While defragging, I saw some file paths like "C:\directory\filename.ext:|Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc". What does that string after the filename mean? (begins with colon and pipe character) Is that indicating an alternate data stream or something?
There are links found by a google search that indeed show this as an alternate data stream.
What is your operating system?
Some info on ADS here and also link at the bottom of the page to an ADS finder.
http://www.auditmypc.com/ntfs-streams.asp
Another very good link here with lots of info
http://www.2kevin.net/datastreams.html
Quite a few virus softwares scan for ADS now. Online Armor ++ is one I know of.
That particular stream seems to be from Microsoft Indexing Service. Seems to be a thumbnail, and it's also larger than the source file itself.
Time to use Sysinternals Streams and delete that crap.