Advice on boot drive, system folder, and update "leftovers"

[David F. Schrader]

Where to submit this is query was a question. With a multitude of newsgroups deciding which one was the "right one" became a matter of making what I hope is a good guess. If it's wrong I hope someone will be kind enough to answer or tell me which group I need to try.

Over the last year or so I've installed a healthy number of "bug fixes," "services releases," and the first "Service Pack" to my machine which is running Windows XP Pro. Recently, during an update, XP has started to make noise that there is "insufficient disk space" on the "boot drive." It gives me the opportunity to clean up some space so that it can continue and so far I have been able to successfully finish the "upgrades."

I got some "free time" so I decided to try to do a better job of cleaning. I cleaned off some old software and that helped some. But during the process I found a large number of sub-directories in the *Windows* directory. They are all marked "Read-only" and "Hidden" and they all have names that contain what appears to be a reference to a Microsoft error report - Q8154383 together with some additional information.

I believe that they are the remnants of the installation of the service pack, and all of the bug fixes. There are 1836 files (136 folders) and they take up almost 330 MB.

My question is, can I safely remove them? Microsoft doesn't intend for users to remove them (if they did then the security problem they that they fixed would be put back) so is there a valid reason to keep them?

Just wondering.

David

 

[Delwin Lee [MSFT]]

Those are backup files created when you install patches and critical
updates.

--
Please reply in newsgroup.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



Where to submit this is query was a question. With a multitude of newsgroups
deciding which one was the "right one" became a matter of making what I hope
is a good guess. If it's wrong I hope someone will be kind enough to answer
or tell me which group I need to try.

Over the last year or so I've installed a healthy number of "bug fixes,"
"services releases," and the first "Service Pack" to my machine which is
running Windows XP Pro. Recently, during an update, XP has started to make
noise that there is "insufficient disk space" on the "boot drive." It gives
me the opportunity to clean up some space so that it can continue and so far
I have been able to successfully finish the "upgrades."

I got some "free time" so I decided to try to do a better job of cleaning. I
cleaned off some old software and that helped some. But during the process I
found a large number of sub-directories in the *Windows* directory. They are
all marked "Read-only" and "Hidden" and they all have names that contain
what appears to be a reference to a Microsoft error report - Q8154383
together with some additional information.

I believe that they are the remnants of the installation of the service
pack, and all of the bug fixes. There are 1836 files (136 folders) and they
take up almost 330 MB.

My question is, can I safely remove them? Microsoft doesn't intend for users
to remove them (if they did then the security problem they that they fixed
would be put back) so is there a valid reason to keep them?

Just wondering.

David

 

[David F. Schrader]

Thanks for replying. I thought as much.

Now, can someone tell me whether I can remove
some or all of them?

David