Which "index.dat" files exist normally? I found 10 of them

[Cindy Parker]

I wonder how many "index.dat" files exist normally on a WinXP system.
I searched my system and found 10 (!).

See the following snapshot:

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3751/foundindexdatfiles.png

When I read about "index.dat" files on Internet I get the impression that there is normally
only 1 index.dat file and that's it.

So are the remaining 9 on my system are bad copies or backups or what?

Cindy

 

[Rob]

I wonder how many "index.dat" files exist normally on a WinXP system.
I searched my system and found 10 (!).

See the following snapshot:

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3751/foundindexdatfiles.png

When I read about "index.dat" files on Internet I get the impression that there is normally
only 1 index.dat file and that's it.

So are the remaining 9 on my system are bad copies or backups or what?

Cindy

index.dat is just a generic name for some file that holds the index of
the files in the directory that it is in.

the number of those files is growing with each IE version, as they are
keeping more and more things stored on the disk.
it started with only cookies but now there are lots of other things
stored.

 

[Tigger]

Cindy Parker writted thus:

I wonder how many "index.dat" files exist normally on a WinXP system. I
searched my system and found 10 (!).

See the following snapshot:

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3751/foundindexdatfiles.png

When I read about "index.dat" files on Internet I get the impression
that there is normally only 1 index.dat file and that's it.

So are the remaining 9 on my system are bad copies or backups or what?

Cindy

Last time I booted it, my Index Dat Remover found 29 files across 3
profiles, all in different locations and of varying sizes/content. I just
deleted them all.
11 were recreated empty on next boot and no errors reported.
It appears safe (for me anyway) to just routinely delete them.

 

[Jeff Layman]

index.dat is just a generic name for some file that holds the index of
the files in the directory that it is in.

the number of those files is growing with each IE version, as they are
keeping more and more things stored on the disk.
it started with only cookies but now there are lots of other things
stored.

There are 97 on my Win7HPx64 setup (about 6 months ago there were only 45,
but I have added an account since then). They take up about 50 Mb disk
space. I don't think they are simply an index of files in the folder they
are in, as they do not lose the information when those files are deleted (eg
temporary internet files) - they just seem to get bigger and bigger.

They are annoying difficult to erase with Windows utilities alone, but it
can be done. It would probably be easier to boot into linux and use that.

 

[Cat_in_awe]

I wonder how many "index.dat" files exist normally on a WinXP system.
I searched my system and found 10 (!).

See the following snapshot:

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3751/foundindexdatfiles.png

When I read about "index.dat" files on Internet I get the impression
that there is normally only 1 index.dat file and that's it.

So are the remaining 9 on my system are bad copies or backups or what?

Cindy

These files are useful and shouldn't be deleted as they index files on your
hard drive, making access much quicker. However, you can use CCleaner and
it will delete them and they will automatically be rebuilt from scratch.
One problem is that index.dat files never get any smaller, even if they
don't have anything to index (like after you've deleted your temporary
internet files.)