Dramatic increase in number of files scanned

I have my NOD32 (on a server with Windows SBS 2003) configured to automatically scan all local drives every night. Every morning I look at the NOD32 Scanner Logs page to see the result. I have noticed that the number of files being scanned (approx. 150000) slowly increases (by 50-100 per day) for a few weeks and then the number drops (by a few hundred). I guess this is due to the way Windows handles temporary files.

But last week something odd happened. The number of files being scanned increased by some 47500 !!! And the number has stayed high since.

I am absolutely sure that I did not install anything on that day. I have not been able to find these new files in Windows Explorer. RootkitRevealer from Sysinternals.com can't find anything either.

Should I suspect that someone has hijacked my computer and installed God-knows-what?
Or has there been some sudden change in the behaviour of NOD32 (e.g. scanning a larger number of file types)?

 

Could be a new packer or archive is now unpacked for scanning, I too am interested to know what this is

 

I had not changed anything in the NOD32 settings, nor is there any new files, folders or packers visible in Windows Explorer that could account for the increase. The whole thing remains a mystery...

 

Maybe someone`s using your server to store their stuff?

 

No mapped network drives or anything?

 

Yes, that's what I fear (but we will probably never know since this particular server has suffered a disk crash since...)

 

No, nothing of that sort...