Cleaning unnecessary files off hard drive

[Guest]

I'm trying to clean up my hard drive...beyond what Microsoft's Disk Cleanup
will do. I notice scores of folders in my Windows Temp folder with names
"mcu1A.temp", or mcu1B, mcu1C, etc. May I just delete these folders? They
contain files named *.mcaf.

I've also read an article on CNN's website about cleaning hard drives. In
it, its says to search for and delete the following file types: ~*.*, _*.*,
*.??_, and *.??~. I understand the use of the asterisks in the search, but
what are these files and can I delete them>

Is there a decent article online telling you what to look for and what you
can safely delete when doing routine hard drive maintenance?

 

[frodo]

I'm trying to clean up my hard drive...beyond what Microsoft's Disk Cleanup
will do. I notice scores of folders in my Windows Temp folder with names
"mcu1A.temp", or mcu1B, mcu1C, etc. May I just delete these folders? They
contain files named *.mcaf.

after a reboot you should be able to delete almost everything in TEMP.
[there are 2 temps, \windows\temp, and the one held in your profile].

But, Disk Cleanup _IS_ already doing this for you.

I've also read an article on CNN's website about cleaning hard drives. In
it, its says to search for and delete the following file types: ~*.*, _*.*,
*.??_, and *.??~. I understand the use of the asterisks in the search, but
what are these files and can I delete them>

Is there a decent article online telling you what to look for and what you
can safely delete when doing routine hard drive maintenance?

Google is your friend, just do a search on your subject line, that will
lead you to several places that hold "temp" files that you can delete if
you want.

Additional Tip: Hotfix Backup Remover

XP can routinely keeps several gigibytes of stuff around that you could
remove if you're strapped for space, but because of todays large HD's it
chooses to keep it around, which is prudent (I suppose).

It is also possible that System Restore is using way more disk space than
is resonable, you should check it's size setting (under My Computer |
Proerties | System Restore tab] and reduce it from the default of 12% to
something closer to 1 GB. Again, Disk Cleanup can also delete older
restore points and free up some space - it's on the More Options tab.

Final Tip: do NOT remove $hf_mig$. Even tho it's real big and seems to
just hold copies of exisiting stuff, MS says you don't want to remove this
folder or bad things MIGHT happen.

 

[Gene K]

Get CCleaner from here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ . Stay
with the default removal choices and it will clean the junk up for you.
Gene K