Kitz Forum
Computer Software => Windows => Topic started by: neil on May 27, 2022, 09:55:08 AM
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There are some files in my drive I don't know when they were created, I tried google search without any result for this file type. Anyone here got any ideas? :shrug2:
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What directory are they in?
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What directory are they in?
in my C drive
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In the root directory of C: or elsewhere?
How big are they?
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In the root directory of C: or elsewhere?
How big are they?
Yes, in root directory of C where all other folders are program files windows etc and size is 13KB 23KB and 41KB. Three files
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In Linux I would run strings on all the program executables and grep -iw parc
The Windows equivalents may be available in WSL 2, Cygwin, MSYS2, etc. I personally use Cygwin and have no experience of Microsoft's WSL.
Another tack would be to look for a program starting with the letters P A R or A R C. Click the Windows Start button and type in the letters to see what completions you get.
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If you look at the properties of the files, do the creation dates give any clues?
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I would rename them all to something like xxx.parc_renamed. Then see if anything misbehaves. If not then you don’t need them, but you can soon rename them back. If they’re to do with anything malicious then the badness won’t be able to find what it needs, so hurrah.
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here is screenshot
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In Linux I would run strings on all the program executables and grep -iw parc
The Windows equivalents may be available in WSL 2, Cygwin, MSYS2, etc. I personally use Cygwin and have no experience of Microsoft's WSL.
Another tack would be to look for a program starting with the letters P A R or A R C. Click the Windows Start button and type in the letters to see what completions you get.
I am not a Linux user and I don't know how to use command line other than copy pasting from the internet.
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This is the only thing I found that might be related to .parc extension:
"Parchive (a portmanteau of parity archive, and formally known as Parity Volume Set Specification[1][2]) is an erasure code system that produces par files for checksum verification of data integrity, with the capability to perform data recovery operations that can repair or regenerate corrupted or missing data.
Parchive was originally written to solve the problem of reliable file sharing on Usenet,[3] but it can be used for protecting any kind of data from data corruption, disc rot, bit rot, and accidental or malicious damage. Despite the name, Parchive uses more advanced techniques (specifically error correction codes) than simplistic parity methods of error detection."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive
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I've used par files before. But they are usually .par and tend to be with .rar compression files. So if there are multiple .rar files it can make some .par files to repair the .rar file.
Have you checked the health of the hard drive?
I remember many years ago, back in the Win98, WinME days I had to keep reinstalling the OS as the hard drive would become corrupted. It would put weirdly named files on the hard drive that couldn't be opened. I wonder if this might be what is happening here?
Alternatively they could be left over files from a game or program that was installing, uninstalling or updating.
I wonder if a disk scan would work, or the chkdisk command etc. As long as the files aren't taking over then it's probably nothing to worry about in the near future.
Edit: Have you ever used a program called PowerArchiver ?
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I've used par files before. But they are usually .par and tend to be with .rar compression files. So if there are multiple .rar files it can make some .par files to repair the .rar file.
Have you checked the health of the hard drive?
I remember many years ago, back in the Win98, WinME days I had to keep reinstalling the OS as the hard drive would become corrupted. It would put weirdly named files on the hard drive that couldn't be opened. I wonder if this might be what is happening here?
Alternatively they could be left over files from a game or program that was installing, uninstalling or updating.
I wonder if a disk scan would work, or the chkdisk command etc. As long as the files aren't taking over then it's probably nothing to worry about in the near future.
Edit: Have you ever used a program called PowerArchiver ?
ssd health is fine and no never used PowerArchiver before
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Not an answer, but you are not the only person with this query: https://www.reddit.com/r/pchelp/comments/ueqdkj/help_for_file_parc/
Do any of the results from this search mention anything familiar?
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22.parc%22+files
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Not an answer, but you are not the only person with this query: https://www.reddit.com/r/pchelp/comments/ueqdkj/help_for_file_parc/
Do any of the results from this search mention anything familiar?
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22.parc%22+files
wow
one more person with same files as me.
no
I think these have something to do with desktop windows manager and owner is dwm-1
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and according to answer from
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/unknown-users-name-in-windows-10-task-list/76e38360-57e9-4cf5-801c-643b5d523f88
Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is a Windows process that helps you manage the visual effects on the desktop such as glass window frames, 3D window transition animations, high-resolution support, and others.
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Edit: Have you ever used a program called PowerArchiver ?
PowerArchiver doesn't use the .parc extension.
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PowerArchiver doesn't use the .parc extension.
I was grasping at straws with that one as I noticed the extension was mentioned on the PowerArchiver forum.
I wonder if there is a website that can identify files if one is uploaded to it?
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If the files are relatively small, why not open one in Notepad and see if the content sheds any light on things?
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If the files are relatively small, why not open one in Notepad and see if the content sheds any light on things?
nothing in it
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What about a hex dump of it?
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What about a hex dump of it?
what is that?
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https://www.di-mgt.com.au/hexdump-for-windows.html
Display the file in such a way that each byte is shown in hex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal).