Hello :)
Please tell me how to fix this issue......
It all started about Five days ago, somehow I got a "Vista AntiSpyware2011" infection in my laptop. I researched online what to do to get rid of it and came across this web page : http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-vista-antispyware-2011.html which advises to install Spyware Doctor, which I did. It found a bunch of stuff, but to "fix" it, I had to purchase the program. Ok, I was currently using Avast (free Edition) which obviously didn't protect me, so I uninstalled Avast and proceeded to install Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus. It got rid of the Vista AntiSpyware2011 Infection (as far as I could tell) but almost immediately there were problems.....My computer would freeze, constant "not responding" of just about any window I opened, and with anything that ended in .exe, I was asked which program I wanted to use to open it.....this I didn't understand because these were all programs that opened automatically before. So, I tried to run Spyware Doctor's "deep scan" which took about 3.5 hours, then my computer totally froze and the only thing I could do was shut it off by the button. Frustrated and aggravated at this point, I just went to bed.
The next day, it took my laptop forever to boot up and once it did, I no longer had the .exe problems, but It was still freezing and "not responding". Spyware Doctor offers one license for up to three computers, so, because I paid $40. for it , I also put it on my husband's desktop PC and my daughter's laptop....what a disaster! It messed up my daughter's laptop 10x worse and caused a bunch of glitches in my husband's computer. To make a long story short, I uninstalled the Spyware Doctor w/Antivirus from all three computers and today I installed the Norton Security Suite (I just today found out that we can get it free because we have Comcast High-Speed Internet)
It seemed to be doing OK, I don't appear to have any issues except that about an hour after installing it I'm getting all kinds of warnings that I now only have 2% free disk space. Huh? I ran disk cleanup (three times) and looked through the list in "Programs and Features" (I hardly have anything using up alot of disk space in there) and I checked "System Restore" (per Windows instructions on clearing up Disk Space) however, I couldn't find an option there to delete earlier restore points, or shadow copies. I don't think that is the problem though as I've never even used System Restore, and this issue didn't arise until after I Installed the Norton Security Suite.
Besides the New Norton Security Suite, I also have the HitMan Pro and SuperAntiSpyware programs on here. I've read somewhere else on the internet to use CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner but I figured that maybe I'd better stop installing stuff and come here for help first.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A135-S4407Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2
Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU T2250 @ 1.73 GHz
Memory 2.00 GB System Type: 32-bit OS
What is eating up my Disk space all of a sudden and how can I fix it? Or, could it be that that infection is still in here or just left a mess and that's what's going on?
Please help me.