Recycler: Do I need it?

[PaulFXH]

Looking around my C: drive for where I can retrieve a little space and
notice that my Recycler folder has 3 GB of stuff. According to the
tool tip, these are files that I have deleted.
Then why are they still there taking up so much space when I have
emptied the recycle bins in all of the accounts on this computer?
Can I, and is it safe to, delete these sub-folders in Recycler?

Thanks
Paul

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

How large is your hard drive? Is the hard drive formatted as FAT32 or
NTFS? Right click on your C drive in Windows and select Properties to
get this information. Do you have more than one hard drive or
partition?

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[PaulFXH]

Hi Gerry

How large is your hard drive?
80GB

Is the hard drive formatted as FAT32 or
NTFS?

The C: partition where WinXP is, is formatted NTFS.

Right click on your C drive in Windows and select Properties to
get this information. Do you have more than one hard drive or
partition?

Yes, I have eight (8) partitions on this drive with five (5) of being
devoted to Linux.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

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.

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. System Restore should not be set to monitor other partitions.

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.

If your C 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Looking around my C: drive for where I can retrieve a little space and
notice that my Recycler folder has 3 GB of stuff. According to the
tool tip, these are files that I have deleted.
Then why are they still there taking up so much space when I have
emptied the recycle bins in all of the accounts on this computer?
Can I, and is it safe to, delete these sub-folders in Recycler?

Thanks
Paul

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page you've ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools >
Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java >
Temporary Internet Files > Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. (Your
Recyler folder) By default, this takes up to 10% of your hard drive
capacity. On today's large hard drives, this is tremendously wasteful.
It can be set to a lower limit by right-clicking the desktop Receycle
Bin icon, selecting Properties, and using the slider bar to lower the
maximum size to something more reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more
than enough space.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[PaulFXH]

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page you've ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools >
Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java >
Temporary Internet Files > Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. (Your
Recyler folder) By default, this takes up to 10% of your hard drive
capacity. On today's large hard drives, this is tremendously wasteful.
It can be set to a lower limit by right-clicking the desktop Receycle
Bin icon, selecting Properties, and using the slider bar to lower the
maximum size to something more reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more
than enough space.

Thanks to Bruce and Gerry for the tips. Applying these I've been able
to get back almost 6 GB of space. This is quite a lot for me as my
Windows partition is only 30 GB.

Thanks again and best wishes
Paul