Are These Files Safe to Delete?

[Bob Felton]

Windows 2000 Server with SP4.

System partition is 4GB in size. Yesterday, while printing some large
files, several services, including print spooler, stopped due to free
disk space getting too low. I moved the print spooler folder to
another partition with lots of free space to resolve the issue.
However, I would like to free up as much space on the system partition
as possible. I found several folders that look like their contents
can be safely removed but I would like assurances my suspicion is
correct. The folders are:

c:\winnit\temp
c:\winnt\ServicePackFiles
c:\winnt\$ServicePackUninstall$

Tnx!

 

[dcdon]

It's not going to do anything detrimental to the operation of your computer. If it were mine,
I would let 30 days elapse after any Service Pack, and 15 days for any hotpatch, just to know
that there is not a good reason to uninstall. There are plenty of files to delete in the OS,
if you like, but will they hurt or help in speed of the OS? Almost all will not increase the
speed and the amount of space they save becomes an issue only after archives and backup files
begin to encroach on the partition or full drive capacity.

And 4gigs is cutting it a shade close. You can move your pagefile.sys over to the other
partition, but it slows the speed somewhat. The ideal is to have a separate HDD to move
Virtual memory. That will actually speed you up somewhat.

One trick that can be used, when you are not sure about some files or folders is to rename
them. I usually delete the dot in the file name, and add dot-old (.old). If after some time
there is no complaining, I search for *.old and nukem then. Easy enough to find and remember
the extension if need be.

One thing to consider, when asking for advice is to consider the source. Most of the care
givers in this NG are pretty right on, and if they are not, well let's say it is self
policing. You can also consider uninstalling some applications not used often, since it only
takes, say, 3 minutes to install most. and you can do the usual with cookies and temp.
internet files.

Nuf! Good Luck, and next time you'll know to give about twice the space you think is adequate
to you system/apps partition.


good computing,
don
------------







Windows 2000 Server with SP4.

System partition is 4GB in size. Yesterday, while printing some large
files, several services, including print spooler, stopped due to free
disk space getting too low. I moved the print spooler folder to
another partition with lots of free space to resolve the issue.
However, I would like to free up as much space on the system partition
as possible. I found several folders that look like their contents
can be safely removed but I would like assurances my suspicion is
correct. The folders are:

c:\winnit\temp
c:\winnt\ServicePackFiles
c:\winnt\$ServicePackUninstall$

Tnx!

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

Windows 2000 Server with SP4.

System partition is 4GB in size. Yesterday, while printing some large
files, several services, including print spooler, stopped due to free
disk space getting too low. I moved the print spooler folder to
another partition with lots of free space to resolve the issue.
However, I would like to free up as much space on the system partition
as possible. I found several folders that look like their contents
can be safely removed but I would like assurances my suspicion is
correct. The folders are:

c:\winnit\temp

If you mean c:\winnt\temp, yes, it should be safe to delete the content in this
one.

c:\winnt\ServicePackFiles

Do NOT delete this one, it is the folder that the OS fetches files from when
you install optional components. This is also the folder that the Windows File
Protection uses to obtain system files from when a rough installation has
degraded files.

c:\winnt\$ServicePackUninstall$

This one you can delete, but you will not be able to uninstall SP4 any more
(but if you back it up to a CD or something before you delete it, you can copy
it back if you need to uninstall SP4)

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

It's not going to do anything detrimental to the operation of your computer.

Deleting c:\winnt\ServicePackFiles is not what I would recommend (see my other post for it's
use)...

 

[dcdon]

Musta been in a hurry...
Sorry about that

don
--------

It's not going to do anything detrimental to the operation of your computer.

Deleting c:\winnt\ServicePackFiles is not what I would recommend (see my other post for it's
use)...

 

[Bob Felton]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I did mean c:\winnt\temp.

 

[Bob Felton]

Thanks for your response. After I moved some files I placed on the
system partition (I always place a copy of the CDROM i386 folder onto
the system partition) and the print queues to the free partition, I
now have 976MB of free space on the system partition.

The machine is for server (Windows domain controller) use only, so it
doesn't have any user type applications installed nor is it used as a
user workstation. The machine has a second HDD which is used for
"public" use.