what I used to do was burn everything to dvd, then store it in a safety deposit box every 6 months or so. As stated, I got a little monkeyboy and a digital camera, so in 18 months I've accumulated about 6k pics. I've also been a freelance writer for a few years, so I got all that stuff as well. Long story short, I finally broke down and for about $100, bought an external hard drive and an enclosure. Every Friday I take it home from work and synchronize it with my home pc (using MS's freeware app SynchToys) and then it goes back to work; sort of like the pres and the v.pres, they don't travel together. This way, if I drop the enclosure, I can just buy a new one. If my home rig blows up (courtesy of aforementioned monkeyboy ) I have all my data on my enclosure.

Something to consider, and really not that technically advanced.

Don't worry about your PC. Chiaz hasn't met his match yet in malware, and I'm always learning from him, so I wasn't exaggerating when I said capable hands.

thanks,

v

I will have to ck on that Valis. I don't know what the enclosure is or about synchronizing it, but that sounds good. I do back up on disc, but so far haven't put them in a safe deposit box. I would need to make 2 copies, one for home and one for the box. I shoot RAW and save in TIFF so my files are huge! I am glad Chiaz is good but the malware just doesn't seem to be there, although it may have done something to cause this while it was there. I have seen things about the fan not working and causing freeze ups, which I can check tomorrow, but it freezes on startup when the PC is cool, upon shutdown, during downloads, and any time the PC is idle for several minutes (like 15-20 min). I hope it's nothing much and I don't have to reformat! Thanks for the ideas!

Chiaz, I thought tonight that it has been awhile since I ran the error checking tool (Ckdsk or similar; I didn't write it down so may be off with the name a little) from Windows, so I ran it and actually thought maybe it cleared up the problem. However, while working in Photoshop on a photo, the computer froze again. When it freezes, nothing works. I try ctrl+alt+del and it doesn't work. It completely freezes, even the clock won't work. Defrag is current. I am really at wit's end worrying about this, and I need it desperately for work. I am sure you must work a job where you can't check the forum often, so if the Hijack This log doesn't show you anything, if you have the time to give me all other options, at least I will know where I stand so I can quickly do something so hopefully I can use it again for work. I have thought reformatting may be my only remedy (I can't afford to take it anywhere right now unfortunately), but I suppose it may freeze right in the middle of backing up some files and cause a huge problem. Let me know what your thoughts are on reformatting and the issue of freezing up while backing up files (if you don't see anything that stands out in the log). I really appreciate your help!! Thanks!!

You exaggerate valis.

Carol, please run HijackThis and place a checkmark by the following entries:
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - %windir%\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe (file missing)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: @xpsp3res.dll,-20001 - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - %windir%\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe (file missing)


Do you know what these host redirections are? If you do not know anything about them, please tick as well:
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.51 www.winmx.com err.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 test3201.winmx.com test3205.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 test3202.winmx.com test3206.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 test3203.winmx.com test3207.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 82.43.224.20 test3204.winmx.com test3208.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3310.z1301.winmx.com c3310.z1302.winmx.com c3310.z1303.winmx.com c3310.z1304.winmx.com c3310.z1305.winmx.com c3310.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3313.z1301.winmx.com c3313.z1302.winmx.com c3313.z1303.winmx.com c3313.z1304.winmx.com c3313.z1305.winmx.com c3313.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3316.z1301.winmx.com c3316.z1302.winmx.com c3316.z1303.winmx.com c3316.z1304.winmx.com c3316.z1305.winmx.com c3316.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3311.z1301.winmx.com c3311.z1302.winmx.com c3311.z1303.winmx.com c3311.z1304.winmx.com c3311.z1305.winmx.com c3311.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3314.z1301.winmx.com c3314.z1302.winmx.com c3314.z1303.winmx.com c3314.z1304.winmx.com c3314.z1305.winmx.com c3314.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3317.z1301.winmx.com c3317.z1302.winmx.com c3317.z1303.winmx.com c3317.z1304.winmx.com c3317.z1305.winmx.com c3317.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3312.z1301.winmx.com c3312.z1302.winmx.com c3312.z1303.winmx.com c3312.z1304.winmx.com c3312.z1305.winmx.com c3312.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3315.z1301.winmx.com c3315.z1302.winmx.com c3315.z1303.winmx.com c3315.z1304.winmx.com c3315.z1305.winmx.com c3315.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3318.z1301.winmx.com c3318.z1302.winmx.com c3318.z1303.winmx.com c3318.z1304.winmx.com c3318.z1305.winmx.com c3318.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 82.43.224.20 c3319.z1301.winmx.com c3319.z1302.winmx.com c3319.z1303.winmx.com c3319.z1304.winmx.com c3319.z1305.winmx.com c3319.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3520.z1301.winmx.com c3520.z1302.winmx.com c3520.z1303.winmx.com c3520.z1304.winmx.com c3520.z1305.winmx.com c3520.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3523.z1301.winmx.com c3523.z1302.winmx.com c3523.z1303.winmx.com c3523.z1304.winmx.com c3523.z1305.winmx.com c3523.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3526.z1301.winmx.com c3526.z1302.winmx.com c3526.z1303.winmx.com c3526.z1304.winmx.com c3526.z1305.winmx.com c3526.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3521.z1301.winmx.com c3521.z1302.winmx.com c3521.z1303.winmx.com c3521.z1304.winmx.com c3521.z1305.winmx.com c3521.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.2 c3524.z1301.winmx.com c3524.z1302.winmx.com c3524.z1303.winmx.com c3524.z1304.winmx.com c3524.z1305.winmx.com c3524.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3527.z1301.winmx.com c3527.z1302.winmx.com c3527.z1303.winmx.com c3527.z1304.winmx.com c3527.z1305.winmx.com c3527.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3522.z1301.winmx.com c3522.z1302.winmx.com c3522.z1303.winmx.com c3522.z1304.winmx.com c3522.z1305.winmx.com c3522.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3525.z1301.winmx.com c3525.z1302.winmx.com c3525.z1303.winmx.com c3525.z1304.winmx.com c3525.z1305.winmx.com c3525.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 205.238.40.1 c3528.z1301.winmx.com c3528.z1302.winmx.com c3528.z1303.winmx.com c3528.z1304.winmx.com c3528.z1305.winmx.com c3528.z1306.winmx.com
O1 - Hosts: 82.43.224.20 c3529.z1301.winmx.com c3529.z1302.winmx.com c3529.z1303.winmx.com c3529.z1304.winmx.com c3529.z1305.winmx.com c3529.z1306.winmx.com


