Mystery files appeared

I have found some strange files on my hard drive. They are called CreateExploders.txt, computeExplosionRanges.txt and computeExplosionMap.txt and have appeared at the top level, as soon as I open the drive icon along with the application folder library and system etc. They were created while I was using the computer but I have no idea how and I wouldn't write a file to this location. The files contain no useful information when opened and the info box says they are simpletext files. I checked activity monitor as soon as I noticed them but I found no suspicious processes. Can anyone shed any light on their origin? Google has not been helpful. Is there some sort of log file that records every computer activity?

Almost sound like they came from some game.  Trash (or rename) them and see if they come back.

Similar Messages

  • Mysterious file appearing after login

    Hi all,
    I recently bought my parents a 2nd hand iMac (Duo Core 2 1.83ghz). After setting up a user account and removing the preference files (which caused a few hiccups), I now have a file that appears when I open the hard drive.
    It has no name and is 1.4MB in size. Opening it in TextEdit shows lots and lots of characters (non-English or anything for that matter).
    Does anyone have an idea why this file would be appearing and how to fix it? I've never seen anything like this before. Sometimes the trash has a "Recovered Files" folder when I have done nothing.
    I've run permissions repairs and verified the disk (which said it didn't need repairing) but I will look at it tomorrow to see if I can find a solution.

    Jonathon, kguy is right that you should do a secure erase and then a clean install of everything on a second-hand machine regardless of whether or not you clear up the problem with the mystery file first. I would load only the applications I want on the machine (just in case the current configuration has apps and other things left over from the prior owner) and then you can rest easy.

  • Mystery File in Trash and Locked Disks

    Hi all,
    Have some weirdness going on with my system. First, I have a mystery file appearing in my trash that can not be identified. It appeared about the same time as I started having problems with three of my external drives that I can not access anymore.
    The file is named ␀␀␀÷␀␀.÷␀ . It says that it is an alias as type. If you try to get info, it disappears. It will not trash or secure trash. It can not be removed from the Trash folder.
    At the same time I have had three external drives start malfunctioning. The files first became unaccessible, could not be copies or delete. The drives would not allow new files to be added. The drive will not unmount and indicates that the drive is engage with an application. Then, the file completely vanish from view. The disk show zero items, but the disk size still indicates the files are still on the drive.
    I've use DiskWarrior and DriveGenius to try and repair one of the drives with no success. Even booting from the CD/DVD disk, the drives will not unmount.
    I hope this is not some kind of virus or trojan horse.
    Let me know if there is something I can do.
    Thanks

    Take a look at this topic: NUL file in Trash won't go away.
    You'll almost certainly find this file is in the Trash on a Windows volume, and you'll need to use Windows to get rid of it.

  • Mysterious numbered file appears in Application Support Folder.

    I had posted this question a few days ago and now I found the original post is locked for some reason. I would like to continue a related question and so I am posting a new, but similar, question:
    I was looking through my OSX installation and I found this mysterious file placed in my Application Support Folder in my library:
    username/library/application support/7103555
    It is named "7103555" and it is a Unix Executable File (according to "Get Info") I was worried it could be a virus - but now I doubt it (but you can never be too careful). Should I delete it?
    It looks like this when you open it:
    cd /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PrinterNotifications.bundle/Contents/MacOS
    # SUDO is causing entries in the console log making me believe
    # that it's not getting run correctly. I am removing SUDO from the
    # command lines.
    #sudo ./makequeues -u
    #sudo ./makequeues -r
    ./makequeues -u;./makequeues -r&
    exit 0
    Wayne indicated it is only a shell script call to the PrinterNotification.bundle. Wayne, will I be OK to just leave it or should I delete it?
    I am left feeling "somewhat" assured that this mysterious file is OK. I am still tempted to delete it - but I am not sure if I should. What bothers me about it is that (as I mentioned originally), when I select the file and choose "Get Info" it indicates it is a "Unix Executable file". That sounds like a recipe for a potential virus to me. And I know there aren't many viruses targeting macs however that fact never reassures me.
    Also, all the other files that end up in this users "application support" folder are clearly identified by their creators. For example, when I installed Mozilla Firefox, its support files are created at this location and they are clearly labelled "firefox". On the other hand, this mysterious file is not labeled and is only given a number as so:
    username/library/application support/7103555
    Should I leave it or delete it?
    PS When I get a chance one day, I will install ClamXAV and run that as well. I am sure I don't have any viruses but it wouldn't hurt to give it a try - especially considering its free (actually its by donation).
    PS If anyone is interested in the original discussion here is the original post:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=534153&tstart=0
    PS
    Thanks Mulder, Wayne and Ewen for your replies to the original post and for your help - and for the interesting, informative debate too

