Deleting temp files (ok to do)?

[Guest]

I went to clean up my c harddrive and found over 17 gig in this file folder
(C:\Documents and Settings\Main\Local Settings\Temp)

Is it safe to remove/delete everything in this folder (all folders,files
and sub folders)?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I went to clean up my c harddrive and found over 17 gig in this file folder
(C:\Documents and Settings\Main\Local Settings\Temp)

Is it safe to remove/delete everything in this folder (all folders,files
and sub folders)?

Yes, it is, as long as you leave the folder itself in place.

 

[Guest]

Ok, some will not allow me to delete them.

Also is this normal to have 17+ gig in temp folder?

I always delete temp files and local in IE Ithough it cleaned this up also,
why not?

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I can't tell why you should have a 17 GByte file in your
temp folder. It was created by something you ran on your
PC and I do not know what this might have been!

Reboot in Safe Mode to delete locked files.

IE does not delete files in the temp folder.

 

[Guest]

Also the following tool

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/pendmoves.mspx

Can be used to delete files that are in use without requiring to boot into
safe mode.

If you listed some of the filenames + size we might be able to advise on
what created them.

If you browsed to

C:\Documents and Settings\Main\Local Settings\

and right clicked Temp and clicked Search...

Then search for all files (inncluding hidden & system files) then sort by
file size to see what the largest ones are.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Also the following tool

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/pendmoves.mspx

Can be used to delete files that are in use without requiring to boot into
safe mode.

Nice tool!

 

[Poprivet]

Yes, it is, as long as you leave the folder itself in place.

Use Disk Cleanup in Accessories, System Tools I think it is.
Or delete them from Safe Mode. You cannot delete files that are in use, so
do a Restart and then try to delete them.
No, 17 Gig is ridiculous.

 

[Guest]

Ok here is the largest file when I do a search:

Photoshop Temp279888 13,954,720

some under this are 648,222 and 623,948

Any ideas why this would happen or how to fix it so it does not keep
happening?

Thanks

 

[Poprivet]

Ok here is the largest file when I do a search:

Photoshop Temp279888 13,954,720

some under this are 648,222 and 623,948

Any ideas why this would happen or how to fix it so it does not keep
happening?

Thanks

Quite a few things can cause them to be left behind. Those files are
normally deleted when a program closes, and others when the computer is
restarted or shut down. Each program that creates them is resonsible for
deleting them, whether it's a system process or a program you are using.
For some, just closing the file but not the application removes/deletes the
temporary files. Etcetera <g>.

Anytime anything gets hung up and has to be manually closed with End Task or
whatever, there WILL be files left behind. That's why it's important to not
just pull the plug on a computer; you have to let the applications close
themselves in an orderly fashion so they can do their housekeeping.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 99% of yours are/were created
from hung programs and/or turning off power to the computer without having
shut down first (as in using Task Manager to kill a program or the
computer).

So, get rid of all the temp files you can, and then watch for a week or so
to see if more are being formed even though you are exiting programs
correctly and shutting down/restarting the computer properly. If very many
do come back, then it's going to be a likely case for file corruption
someplace on the hard drive.

The easiest way to get rid of them is to do it right after a fresh boot, the
very first thing you do. Use Disk Cleanup to clean them out is the easiest
way. With that many files, it might take several minutes before Disk
Cleanup is ready to start the deletion process, so be patient. As you'll
see, it can clean up many different types of "chaff" on the drive. The
process of deletion may take a long time also.
Then, run Disk Cleanup again. If it still finds more than a few files to
delete, keep running it until it doesn't find anymore.
After deleting all those files would also be a good time to run Defrag on
the drive, even if it says it doesn't have to be done. There may be still
contiguous data but it might be spread all over the hard disk.
After the Defrag, run it one more time. With that kind of data spread,
it might take a couple of runs to straighten things out. When it whips thru
a defrag in just a couple minutes, you can pretty well figure the disk is
well defragmented.


HTH
Pop`

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

This is really a Photoshop question. I recommend you try
the Photoshop FAQs.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I went to clean up my c harddrive and found over 17 gig in this file
folder (C:\Documents and Settings\Main\Local Settings\Temp)

Is it safe to remove/delete everything in this folder (all
folders,files and sub folders)?

Yes, they can, and should be, deleted periodically.

The temp folder provides workspace for programs. Programs can create
temporary files there for their own temporary use. Each program should
delete all its temporary files when it closes, but for various reasons it
doesn't always happen (for example, if the program crashes, it never gets to
do this). That's why it's a good idea to periodically clean out anything
left there.

Also note that there are some program installations which work in two steps.
The first step concludes by writing temporary files and rebooting. The
second step starts automatically after rebooting and needs to find those
files there (and then deletes them when it's done).

Other than doing it automatically when rebooting (that would interfere with
installations like the kind I described), it's always safe to delete the
contents of the temp folder. Because it's safe to delete any temp files that
aren't open and in use by an application, and since Windows won't let you
delete open files, it's safe to (try to) delete them at any time. If any
fail to delete because they're open, they'll either be deleted automatically
when the app using them closes, or you'll get them the next time you delete
manually.