Dustbuster

[Dave]

CCleaner missed 300+ Mb of crap? Too bad Dustbuster makes no record
as to what was done, it would be interesting to know what it removed.

BoB

One thing I noticed when I used it on a 98SE box was it took all the
UNinstall info out of the Windows directories..lots of mb's accumulate
there CCleaner and others don't touch that info. Up to you if you want
to keep that stuff.

Dave

 

[dansheen]

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 16:02:02 -0000, "Frank Bohan"
<[email protected]>
mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...




I use this util but new users should BE WARNED:
a) it never shows you what it's deleting - start it and it runs.
b) the first time it runs, it deletes ~500 megabytes of stuff (junk?)
c) it also empties the trash bin each time, some may not like that.

If it does remove something needed, will restoring the registry via
erunt, undo what was removed? I had a problem with ccleaner removing
something that required my using the word install disk to access that
software. Now I just set ccleaner to ignore word.

 

[jmatt]

Big question dansheen, when we are not to sure what is removed.

I would say yes & if a program needs reinstalling, so be it.

Here are 2 other ways of restoring the registry, depending on your
operating system.

========================================

Go back to a good copy of the registry.
Toggle F8 ( when, verifying DMI pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl
during bootup, depends on your computer.
Select, Safe mode Command prompt
After the C prompt, type > scanreg /restore
Follow the prompts and select a registry dated prior to the problems.

This article describes how to restore a backup copy of the Windows 98
or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) registry scanreg /restore
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q221/5/12.ASP&NoWebContent=1

Restore Operation Failed
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q220878
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt in Windows XP
(Q304449)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q304449

How to save / restore the W2K Registry
http://www.akadia.com/services/win_save_registry.html

=======================================

After you get it OK again.
To improve on the 5 days MS have on registry backups, use the Cabrest
system below & get 14
days.
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

For those that find the above site confusing, here is what to do.

Alter MaxBackupCopies from 5 to 14 as per instructions at above site or
it can be done this way.
Start > Find > Files or Folders, type scanr in the top space ( Named )
make sure the 3rd
space ( Look in ) is set to where your operating system is ( usually C
) & press Enter.
Right click on Scanreg ( C:Windows > configuration settings ) & click
on open & change from 5
to 14. Close & save.

Download the zipped copy of the Batch file from,
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/downloads/cabrest.zip

Unzip, copy & paste cabrest onto the top of C: in Windows Explorer.

Delete zip file, or save it on floppy, if you want it for others or the
future.

Print the instructions below & stick on your comp in front of you, so
when you have to go back to a good copy of the registry, you don't need
to search for them.

=====================================

Print this & stick it on the computer or in a very visable place,
preferably at eye level.

Toggle F8 ( when, verifying DMI pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl
during bootup, depends on your computer.

Select, Command prompt only ( NOT Safe mode Command prompt )

Type in cabrest & press Enter, keep answering > y & you will see a
table, which will allow you to select which CAB file to restore from.
So, for example, to restore from rb009 cab, you look at the table & see
09 corresponds to the letter j. You type j & Not the number. Follow
instructions.

Type win & press Enter ( or ctrl, alt, delete ) to exit.

If after following the instructions to Restore, things arn't still
working, go to an earlier date & try again.

Type win & press Enter ( or ctrl, alt, delete ) to exit.

=======================================

Try System Restore, I have had good results using this way or Safe
Mode, different to Last Known Good Configuration in Safe Mode.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx
System Restore is accessed the following way:

1. It's a good practice to shut down all other applications before
using System Restore, as it requires a full-system reboot to complete
the installation. Connecting to the internet is not required, however.
So shut all applications. Then click "Start."

2. Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
Then the program will load.
Here's a screen shot of the program-entry
screen:http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/60402485

Or,

If System Restore doesn't work in Normal Mode, it might work in Safe
Mode.
Toggle F8 or Press Ctrl ( depends on your comp ) during bootup ( just
before, verifying DMI pool, message comes on )
Select Safe Mode.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001060608000039
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315222&Product=winxp
http://www.whtvcable.com/virusremoval .htm
http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/60402485
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

 

[Doc]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

I have used this on about 50 comp's, never had a problem.

But ..... did the owners of those computers have problems later ?

 

[jmatt]

"But ..... did the owners of those computers have problems later ?"
Nope

 

[hummingbird]

If it does remove something needed, will restoring the registry via
erunt, undo what was removed?

I can't see how because ERUNT will restore the registry, not the files
and it's the latter which Dustbuster removes.
I have to say that although the 1st time I ran DB it removed ~550mb
of stuff, the machine still ran perfectly afterwards and still does.
It may be that it removes a pile of junk stuff left by Windows when
installing - temp files etc.

 

[bgoosh]

CCleaner missed 300+ Mb of crap? Too bad Dustbuster makes no record
as to what was done, it would be interesting to know what it removed.

BoB

Catching up after the holidays, this thread made me curious. I backed up
my system, ran Total Uninstall, ran DustBuster, and looked at the diffs in
TUN. On my XP Home system, it said it freed about 296MB; almost all the
space was in:

- Windows\Driver Cache\i386\driver.cab - about 63MB
- Windows\System32\DLLCache - everything deleted, maybe 25MB worth
- Windows\Temp - everything deleted; in my case there were two
major offenders, a data1.cab at 19MB, and a data2.cab at 194MB!!

Note that you could easily manually delete those items (or use custom
options of cleaners such as CCleaner), and get the freed-space benefits
without the unknown risks.

Two things bothered me about other stuff it deleted:
- Program Files\Palm\register.exe - implies it will delete register.exe
wherever found
- Some Windows\Help\*.chm files (FreeCell, NotePad, IE/Windows licenses),
but not other *.chm files

Other things it did that are probably OK for most people:
- Windows\Offline Web Pages - desktop.ini deleted; perhaps it would have
deleted any content as well, but I don't use IE
- Windows\pchealth - small logs deleted
- Windows\srchasst\chars\three *.acs files deleted, ~3MB
- Windows\System32 - files setup.bmp and webfldrs.msi, about
1.5MB; small log files in Config and Wbem directories;
readme.txt from Drivers directory.

It only seems to look at the C: drive.