    Thanks etresoft
    Yes, I tried printing again and the file remains. After printing and during printing no other files are added to this location (my user "Application Support" folder). Strange. Its only a 4 K file and when I open it in text edit it reads what I mentioned above (SUDO is causing entries in the console log followed my a few other lines of text about makequeues).
    The printer is an HP cp1160. Maybe it is not a well-designed print driver. It works but I think its strange that this file ends up in Application support, without a name, doesn't disappear and is a "Unix executable file". When I do a "Get info" on the file it says it is a "Unix executable file".
    Until I hear from anyone else, I am just going to leave it alone. (I also will not attempt to "save it" after I open it in test edit - I'll just let it be). In the future I will watch this file and later I will run a virus scan on it with ClamXAV.
    I am gradually becoming assured that it is probably a safe file to leave alone. (I was so tempted to delete it).
    Actually I might delete it as an experiment later and also delete my HP cp1160 printer driver (if I can find it) then re-install the HPcp1160 printer driver again to see if this file comes back. I might try this. I'll have to think about that.
    Thanks again etresoft.

  • Mysterious File in Trash after emptied.

    After I empty my trash there is a mysterious file that appears. I try to move it and it disappears, I try to Copy and paste and it asks for my password then disappears. Two separate file names show up at different times. L2QQU6rVMLLrm6 and ntDu9OqOifdnlP .
    Also, after I add one item to trash and empty (secure or regular) it shows its emptying 6 items.
    hmmm. this is a new issue and Im freaked. am I being hacked?

    element619 wrote:
    Thanks, But I dont have bootcamp installed...no windows. I restarted and it doesnt seem to be happening at the moment. do you think someone could have been on my computer?
    no, I do not think that. do you have any external drives attached? those files might be from an external and you need to empy trash with that drive attached to get rid of them. also start disk utility and verify your hard drive. if it reports any damage, reboot from the leopard install DVD, start disk utility from the Utilities menu and repair the drive.

  • Mysterious file in trash containing null chars

    in my trash appears a mysterious file. ive made some screenshots of it:
    http://home.arcor.de/matthiascando/images/finderError1.png
    http://home.arcor.de/matthiascando/images/finderError2.png
    it resists any attempts to empty the trash. when i click on it, it disappers only to show up some seconds later again.
    i did a rm -rf ~/.Trash - no result. with ls -al ~/.Trash/ it doesnt appear in the terminal.
    i tried to create a new account but after a while (a day or so) the file is there again.
    has anybody an idea what to do or some experience?

    Do you happen to have "show hidden files" enabled? I once had the same problem- a file continually appeared on my desktop and right after deleting it, it would reappear. I then remembered that I had used Onyx to show me hidden files during the installation of some software, and I had never hid them again. That may be one of those hidden files.

  • Mystery file in trash at startup

    Hi!
    I have this mysterious file in the trash every time I turned the iMac. It has been going on for a while now and I can't get rid of it. Even secure empty trash did not work. When I click on get info, instead of giving me information about the file like all other files do, this one blinks and then disappears and the trash gets emptied. This is the filename  ␀␀␀õ␀␀.␀␀ I hope you can read the filename. I even copied the file to pages and made it bigger but this is how it came out when pasting. Under the kind column it says alias. I cannot find this file anywhere in the computer. I have also ran disk utility. Does anyone know what kind of file this is and how to get it rid of it permanently. Thanks.

    You might try starting up from your Mac OS X installation disc; at the first Installer screen, go up to the menu bar. Under Utilities, select to run Disk Utility. In the sidebar, select the internal drive; select the drive, not the volume indented under the drive. Go to the +First Aid+ tab and run +Repair Disk+. If there is some minor data corruption causing this problem, +Repair Disk+ may fix it.
    If you decide to start using another user account, I would probably use the Shared folder (in the Users folder). Turn ON +fast user switching+ so that I can easily go back and forth between accounts. Then move the files and folders I wanted to move from the old account to the Shared folder. Then switch to the new account and move those files and folders to the equivalent locations in the new account home folder. Do this one user home folder sub-folder at a time.
    Note: Dragging files and folders to and from the Shared folder is a move, not a copy. That is, the files will appear at the new location and disappear from the previous location.
    If you use Time Machine, you can probably use Migration Assistant while logged in to the new account and migrate from the Time Machine archive. I've never done that myself, but migrating from Time Machine is one of the options.

