hdmp files -- can I delete them?

P

PeterOli

About 20 percent of my harddrive is occupies with svchost.exe.Numbers.hdmp
files. They are located in c:\windows\pchealth\ErrorRep\UserDumps. They
appear to be old reports on irregular shuttdown. Is it okay to delete these
files?
 
G

Gerry

Peter

You can configure your to handle memory dumps in more than one way. If
these dumps are taking up so much space as well as deleting old one
change the setting. Start , Control Panel, System, StartUp and Recovery.
Under Write Deugging Information change to Small Memory Dump (64 kb).
Alternatively for a Full Memory Dump place a check in the Overwrite box
below.

Are you short of disk space? How large is your Windows partition and how
much free disk space is there?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
P

PeterOli

Thanks, Mark. I tried this, but Disk Cleanup does not remove these files from
the directory windows\pchealth\ErrorRep\UserDumps. So I want to know if I
can delete them from that directory, in which they go back 3 years to when I
bought the computer.
 
G

Gerry

Peter

It's a configurable feature in cCleaner.

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
P

PeterOli

Thanks, Gerry.

Small memory dump was already configured. Small Memory Dump disables the
overwrite check. So, if I configure Full Dump and check Overwrite, will just
one file be generated with each error. Or will a full dump generate a
gigantic file?

Still asking, can I delete the old .hdmp and (now have discovered) .mdmp
files in the PCHealth directory?

Yes, low on drive space -- like 10 percent free on a 60G drive. Wifey has
lots of photos.

Only Windows installed, so no partitions, I guess.
 
P

PeterOli

Dear Gerry,

Those options are in the pay version of CCleaner, I think. WindowWasher
does the same, too, I think. But my UserDump file has never been affected by
either.
 
G

Gerry

Peter

My version of cCleaner is freeware and has the option to delete Memory
Dumps. They keep updating cCleaner.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
G

Gerry

Peter

I would leave the Memory Dump setting as it is. A 64 kb file doesn't
make a significant difference to free space.

Some suggestions for increasing free disk space.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% 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.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.



--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
P

PeterOli

Thank you, again, Gerry. I will do all this. I still would like to know if
I can just delete the old hdmp files in PCHealth.
 
G

Gerry

Peter

You can manually delete files but it is far better to have a system to
do this at regular intervals. It is safer and far more effective.

It's a configurable feature in cCleaner.

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

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