'autorun.inf' is blocked for your security

Dear NTauthority T.Welch,

Thanks for your assistance. Since I'm a novice, it will take me a bit to digest your instructions.

I do use malwarebytes and ran it last night after my first post and there was no detection.

I was instructed by an Avira forum support person that the reason that the warning appeared was (to paraphrase as best I can as a novice) that there have been some malware invasions using autoplay. I don't think that I have any malware; at least Malwarebytes and Avira aren't finding anything so far.

Must I still follow the instructions to open autorun.inf with notepad? I'm such a novice that I wouldn't know where to find autorun.inf? Would it be too much to ask to beinstructed on how to find autorun.inf, please. I'm ignorant basically. The purpose of opening autorun.inf is to see what is does, is that it?

Bye, rnfstwill

Hi will,

The autorun file might be in the Avira directory, though usually only located on the disc used to install the program.

Dear Chris,

Thanks for your reply. The original problem was a pop-up window in my notification area that said: "Access to the file 'L:autorun.inf' was blocked for your security.

Avira instructed me to uncheck an option in configuration: "block autostart function." That stopped the pop-up window from warning me.

The hard drive manufacturer, Seagate, sent a message via their tech support:

"autorun.inf is the primary instruction file associated with the Autorun function. Autorun.inf itself is a simple text based configuration file that tells the OS which executable to start, which icon to use, and which additional menu commands to make available. In other words, autorun.inf tells Windows how to deal open the presentation and treat the contents of the drive. The external drive itself should not be affected by deleting the Autorun.inf file or blocking it. Sometimes we ask our customers to delete the Autorun.inf name to avoid getting prompted to install the software/register drive when attempting to access the drive. Have you noticed any changes since you made the changes?"

I was confused by their message so I contacted them via chat. As I now understand them, the only action caused by the blocking of the autorun.inf was the window that popped up to announce the warning which was telling me that autoplay was being blocked. The hard drive operatin was not interfered with. When I attach my flash drive to the front of my PC with my USB port, then I get a autoplay window. But with the autorun.inf blocked, I get no autoplay window. Apparently, the warning was warning about a prompt to install the software drive when I accessed the drive. But otherwise the hard drive was permitted to operate. That's what I now understand to be the situation.

Does this sound right to you?

Avira showed me how to unblock the autostart function and that stopped the pop-up warnings announcing that autorun.inf was blocked. Avira said that when the autorun.inf was blocked, the hard drive wasn't working but that must be wrong because there were backups being made. Seagate said that the hard drive operation wasn't interfered with by blocking 'autorun.inf'

Does this sound right to you? I now some backups were made but I'm still not sure that the hard drive is operating correctly. I'm new to PCs and don't always know what to look for.

Avira did tell me that the autorun.inf file was in the hard drive but I believe Seagate told me it was in Windows.

Bye, rnfstwill

Hi rntfstwill,

Autoplay is a program that Windows uses to handle requests like the "Autorun.inf" file.

The anti-virus must have been blocking Autoplay too, by blocking the autorun file.

I'm sure the hard drive was working, especially if you were able to move data to/from it.

Dear Chris,

Thanks for your reply. I ask odd questions, I guess, because I don't now much about PCs and I try to understand better. Learn a little as I go.

As I now understand, autorun.inf is a file actually a part of the Seagate hard drive software. It starts up the autoplay window which is part of Windows. The popup window was blocked as well as any functions accessible via that window.

I still think that my hard drive wasn't working right since I was getting backup log files that would disappear and would not correspond to my backup records. But I'm not sure why? I've wiped the hard drive clean and formatted to begin over and am controlling the backup manually to closely observe what is backedup and recorded.

Some data was being moved to the hard drive but records seemed confusing.

In the above reply from T.Welch could you explain what he meant by "...an elevated install request in the setup.exe itself, referenced by the autorun."? (Monday, January 10th 2011, 2:53 am) No criticism meant, that's just too technical language for a newbie like me. Sounds like he means that the request originated in one device, the hard drive by autorun.inf to set up autoplay?? Would that be a fair newbie translation?

I further (when I get over this influenza) look more at the hard drive to see how it is backing up.

One more question if you don't mind or I can go to Seagate: When I access the hard drive manager and view backed up files, I get a list of three entries:

C: (which is a file folder and appears to be a backup copy of my user's file on my C: drive)

History (which is another file folder and appears to possible be log of the backups made?)

uuid (which is a text document of some kind)

Am I on target about what each of these does? But what is "uuid"? Any ideas? I'll go to Seagate if you'd rather.

Thanks,

rnfstwill

Hi rnfstwill,

Learn what you can when you can.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head for the autorun.ini function.

It's not used solely by Seagate, but it is specific to storage media (hard drives, CDs, DVDs, jump drives).

It is an optional settings file that specifies how the storage media should be handled.

It can specify what icon to display in Computer, as well as launching a specific file when the storage device is inserted into the computer and several other options.

Windows uses it's Autoplay program to display the option to the user, and allow the user to specify how (and if) the settings are executed.

It's biggest use, in the old days, was to launch the setup file for installing programs.

For instance, if you wanted to install a game from CD, you could just put the CD in the drive and close the tray and the installation window would open automatically.

This was changed as virus and malware programs took advantage of the function to auto install their payload.

An elevate install request references something needed to be installed as an administrator.

The technical term is an Elevated Credential, which just means that the administrator (which has full control of the computer) is needed to bypass things like anti-virus programs and UAC , which protect system files by denying non-admin account from installing potentially harmful software.

So someone that's not suppose to be using the computer can't just walk up and install key-logging software for example.

"look more at the hard drive to see how it is backing up."

That's a great way to learn about the computer, just paying attention to how thing are done.

I don't know exactly if that's the use of the entries in the Seagate manager, but it makes logical sense.

The UUID is just a system of uniquely identifying different things used by many different systems.

In this case Seagate is using the UUID system to identify the different backup files.

"Your favorite search engine" is your friend.

Many of the answers I give on this site, that I don't have personal experience with, are found by researching the issue on the Internet.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. It is definitely why this site exists.

Hope you feel better soon.