I can't say if this is the result of a virus or worm, but it appears that several mp3's within my sharded directory are gone and replaced by .xml files. It seems as though all the files starting with the letter "E" and up are gone. I've done search after search in hopes of finding these lost files, and they're nowhere to be found on any of my drives/directories. Also, the problem with the shared/download folder not appearing in the library pane seems to persistantly plague me. I've tried all suggested remedies several times ("File:Add Shared Folder" "Tools:Options:Sharing/Downloading") and nothing works. I've also removed and reinstalled all components to no avail. I think it might be time to truly consider this a bug. Lets face it.

I don't think it's possible that your LW is at fault here. Try running an Anti-virus scan on your PC (after getting the newest virus definitions and rebooting of course): you might be right on the virus/worm lead...

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

I've not only ran my anti-virus with the latest definitions, but rebooted on several occations, AND still nothing. It didn't only happen once either, but twice, and i can't say why. Like i said, it's only certain files (starting with letter "E" and up alphabetically). Go figure. I just don't want it to happen again. It might be because of disk space, but i doubt it as seeing i've got about 111GB of space available on my sharded drive. No one seems to believe me, so i'll stop with my complaints.

It's not that nobody believes you man.
Post your PC configuration (read the forum rules on details of what to post). I've read in posts (anyone correct me if I'm wrong) that developer people actually go through the trouble of trying to reproduce bugs and stuff, but they need LW version, RAM, OS... etc. in order to reproduce the environment of your specific configuration. After all, configurations differ greatly from one PC to another, so...

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

Here are my specs...
P4 2.4GHZ
768 MB RAM
80 GB HD (Master)
120 GB HD (Slave)
Cable modem
Windows XP Professional
Limewire 4.05 PRO

Now, I don't know if crossing drives is okay with Limewire, but my shared/download folder was originally on my slave drive while Limewire's program directory was on the master. When I re-installed limewire and made the shared/download folder as a subdirectory of limewire on the same drive, my download folder does appear in the library pane. once again, go figure. However, this does not explain my missing mp3's or their .xml dopplegangers. To be honest, it might just be poor file management on my part, but i find it really hard to delete this many files by accident without noticing sooner, and i don't recall ever seeing anything in my recycle bin to prove otherwise.

Suggestion from a clueless person (me):
Try renaming a .xml "doppleganger" into a .mp3 file (just change the extension). after you're done, try playing the file into any of the mp3 players you may have and see what happens. Post back the results. Don't be too angry at me (especially if something bad happens...)

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

yeah, i tried that, but i did try it again just to make sure. no dice. it's wierd. one thing i didn't mention was the way the file names appear. All the files have the original .mp3 extension AND the .xml extension at the end i.e. "filename.mp3.xml". IN addition, all these files seemed to appear in the their own sub-folder entitled ".Meta". Like i said, WEIRD. When i renamed the file by getting rid of the .xml extension, i got an error message stating that the format doesn't match the file extension. ::sigh:: oh well. Thanks for the help!

no, limewire is the only fileshare i have. I did at one point install Morpheus and share the same folder, but i can't say if that was responsible.

You said it: weird. Try looking the info's of one of the .xml files (Macs-> Get Info; Windoze->No Idea). Does it still recognise the files as .xml (probably yes)?
Also, IMO, the .xml files are actually your .mp3s that somehow (uh, ghosts maybe?) got changed into this .xml format.
Appaently, from what I see in fileext.com, xml files are "eXtensible Markup Language files" and are designed to replace html (maybe try opening them in your web browser??? )
No, I have no idea what kind of application might be responsible for turning .mp3s to .xmls (what's the use?), so you might wanna check your applications, see if there's a "suspect"....

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

I to have used morpheus, and I also have had a meta folder show up, what do you do about this folder delte or not?? Thanx