Event Logs

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Guest

I have a 40G HD with 8G remaining diskspace. I am trying to free up some
additional space and noticed several .log and .tmp files in the C:\Windows
folder. Are these files safe to delete? or should they remain?
 
TMP files *may* be TEMPLATE files, not TEMP files. Log files are always
useful. Note that with very rare exceptions, neither are going to be very
large. Infinitesimal gains in free space can be expected. You need a LOT
more free space than those files are going to give you. Suggest you get a
new hard drive and move all your personal files there. HDs are cheap.
 
Gary

To increase you free space on your XP partition select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options,
System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore points?
Restore points can be quite large.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit.
When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Another default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary
internet files especially if you do not store offline copies on disk.
The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files,
Settings to make the change. At the same time look at the number of
days history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
 
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately somebody has once again answered a
question I did not ask about. Although, it was useful information and had
been completed when I purchased my PC. I was asking about ".log" and ".tmp"
files, specifically. I have been reading the postings and several people had
asked the same question. And, you know what? They received pretty much the
same answer.

I queried my PC to locate all the ".log" files on the same day I posted my
question. I don't how many files were located. But, it was numerous. I
downloaded CCleaner as several people recommended. I then ran another query
on my PC and still found 150".log" files. Some more than 1M in size, one as
big as 5M.

My question that I pose to this newsgroup, can these ".LOG" (only) files be
safely deleted? This is the only attempt I am currently doing to free up
space on my computer.

Thank you for your help.

Gary
 
Gary

Gary Terhune answered your question. I offered potentially more
profitable ways to free up disk space.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
While you are gaining next to nothing, yes, you can delete them -- if
they'll let you. But you will be getting rid of potentially useful, even
critical information, and may cause "memory loss" for certain applications.
They are NOT garbage, at least not by definition. Most of the ones that ARE
safe to delete are less than 10KB.

Run a Search for *.log files. When the search is finished, press Ctrl-A,
then File>Properties. When I do that on mine, I have 386 LOG files, with the
largest one just over 4MB and half a dozen around 1MB, for a total of 29MB.

You really want to take a chance on messing something up in order to gain a
pitiful 29MB?
 
Yes, I realize there isn't much to gain by deleting the .log files. It just
seems there are so many of them and I don't know the importance of all these
..log files. I assumed they were used to log instances of downloads and
installs. I'm just your average user. I know just enough to get myself into
trouble, which I don't want to do.

Thanks
 
Gary said:
Yes, I realize there isn't much to gain by deleting the .log files. It just
seems there are so many of them and I don't know the importance of all these
.log files.
Click to expand...

They are totally UNimportant. Since they take up so little space on
your hard drive that they're really not worth worrying about, you
should disregard them.

BUT... since you seem obsessed with them, feel free to delete them.
 
I would NOT go so far as to say that LOG files are totally UNimportant. I'm
betting that there are more than a few LOG files out there that play an
active role in the operation of apps. Just like with TMP files and others,
there's no blanket rule that says they're disposable.
 
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