Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System

Electron · 06 Jun 2014

I just reviewed my Avira Anti-Virus scan logs which showed roughly 250K scanned files in early May. A week later the scans were showing over 300K scanned files. Not more than a few small programs were installed. There were a few Windows updates. Any idea why that scan count increased so much?

In checking the actual file count on disk I think it is more in the range of 100K files. Most are in the Windows folder which shows about 80K files.

I've heard about a hidden file backup in Windows 7 and wonder if that could be a factor.

Callender · 06 Jun 2014

What is Avira set to scan? If it includes System Restore Points that could explain it.

Backups? Well if you've scheduled any kind of backup where does the backup get created?

I've seen problems with self replicating application data folders when a user has taken ownership of their User folder.

Electron · 06 Jun 2014

Thanks for the help. I removed all but the most recent Restore Point so that was not the problem. Avira was set to scan everything. No backups have been created.

Last night I replaced Avira with AVG and noticed that it only scans about 80K files. It may be scanning only the types of files that are a concern. It's possible that Avira reports more files than are actually on disk. It could be scanning compressed files and the decompressed versions.

Callender · 06 Jun 2014

If you're really concerned there's a small utility that you can use to snapshot your registry and files then you can run it again after some time to see differences between the old and new snapshots.

The downside is that creating a snapshot takes quite some time.

vTask Studio - Support - see last link on the page.

If you just want to see file and folder changes and you make regular system image backups you could use:

WinMerge

Here's screenshots from my machine showing a backup image made 4 days ago mounted as Drive (M:) and you can see that the backup image is 0.5 Gb bigger in size than my current Windows drive because I've done some housekeeping.

Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System-computer.jpg

It's possible to compare the two for differences.

Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System-computer2.jpg

WinMerge GUI:

Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System-winmergeselect-files-folders.jpg

Pete4 · 06 Jun 2014

Internet explorer/firefox/chrome or whatever you're using for internet browsing could add and accumulate many small files into it's cache if not cleared on regular basis.

Britton30 · 06 Jun 2014

In addition, Windows constantly creates system logs, event logs, error reports, and temp files...all the time.
Try using CCleaner and clean temp files, link in my sig.

There's also the w7 built-in Extended Clean. Disk Cleanup : Extended

Layback Bear · 06 Jun 2014

Here is another little goody that can take up space.

By Brink:

Hibernate - Change Size of hiberfil.sys File

Britton30 · 06 Jun 2014

Good one Jack, it can be disabled if not used, I don't use it since my PC is always on.
Hibernate - Enable or Disable

Layback Bear · 06 Jun 2014

Today's computer boot so fast I don't understand why anybody uses it.

Britton30 · 06 Jun 2014

With Hibernation the PC comes back to the exact state as when going in hibernation. All/any programs running, open files, etc will still be there.

Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System

Sudden Increase in Number of Files on System

Increased number of files

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