Solved Laptop downloading data without reason

[Malnutrition]

Do you use one drive? If not uninstall/disable it.

How to Turn Off OneDrive on Windows

Want to turn off OneDrive? This guide can help.

www.howtogeek.com

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Right Click Autoruns and run as admin.

Uncheck the items I have marked in the screen shots below, then reboot your machine. You only really need your antivirus to start with your computer, the anything else can be started by you manually. By double clicking the program

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Now please re run and give me updated FRST and Addition.txt logs.

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Also, as far as your free space...

The downloads folder is easily a good place to start, you can free up a lot of space from here easily, open it up check it out and decide what needs to go.

C:\Users\acco5\downloads

You can use Treesize to find files on your machine that you may wish to delete. I am curious as to where all this data was downloaded, this should help you identify large files that you can delete.


You can use the Everything Search Engine to find and remove files from your machine.

• Searching for file extensions in Everything Search, to help you along the way is easy.
• You can simply type .mp3 to find all of your music, or .mp4 to find your videos.
• You can open the file from the tools gui by double clicking it, and then decide if it needs to go.

 

[Data838]

Well, since last time my main concern was that after applying your previous solutions it continued to fill up space a little, until it stopped at some point and haven't been doing it anymore. It wasn't downloading additional data, as well as my C disk liberated by itself some additional GBs, so it seems that finally it worked .
So I'll tale a look at what files I can delete to free some space later, but yeah, right now it's gone back to normal again

 

[Data838]

Actually, maybe it was a little bit too soon to deliver you the good news. When I wrote my previous post, I verified the size of the C disk and it really hadn't been filled up for more than a day, but now I see that the free space has diminished again. I mean, I can liberate some space but if it continues filling up, it won't be efficient. I see how much effort you put in by helping me, but if none of the solutions are really working, I was thinking maybe I should just reset my laptop with or without files, although last time it didn't really work...

 

[Malnutrition]

Where is this data being downloaded to? Can you check with Treesize to see if you are able to find large files you are not familiar with please.

Also, install this firewall, there will be no connections made unless you allow them.

GlassWire - Personal Firewall & Network Monitor

GlassWire is a modern personal firewall and network monitor with over 42 million downloads. Download GlassWire free!

www.glasswire.com

When installing make sure and tick reset firewall default settings..


Once installed, go to traffic in tab, and monitor the connections, screen shot this for me...

 

[Data838]

I don't really know how to tell where they are downloaded to, all I saw in Internet Data Usage was that Firefox was the one downloading most of the amount of information, second was System, which wasn't much compared to Firefox.
The folders containing the most data are WinSxS and System32, but I didn't find any particularly large individual files there.
Since the last time, my C disk downloaded something like 100 MB and then stopped again, so maybe the problem has been resolved contrary to what I was thinking, I'll see how it goes in the coming days. Though it's weird that when I installed GlassWire, I immediately lost 2 GB of space.

 

[Malnutrition]

How are things now? Any change?

 

[Data838]

Well, since the last time C disk freed about a half of the lost volume and doesn't fill up anymore.
I was also wondering if it's normal that even if I have GlassWire installed, pop-ups appear on my screen with Malwarebytes blocking some sites wanting to access my computer. I didn't have these attacks before I installed GlassWire.

 

[Malnutrition]

Security programs often conflict with each other. Can you screen shot the alert from malwarebytes.

 

[Data838]

I could try but it's a pop-up window which stays on the screen only for 5 seconds or so. It basically says that a site with a name containing a string of random letters tried to access firefox.exe. Here's a Malwarebytes screenshot with the information containing details on the last attack.

 

[Data838]

Here's one

 

[Malnutrition]

Uninstall glasswire and see if they continue, if it does continue upload fresh FRST logs.

