.

 

[Tosser]

Right-click on it, choose "show original", and put that one in the trash. Then Force empty the trash can.

 

[delmar93]

Right-click on it, choose "show original", and put that one in the trash. Then Force empty the trash can.

thanks for helping,

i can't find a "show original". i've tried to secure empty trash and it says it's deleting 12 items, even through it's just that one file, and after it still comes back.

Maybe it's time for a format soon, pain in my butt

 

[Tosser]

thanks for helping,

i can't find a "show original". i've tried to secure empty trash and it says it's deleting 12 items, even through it's just that one file, and after it still comes back.

Maybe it's time for a format soon, pain in my butt

Pull it out on your desktop to see if it allows you to "show original" if placed there.
I get the "deleting x files", usually four, when I delete some downloaded movies.

I'm pretty sure it will continue to come back, unless you delete the original.
Otoh, it could be OS X, merely intepreting it as an alias.
But drag it out on your desktop, then try the rightclicking again.

 

[delmar93]

Pull it out on your desktop to see if it allows you to "show original" if placed there.
I get the "deleting x files", usually four, when I delete some downloaded movies.

I'm pretty sure it will continue to come back, unless you delete the original.
Otoh, it could be OS X, merely intepreting it as an alias.
But drag it out on your desktop, then try the rightclicking again.

as soon as i try to drag it out of the trash it disappears. i tried the copy and paste, then it'll disappear.

i've searched the internet looking for a "nul virus". i think i may be the first!

 

[kolax]

It isn't a virus. You should look up what a virus is in the dictionary before jumping to conclusions like that!

Your problem is the exact same kind of scenario as this thread I found on a Google search of "OS X Trash won't delete file".

Google is a powerful thing

 

[GGJstudios]

If you don't understand something that's happening on your Mac, your first assumption should be that you don't understand something, NOT that you have a virus! There are no viruses that run on Macs.

 

[delmar93]

It isn't a virus. You should look up what a virus is in the dictionary before jumping to conclusions like that!

Your problem is the exact same kind of scenario as this thread I found on a Google search of "OS X Trash won't delete file".

Google is a powerful thing

awesome, thank you, i will try this when i get back to my computer!!

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Wow, ends up the OP was right - it was a virus .. called Windows

 

[Quillz]

Wow, ends up the OP was right - it was a virus .. called Windows

Windows is an operating system, not a virus.

In all seriousness, this has happened before on my system, and I eventually killed it off by continually securely emptying the Trash.

 

[maxrobertson]

It's not a virus, it's just a messed up file. You need to repair your disk drive.

I'm getting sick of these people thinking every weird problem is a virus. It should be bannable.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

I thought it was hilarious, myself: there's a virus over there in the trash...yikes! Come to think of it, there are probably billions of viruses in the trash. Clearly, certain individuals need to rediscover a sense of humor.

Seriously, though, a had a ghost file like that for a long time, but in reverse. There was a file on root of my Vista partition called ._.' that could not be deleted in Vista, under OS X (via an NTFS writing layer) and was resistant to all known chkdsk algorithms. I just couldn't get rid of the bloody thing--Administrator, sudo, root, all powerless to vanquish the poltergeist. Eventually I upgraded to Windows 2008, so it died with the format, but I still have no clue where the hell it came from.

 

[EV0LUTION]

Ha spray it with some Germx