Huge temp files wreaking havoc

[Andronium]

NT 4.0 server, running some Honeywell software that controls the HVAC systems, electronic door access. Also running Photo ID software that is integrated into the door access software. Digital camera is hooked directly into the server, which is used to take employee photos, print ID cards, and give them permission to access buildings after hours. The server also has Office 97 loaded. The problem is, everyday the C partition gets completely filled up because there is a temp file created in c:\temp. It starts out small, but it grows and grows very rapidly, usually until there is no more disk space to grow. I've seen it get as big as 2.5 GB in an hour or less. The name of the file is mseXX.tmp where "XX" is a two digit number (like mse26.tmp). The number is different every time. I've done some looking and I can't find anything on the net about where this file is coming from. Sometimes it seems to delete itself on it's own, other times I have to go in and delete it. It has crashed the server more than once.

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Highland]

Try right-clicking on the file name in NT Explorer and selecting the Security Tab, select Permissions or Ownership, this might tell you who/what is generating the file....

 

[malakisi]

Run your latest virus scanner on your drives. It might not be it, but the last time we had a problem over here with something like that it was nimda. Run the latest on all administrative machines as well. The problem we had was the DAY nimda came out. It got on to one of the admin machines. That admin has access to every single server. It was a clean up nightmare.

Also like the last post said check your security permissions. Make sure you are the only one allowed to have access. Then slowly add those who need to have access to that server in the permissions & shares. When you start getting problems bingo it might be that user.

Leo McGraw
Huffman ISD
lmcgraw@huffman.isd.esc4.net

 

[Andronium]

Ack, I guess I should have mentioned that the person who built this server made C: FAT, so I'm looking into whether or not there was a reason for this, and if not, I'm going to convert it to NTFS and try playing around with the permissions to figure it out. I'll give that virus scan a try too and see if it comes up with anything. Thanks for the advice!

 

[malakisi]

Our servers in one area are low level servers and they are using a FAT table. It shouldn't really matter. Both types of servers running NTFS both got effected. If that helps any.

 

[Dan1976]

How about renaming the TEMP folder for a bit? Hopefully, whatever is generating the tmp file won't automatically create a new TEMP folder, but will give an error instead.