 

[Data838]

I uninstalled it, so we'll see what happens. Nevertheless, yesterday I noticed that the C disk had lost about 800 MB and right now it's a total of 4 GB lost again. I went to see Internet Data Usage before uninstalling GlassWire as well and I see that the situation has gone back to what it was when I first contacted you, again a lot of information downloaded with no apparent reason. I seriously don't understand why this problem has come back because it had really gone back to normal for some time. It's about 4-5 GB used more than usually. I also have an impression that when I open certain internet sites, some viruses manage to get through, whereas if everything works normally, Windows Defender and uBlock Origin are enough to not let anything pass through.

 

[Data838]

I actually may have been wrong about the additional downloads, I saw the data a little bit early before the counter of the day was set to zero, so I think it hasn't downloaded anything unnecessary since it was fixed. In addition, it seems to me that it was after uninstalling GlassWire that I regained a lot of space. It has gone back to almost the size of the C disk I had before all the problems started. These fluctuations are so weird . So now I will see if there are any attacks going on, I had launched Malwarebytes premium version and it will expire in about day, so it won't be blocking malicious sites anymore.

 

[Malnutrition]

I do not see anything that needs to be removed, so is there anymore issues?

 

[Data838]

Well, like I said, there are some sites which I was regularly visiting before this problem occured and uBlock origin was enough to block potential attacks. At the moment, my laptop is still letting some of them through if I go there. I also have Malwarebytes premium version catching and blocking them but after it expires (today), I'm afraid some attacks will not be prevented. Also, my C disk lost some free space again, it has never had such fluctuations before, unless there's some major problem. If it persists, I think I'm going to reset my laptop because I don't know how else I can stop them from making changes on my laptop. Anyway, thank you very much for helping me.

 

[Malnutrition]

Well. there is no malware on the machine. I am going to move your thread to the windows area, and see if any one else has something to add.

@Bruce @PeterOz

 

[Bruce]

have we discounted that the downloads may be Windows Updates, OneDrive or some other cloud syncing software, like iTunes or iCloud syncing of pictures?

and if it seems to be Firefox, what extensions are installed, and go to Settings > General and scroll to bottom > Network Settings > Settings > select No Proxy
and while in Settings > Privacy & Security > Firefox Data Collection and Use > untick all options

and big hammer, go to C:\Users\<your account>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and delete whatever folders are there.
probably only one, and deleting it will wipe all your extensions, history, saved passwords, bookmarks etc. but it's time for the big guns!
you can export your logins and bookmarks if you wanted.

 

[Data838]

I had already paused updates for a week and did it once again just now, so I don't know if OneDrive or other programs would still be downloading something?

I applied your suggestions to Firefox, so we'll see if it changes anything.

Maybe you could just explain why the size of my C disk is changing all the time? That seems to be the main issue, so maybe it's quite normal and I shouldn't worry about it? It's just that I didn't observe anything like that before. My C disk fills up a little bit and when I restart the computer, it gains some space back. I just did it and it regained almost all the space I had lost since I had a virus downloading large amounts of data by itself, so maybe now the problem is resolved after all?

 

[Bruce]

time will tell.

pausing Windows updates will only stop that thing from using your download bandwidth, and as it saves the update, use your space until it installs it then deletes the download.
so yeah, you'll see space come and go, but it should only be a few GB's each time.

but other things use up space as well. any cloud based storage software like Dropbox, OneDrive etc, will do the same. but for example, OneDrive can be set to only download the file when you click on it, otherwise it stays in the cloud.

daily running WizTree or some similar software that scans the drive and tells you which folders are using the space will give you a feel for what may be causing this.

and as you said, resetting Windows may be the best and quickest answer.
backup your files, get the Windows Media Creation Tool and nuke it all from space!

 

[Data838]

Thank you for the suggestions. In response to your comment on resetting Windows, I actually had a similar problem last year, but resetting the computer didn't help at all, the virus kept downloading the information as before, so I got rid of it only after I got help from you guys. I didn't know some viruses can be so persistent...