service pack files

[godfather]

I upgraded to service pack 2 and found a folder called i386 in
windows/service pack files. It is 513 megs and I am running out of
room on my c drive. What kinds of problems might I have if I delete
it?

 

[John John]

When you want to add Windows components or perform sfc scans you may
need files from that folder, best to not simply delete it, if it must be
removed make a copy of it on another drive or on a CD/DVD. You can
safely remove the $NtUninstallKBnnnnnn$ files to reclaim disk space.

John

 

[Galen]

In godfather had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I upgraded to service pack 2 and found a folder called i386 in
windows/service pack files. It is 513 megs and I am running out of
room on my c drive. What kinds of problems might I have if I delete
it?

Problems with SFC in the future if needed or the ability to rollback from
the SP2 install probably.

Can you delete it? Sure... Will it break anything? Probably not. Toss it
onto CD and be ready to restore it if you ever need to. Other options
include cleaning out some of the stuff you don't really need. Backing up
stuff you don't use on a regular basis, uninstalling programs you've used
twice, etc... (I go through the same thing quite often, I'm a horrific
packrat with, literally, multiple TB of wasted disk space throughout the
house and office.)

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I upgraded to service pack 2 and found a folder called i386 in
windows/service pack files. It is 513 megs and I am running out of
room on my c drive. What kinds of problems might I have if I delete
it?

First - if 513MB is going to make/break you.. You have reached the point
(beyond it actually) where you should consider spending $100 and getting a
HUGE hard disk drive.

Find out what might be using the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?
Moved things to external media?


Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.


If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm


You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/


You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312


You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.


You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.


You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

Need a larger drive?

For Pricing/Opinions/Reviews on various products:
- http://www.pricewatch.com/
- http://www.dealsites.net/
- http://www.resellerratings.com/
- http://www.epinions.com/

 

[godfather]

thanks for your suggetions - I copied the file to a cd and removed the
other files

 

[godfather]

thanks for the links - I can always use some nifty utilities

 

[Ken Blake]

First - if 513MB is going to make/break you.. You have reached the
point (beyond it actually) where you should consider spending $100
and getting a HUGE hard disk drive.

You took the words out of my mouth (my fingers?). Anyone who is that close
to running out of space will find that anything he does short of getting a
bigger drive will be at best a stopgap measure that won't help for long.
Godfather should bite the bullet, as you suggest, and buy a bigger drive. He
doesn't even have to spend $100; if he looks around he can almost certainly
find one much bigger than what he has for as little as $60 or so.

513 Million bytes may sound like a big number, but it's a tiny amount these
days. To put it into perspective, it's around 50 cents (US) worth of disk
space.