Junk Files

[Guest]

Getting a lot of clutter and low disk space, presumably from junk files. I
use CCleaner, but there are still too many files. Perhaps I can delete
restore points? Do they take a lot of space? I am more than happy to delete
them, if someone can tell me specifically how to do so.

Thanks

 

[Gerry Cornell]

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also select Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk cleanUp, More Options, System Restore
and remove all but the latest System Restore point. Whenever you
remove redundant files you should always run Disk Defragmenter by
selecting Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
Defragmenter.

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.

If your hard 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.

Another default setting on a large drive 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. On your
drive 5% 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%.


--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[philo]

Getting a lot of clutter and low disk space, presumably from junk files. I
use CCleaner, but there are still too many files. Perhaps I can delete
restore points? Do they take a lot of space? I am more than happy to delete
them, if someone can tell me specifically how to do so.

By default, system restore uses quite a large chunk of HD space...

if it's set up as 12% or so you can reduce it down to maybe 4% if you want.

also, if you don;t use hibernation you can disable that

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

By default, system restore uses quite a large chunk of HD space...

Yes.


if it's set up as 12% or so you can reduce it down to maybe 4% if
you want.

But I don't think any particular percentage--4% or other--is appropriate for
everyone. From a practical standpoint, trying to use System Restore to go
back more than a week, or at most two, seldom works because if you restored
back that far, the operating system would likely be out of synch with other
files on the drive. I recommend lowering it whatever percentage gives you
two weeks worth of restore points, and that's usually around 1-2GB or so.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

The Indexing Service can also take up a lot of disk space. Take a look at
"Why is the System Volume Information folder so large?" on the following
page to disable the Indexing Service.

Tips Fixes & FAQs
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/tips.html

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[philo]

But I don't think any particular percentage--4% or other--is appropriate for
everyone. From a practical standpoint, trying to use System Restore to go
back more than a week, or at most two, seldom works because if you restored
back that far, the operating system would likely be out of synch with other
files on the drive. I recommend lowering it whatever percentage gives you
two weeks worth of restore points, and that's usually around 1-2GB or so.

True...
the 4% number I gave has no real significance...
any percentage that gets it down to a gig or two should be sufficient

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

True...
the 4% number I gave has no real significance...
any percentage that gets it down to a gig or two should be sufficient

Good, glad we agree.