large files in C:/docs-settings/myname/nethood

[Guest]

My Sony hard drive came partitioned in a c and d drive. the c drive is very
full, too full to defragment. there are several folders with large picture
and video files in the c:/documents and settings/myname/nethood directory.
they appear to have been generated when I copied from one computer to another
on my home network a long time ago. can i delete these files manually to
gain about 1 GB of c drive space without any problems occuring?

what is nethood? how do i keep this folder cleaned up to save drive space?

 

[Guest]

Hello,
Entering "nethood" (without the quotes) in Ask.com yields a number of linked
discussions about nethood. This one seems of particular interest and might
be of help to you:
"Network Neighborhood and the Nethood Folder



Few know what that mysterious folder called "Nethood" is all about. It is a
series of shortcut links that are mirrored in your Network Neighborhood !!
They will either show up as lnk files or just simply "target" with WinXP.
The folder location is:



Windows\Profiles\Username\NetHood in Windows 95 and Windows 98

WINNT\Profiles\Username\NetHood in Windows NT

Documents and Settings\username\nethood in WinXP and 2000



Network Neighborhood is comprised of icons that are actually shortcuts to
the remote computer or disk drive. These must also appear in your Nethood
folder or else the remote computer will not show up in Network Neighborhood.
The properties for each link will take the format: \\computer\folder


For example, if the remote computer is "john" and the shared drive on his PC
is the D drive, the properties of the Nethood folder shortcut will be:
\\john\d



How it Works


The Network Neighborhood does not automatically scan and find computers and
shared drives. Refreshing Network Neighborhood by hitting the F5 key doesn't
work in the 'obvious' way; you are not doing a 're-scan' of the network. What
actually happens is that all PCs on your network periodiaclly 'announce'
their presence to one machine which is called the Master Browser.
( This is elected in an automatic, behind the scenes process. ) The Master
Browser collects these announcements, and maintains a list of computers
called the Browse List. When you look in net 'hood, you are just retrieving
the browse list from the Master Browser.

Master Browser Problem



This is rare - but if one machine stops announcing itself because it's
sleeping, then it will eventually be 'aged' and fall off the browse list. No
amount of refreshing will cause it to re-appear, all that does is to retreive
the list from the Master Browser. It's down to the sleeping-and-reawakened
machine to start re-announcing itself.

It may, or may not, start to re-announce itself when it awakes. It can take
some time for the machine to re-announce itself, and hence appear in the
browse list. Allow it at least 15 minutes, then see if it appears in Net
'hood. Unfortunately, sometimes the list is never updated - may be that there
is no PC that stepped up to the plate to become the Master Browser.

YOU MAY NOT WANT TO WAIT - also, the shortcut in Nethood becomes corrupted,
you may not see it in Network Neighborhood, or may see a shortcut that does
not work when clicked. So you can force an update manually as follows:


Manually creating Entries in Network Neighborhood using the Nethood Folder


You can create static entries so that your computer does not have to rely on
the Master Browser scanning. For example - if you need to recreate Dad's D
drive because the existing shortcut is not working

1) delete the bad shortcut in Nethood
2) Start/Run . . . \\Dad (an Explorer window will pop up with all folders on
the PC "Dad")
3) right-click on the remote D folder and drag it to the Nethood folder,
release and select "Create Shortcut". The folder will now also appear in
Network Neighborhood"

 

[Gerry Cornell]

I was going to suggest Shift+Delete in Windows Explorer to delete the
file but what is in your other leads me to hold back on that suggestion.

How large is your hard disk and how much free disk space? In Windows
Explorer right click on your C drive and select Properties. Is it
formatted as FAT32 or NTFS?

To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore
and remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can
be quite large.

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb.
Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time
find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit.
When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises
with your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc.

These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text
of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you can
compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save
Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained
by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is only
an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is that
for temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline
copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your
attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In
Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary
Internet Files, Settings
to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history
is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. On your
drive 5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on
your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move the
slider from 10% to 5%.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Thanks Angie and Gerry. I do have NTFS and ended up deleting the folders in
nethood manually. The files didn't show as links or shortcuts, they showed
as duplicate full size files as were in my related shared folders. When I
connected to my network on my other Mac G4 it listed the same folders that
are in nethood so that told me what was happening as Angie has described.
But it wasn't enough so I uninstalled a few programs and reinstalled some of
them into a new "my programs" folder on my D drive and everything works much
faster now. I'll try some of the things Gerry suggests as well. I
appreciate your help.