Close all other windows except HijackThis and press "Fix Checked". Then close HijackThis and restart the computer.



From your logs, it appears that this constant freezing issue may not be due to malware. It could be a software related, heat-related or hardware issue. Or it may be something else altogether. I'll move this to the Windows XP forum, for the tech team to have a deeper look into this.

We tend to leave reformatting as a last resort, after exhausting all possible troubleshooting.

Thank you so much! I will do as you say on the first two, and while I don't understand what host redirections are, I do know what program these are from, and this program has been installed forever, so I wouldn't expect it to be my problem (and I have not ran the program recently nor has it been running when the freeze ups occur). I thought it was too much a coincidence for the trojan to be found and the freezing to begin, but after seeing that the malware seems to be gone, I, too, have wondered if it is something else. I recently clicked to upgrade Quicktime and also installed ITunes, and since the freezing began, I uninstalled those just in case they were the culprit. The only other thing I can think of is if my son updated Shockwave or Flash for the purpose of playing his games. I am trying to locate those files to see if they have been modified. That would let me know if they were upgraded on the 24th or 25th wouldn't it? I thought the file would say "modified on one of these dates" if it was upgraded. No other programs or software have been added since the freeze (as far as I can remember). I will look back thru program files and think hard to see if I can think of a program or software that I may have just added. I was out of town for 3 days last week, and then used the PC Saturday to show a friend some things online, and Saturday it was working fine. The following day (Sunday or Monday) it began the freezing. Is there some other program that I can download to search for problems? I saw several listed on PC World under the topic of PC freezing. One was RegMon, another was FileMon PC World - Hassle-Free PC: Ten Sure-Fire Fixes for a Problem PC

Of fourse, I do not want to download just anything though and cause more problems with spyware/adaware. I am a quite careful (and fairly knowledgeable) PC user. I have also read that a fan failure or bad RAM can cause freezeups (any ideas here?) Should the fan run constantly or intermittently? The RAM is old, came with the PC. My PC is an older model VPR Matrix 1600 (made for/by Best Buy) vpr Matrix
Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, which came with a CD burner which I upgraded to a DVD burner. I have an 80 gig Seagate 7200 RPM harddrive which was installed by me about 8-10 months ago after the original failed, and I later (several months ago) added a 200GB Maxtor 7200 RPM, and I have a 160 GB external drive (the kind that looks like the little black book (Maxtor I think). I have been mostly keeping it unhooked though while the PC has been freezing because I am worried about losing photos on that drive. My 200 gig is divided into 2 partitions with mostly all space free. Drives: C drive (Seagate): 74.5 with 24.4 gigs free, 2nd hard drive (Maxtor): Partition K: 93.5, 77.8 free; partition L: 91.8, free space 91.7. The 160gig external drive is practically full, with only about 5 gigs free space.

Would heat be a culprit since the PC freezes upon startup after it has been shutdown all night? I turned it off last night, and it did not freeze on shutdown, but this morning it froze once on startup. I have noticed that it usually freezes the first time I startup but works the 2nd time, although Monday it froze multiple times on startup. It froze last night while I was working on a photo in PhotoShop after I thought maybe the problem was fixed. It usually freezes on shutdown, too, but the last 2-3 times, it has shutdown w/o freezing. Thanks everyone and hope this info helps!

I was just thinking, what if I installed WinXP on my K or L partition and slaved the C drive? Would that give me an idea as to whether the C drive was about to fail or if it was a problem with Win XP (corrupted files, etc)? If so, give me any direction on anything that I need to do/not do if I change it over. Like I guess I would need to do a clean install on K or L and then install SP2. I suppose I could try it with the C drive completely unhooked and then I could try it with the C drive slaved. Also, I would love to backup any files that I need to backup off the C drive that I am not sure is backed up already. However, if it freezes during the backup, won't that be a real mess? Can it be done in Safe Mode? So far the PC has not frozen during safe mode, but I have not used it in Safe Mode as long as I do in normal mode so I can't be sure it won't freeze in Safe Mode too. Any thoughts to this idea?