My computer has been acting strangely so I decided to empty the trash, I stopped the process when it showed over 16,000 files being deleted. Now our user files (copies?) are in the trash, dated the exact time I started to empty. Is this a virus? What do I do?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Using the trash for storage? So windoze-centric. Move the files to another location and then selectively eliminate the ones you don't want. Trash is for stuff you want to throw away NOW.
Is this a virus?
Repeat after me:
There are no viruses for Mac OS X. There are no viruses for Mac OS X. There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.There are no viruses for Mac OS X.
I have seen viruses for Macs, but haven't seen one yet for OSX (only trojans). So i highly doubt it's a virus. I'll even bet against this.
What I don't understand is why this is a problem? When you go to bed just have your system empty the trash if it's going to take such a long time. I'm assuming here you just don't want to wait?
Thanks hackintosh. I'm not worried about the time, it's the fact that the computer has been freezing up, and not even starting at times: acting very un-mac-like. So finding "user" files in my trash (with 16,000+ other files that I didn't put there) was significantly troubling.
I think I've decided the quantity of files is a result of Time Machine backups and am going to empty the trash and startup in 'safe mode' and see if those two clear things up. I welcome any other helpful information.
Thanks.
The symptoms you described seem to be the kind that you would get if you were running out of HD. If the OS doesn't have room to write & maneuver files around, you can get this sort of thing. A general rule of thumb is to keep at least 10% of your HD free.
Can you check how much space is free on your Macintosh HD? And make sure it says GB, not KB or something else.
Sounds like you tried to delete TM backups using the Finder, which is wrong.
Or perhaps there are viruses and you just don't know about them????
Strictly speaking there are no OS X viruses. Viruses are self-replicating and, so far, none have been found "in the wild" for Macs. Not to say it couldn't happen. The term 'virus" is being used as a catch-all for any kind of malware or exploit. The Flashback Trojan, at least in one of its forms, is considered a "drive-by download." But the post to which you were replying was, I will say, a bit over the top.
If you want to know more.
Oh boy, that article you quoted CuinCI was so bad, I had to read it twice just to believe it. Unfortunate that such bad articles even get placed into Globe & Mail, which only spreads the misinformation. Also interesting is the biased source which kept being referenced.
This is what happens when someone who is in search for that BIG NEWS FLASH, on a BIG HOT TOPIC, ends up writing an article on what they know nothing about.
As an interesting side-note, I clicked on the link to that virus checker at the end of the article.
Very humours how that checker is warning me that:
We have checked the version of Java installed on your computer and discovered that you are running a vulnerable version.
Oh really? That's interesting, I don't even have Java installed, or even enabled through my browser, just in case I did ever install it.
And you wonder why the media & Mac-illiterates are all over the place with this nonsense....
"User" files in trash after I started to empty it.