  • Mysterious user appears logged in via SMB

    I'm running Snow Leopard Server (10.6.3), and for the last couple of days I've noticed a mysterious user logged in via SMB.
    The connections panel shows user name "Guest" at address "DENY_NONE" connected for 00.00 hours. It seems to really slow down the network when this ghost user is accessing the server.
    I may be wrong, but this user seems to appear after I have our Windows 7 test machine (iMac 3GHz Core 2 Duo) access the server.
    I also get the following message in the logs for hours after the machine logs off:
    [2010/05/03 14:01:10, 0, pid=51155] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.2/samba/source/locking/posix.c:posixfcntlgetlock(250)
    posixfcntlgetlock: WARNING: lock request at offset 2147516416, length 32768 returned
    an Invalid argument error. This can happen when using 64 bit lock offsets
    on 32 bit NFS mounted file systems.
    The only way to get rid of this is by shutting down SMB for a few minutes.
    Any ideas on fixing this? We're going to be switching all our Windows clients to Windows 7 soon, and I don't want to magnify this problem 10- to 20-fold when we do.
    I don't get these messages when our Windows XP clients access files from the server.

    I am also having a related issue that I noticed on Snow Leopard Server 10.6.3, I have upgraded to 10.6.4 and I am still experiencing issues. The error messages in the SMB log on 10.6.4 SL Server in Server Admin:
    [2010/06/25 22:42:57, 0] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/smbd/server.c:main(925)
    smbd version 3.0.28a-apple started.
    Copyright Andrew Tridgell and the Samba Team 1992-2008
    [2010/06/25 22:42:57, 1, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/param/loadparm.c:service_ok(3069)
    NOTE: Service Backups is flagged unavailable.
    [2010/06/25 22:42:57, 0, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/passdb/secrets.c:secretsfetch_domainsid(150)
    secretsfetch_domain_sid:opendirectory_query_domainsid gave -14136 [eDSRecordNotFound]
    [2010/06/25 22:59:27, 1, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/param/loadparm.c:service_ok(3069)
    NOTE: Service Backups is flagged unavailable.
    [2010/06/25 22:59:27, 1, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/param/loadparm.c:service_ok(3069)
    NOTE: Service Backups is flagged unavailable.
    [2010/06/25 23:00:17, 1, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/param/loadparm.c:service_ok(3069)
    NOTE: Service Backups is flagged unavailable.
    [2010/06/25 23:00:25, 1, pid=894] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/param/loadparm.c:service_ok(3069)
    NOTE: Service Backups is flagged unavailable.
    [2010/06/25 23:08:12, 0, pid=1657] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/lib/opendirectory.c:getopendirectoryauthenticator(247)
    failed to read DomainAdmin credentials, err=67 fd=19 errno=2
    [2010/06/25 23:08:15, 1, pid=1657] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/smbd/service.c:makeconnectionsnum(1092)
    new-host-3 (172.16.76.112) connect to service Groups initially as user sadmin (uid=501, gid=20) (pid 1657)
    I have restarted the server and I initiated an SMB connection from my 10.6.4 MBP and then noticed in the SMB Connections that a mysterious user appears - Guest DENY_NONE
    I am not able to disconnect this user, and this also happens when Vista/Win7 users connect.
    I haven't seen anybody resolve these issues yet, but maybe someone here can help. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

  • I want to edit my raw images on cs5 photoshop.  But when I go to open the .CR2 file it says  '' Could not complete your request because the file appears to be from a camera model which is not supported by the installed version of Camera Raw. Please visit

    I want to edit my raw images on cs5 photoshop.  But when I go to open the .CR2 file it says 
    '' Could not complete your request because the file appears to be from a camera model which is not supported by the installed version of Camera Raw. Please visit the Camera Raw help documentation for additional information.  '' 
    When I go to updates in photoshop help i try to update photoshop and photoshop camera raw but it then says 
    '' Updates could not be applied the error log file may help you in identifying the problem. Then, try updating again. If the problems persist, contact customer support for further assistance. 
    Photoshop Camera Raw 8.7.1(CS6) There was an error installing this update. Please quit and try again later. Error Code: U44M1I216 ''  
    I dont know how to get around this please help

    CR2 files from which Canon camera?
    Supported cameras are listed here
    Camera Raw plug-in | Supported cameras

  • Why do more empty, localstore.rdf and perf.js files appear in my profile everytime I open and close Firefox?

    I have hundreds of empty localstore{xxx}.rdf and perf{xxx}.js files in my profile folder. Where {xxx} denotes a number. New, higher numbered files appear every time I open/close firefox. There ate two pref files (perf.js and perf1.js) which are not empty. There is one localstore.rdf file which is not empty. All other files are zero byte files.
    Also, my toolbar customizations will not stay put. I have to re-customize the toolbar regularly. Erasing all of the localstore and perf files in case of a corrupt file does not help.

