Problems with disk cleanup

[scottyjamison]

I am looking to create space in my hard drive but i read on the forums
somewhere that the disk cleanup process for vista can wipe all your programs
and files of your computer. Is this true? Is their a flaw in the disk
cleanup? and if i use it will my computer be safe?

Thanks for all your help

 

[Silvabod]

There's various programs, both within Vista (and XP), or external utilities
like TumeUp Utilities, which will SAFELY do disk clean-up. After - do a
defrag.

If in any doubt, do a full back-up first, or create a restore point. After
many years of experience of clean-ups, both MS and others,, I've never
experienced a problem clean-up that subsequently needed a "restore". What
you COULD lose (depending on which clean-up utility you use) are the huge
i9ncrement of "microsoft update" backup files, which are only ever needed if
you install a security update and subsequently need to uninstall it - this
would ususally be obvious within a couple of days of installation, so after
that, these files are then redundant and can be deleted.

Yes, your computer progs will be safe, barring external forces (power cut) -
I have daily scheduled clean-ups, and no problems directly connected with
it.

 

[Mark Veldhuis]

I am looking to create space in my hard drive but i read on the forums

somewhere that the disk cleanup process for vista can wipe all your programs
and files of your computer. Is this true?

Yes, in some cases it is:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-problem-caused-by-broken-registration/

 

[Steve Thackery]

i read on the forums

somewhere that the disk cleanup process for vista can wipe all your
programs
and files of your computer. Is this true? Is their a flaw in the disk
cleanup? and if i use it will my computer be safe?

Of course it isn't true! Even Microsoft wouldn't launch an OS with such a
fundamental problem as that.

The disk cleanup feature in Vista is perfectly safe, but you must read all
the prompts so you know what you are asking it to do.

SteveT