    That suggests something is preventing Firefox from modifying those files. This usually happens when anti-virus software keeps a lock on the files.
    ''localstore.rdf'' is the file that keeps your toolbar customizations. Since Firefox can't modify it, your toolbar customizations are lost.
    * [[How to fix preferences that won't save]]
    * [[Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data|What information is stored in my profile?]]
    A less likely cause is a Read-Only attribute or permissions issue.
    * [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-are-permissions What are permissions? | Microsoft Support]
    * [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-is-a-read-only-file-or-folder What is a read-only file or folder? | Microsoft Support]

  • MacBook Pro & USB frustration: Why is it that my USB files appear in an "unrecognized format" when I try to open them on my Mac?

    Hello, I recently bought a MacBook Pro and every time I insert my USB, it appears on the desktop. However, when I double-click it to open the files, the files appear in "an unrecognized format". They all end with this: ".lnk"...if it's a video file it ends with .lnk, if it's a picture file it ends with .lnk, if it's ANY document it ends with .lnk. I'm getting tired of this situation and I've only had this laptop for a week. Please, open my eyes and show me that the sacrifice I made to buy it was worth it. I wanted a Mac so bad, and now this is making me hate them and prefer PCs. What do I do??? How can I change that and make this laptop read these files??? Please help. I need to copy some video files from my USB to my Mac as soon as possible.

    An lnk file in Windows is a shortcut that points to the actual file. Rather than copy the actual files, you made a shortcut to them on your USB drive. Try going to the Windows machine and selecting the files then choosing Copy, change to your USB drive and choose Paste.
    If you were to open a Finder window and right click one of those files then choose Get Info, you'll probably find that it's way to small to contain the movie or whatever.

  • File appears different in arrange window and sample editor

    I received a few AIFF files from someone Im working with: 24 bit, 44.1, same as I use. However, although they show up fine in the sample editor, in the arrange window they look clipped, as if they've been recorded too loud. This is making them very hard to edit. I've tried refreshing the overview in the sample editor, but with no success. Has anyone got any tips?

    Does the file appear distorted visually, or does it also sound distorted?
    In arrange, between the *Horizontal Zoom Slider* and the *Horizontal scroll arrows* you'll see a Waveform button with which you can adjust how "fat" the waveform is displayed. Clicking toggles it between the last setting and fully zoomed out. Clickhold to let the slider pop up.
    !http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5407362168_6d8e888c2a.jpg!

  • How do I transfer PDF files from PC to IPAD using Itunes 12.1.2.  Previous versions let me drag file in Itunes to Ipad and files appeared under Ibook but can't get it to work in latest 12.1.2 version.

    How do I transfer PDF files from PC (Windows 7) to IPAD using Itunes 12.1.2.  I would like to do files manually rather then auto synch.  Previous versions let me drag file in Itunes to Ipad and files appeared under Ibook and then I could move them to an appropriate collection title.  The interface appears to have changed in the latest ITunes version and I am not sure what the proper procedure is.

    King_Penguin - Thanks it worked perfectly.  I had my pdf files copied into ITunes on my PC but when I clicked on a pdf file to copy it I thought the sidebar would appear with my IPAD name and then I would drag it over.  I didn't realize that I needed to click-and start dragging it towards the left-hand side for the sidebar to appear.  It worked like a charm - THANKYOU!!!

  • When I try to attach my css style sheet Dreamweaver gives me an error saying that my .css file appears to be an .html file and will not attach. How do I fix this so I can attach my style sheet?

    I have built a css style sheet in Dreamweaver. When I try to attach it to my html website, it prompts me that my "css file appears to be an .html file and cannot attach". I've tried removing the /* */ as suggested by other forums, but this has not resolved the issue. I was using css style sheets with no problem 2 days ago. Now I get that error message. How do I fix this so I can attach my style sheet?

    What does the code of the CSS file look like?
    An external CSS file needs to be written in CSS only (no html tags like <html>, <body>, <head>, etc ).
    It also must have a .css file extension, if yours has a .html extension it won't work.

  • What do I do with this error? "could not complete your request because the file appears to be from a camera model which is not supported by the installed version of camera raw?"

    what do I do with this error? "could not complete your request because the file appears to be from a camera model which is not supported by the installed version of camera raw?"

    It can be that you have an old version of Photoshop Elements and a new camera.
    Please tell us
    Which operating system you are running on
    Which version of Photoshop Elements you are using
    Which camera the raw images come from (Make & model)
    Brian

Maybe you are looking for