Too many files! scandisk, uninstall, temp files!

[mm]

Thanks for all the help in the past and I hope you can help me again.

I have too many files! scandisk, uninstall, temp files!

I only instealled XP about 2 months ago, and already
I have I think almost a gigabyte in files I don't need.

Almost all are dated in May or June, and now it is July 16

Scandisk
Scandisk creates folders like found.001 etc. when it runs, but the
folder attributes are "hsd"! Hidden, system, and what does d mean?

Why are they hidden? I thought I was supposed to look at them. Isn't
the reason these folders and files are created (instead of just
deleting the unattached? clusters), is so that I can look at them and
decide if I want to save them, if I want to rename them to what they
were originally??? (In windows 3.1 or 98, I used to find missing
files, files that were lost in crashes, in .chk files.)

Why are they called system files? I thought I was suposed to look at
them and delete them if I didn't want them. May I delete them? (I
know how to change attributes if necessqary to allow me to do so.)

Uninstall
I have 83 folders, 3 with names like $NtServicePackUninstall$
and 75 with names like $NtUninstallKB842773$
and 5 with similar names, starting with $
and each of them seem to contain subfolders and files millions of
bytes long, at least 500 Megabyte total. They have attibutes h and d.
Can they all be deleted?

I know in win98 there were uninstall files, but they were only one
rather short file per program (maybe 100 lines long) and they weren't
at the root level of the Windows folder. They were in some folder I
rarely opened. Now I see them all the time, and I have to scroll
through 4 pages of these folders to get to folders that relate to
running windows. Can I delete them? Will I be unable to uninstall
the related programs if I do?

(I"m never going to uninstall a service pack or a KB item anyhow,
right?, since everything is working well for weeks now.)

Temp files
Except for four or five crashes early on (right after I first
installed windowsXP, SP 2 and 3, and after I then installed IE7) I
have always terminated windows normally. Yet I my personal
Documents&Ssettings/personal/LocalSettings/temp, I have 60 folders
including one each from the first 9 days of July, one from yesterday,
and two from today! Can I delete all the ones except today's and
yesterday's???

There are also hundreds of individual files. Why so many? I deleted
most of these, except for today's, but some have attributes h or r and
they didn't delete. I don't remmeber temp files having h or r
attributes in win98. Am I just forgetting things?? The temp files
have the same attributes as they will when they are installed
somewhere?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Jose]

Thanks for all the help in the past and I hope you can help me again.

I have too many files!  scandisk, uninstall, temp files!

I only instealled XP about 2 months ago, and already
I have I think almost a gigabyte in files I don't need.

Almost all are dated in May or June, and now it is July 16

Scandisk
Scandisk creates folders like found.001 etc. when it runs, but the
folder attributes are "hsd"!  Hidden, system, and what does d mean?

Why are they hidden?  I thought I was supposed to look at them. Isn't
the reason these folders and files are created (instead of just
deleting the unattached? clusters), is so that I can look at them and
decide if I want to save them, if I want to rename them to what they
were originally???   (In windows 3.1 or 98, I used to find missing
files, files that were lost in crashes, in .chk files.)  

Why are they called system files? I thought I was suposed to look at
them and delete them if I didn't want them.  May I delete them?    (I
know how to change attributes if necessqary to allow me to do so.)

Uninstall
I have 83 folders, 3 with names like $NtServicePackUninstall$
              and 75 with names like $NtUninstallKB842773$
              and 5 with similar names, starting with $
and each of them seem to contain subfolders and files millions of
bytes long, at least 500 Megabyte total.  They have attibutes h and d.
Can they all be deleted?

I know in win98 there were uninstall files, but they were only one
rather short file per program (maybe 100 lines long) and they weren't
at the root level of the Windows folder. They were in some folder I
rarely opened. Now I see them all the time, and I have to scroll
through 4 pages of these folders to get to folders that relate to
running windows.  Can I delete them?  Will I be unable to uninstall
the related programs if I do?    

(I"m never going to uninstall a service pack or a KB item anyhow,
right?, since everything is working well for weeks now.)

Temp files
Except for four or five crashes early on (right after I first
installed windowsXP, SP 2 and 3, and after I then installed IE7) I
have always terminated windows normally.   Yet I my personal
Documents&Ssettings/personal/LocalSettings/temp, I have 60 folders
including one each from the first 9 days of July, one from yesterday,
and two from today!  Can I delete all the ones except today's and
yesterday's???

There are also hundreds of individual files.  Why so many?  I deleted
most of these, except for today's, but some have attributes h or r and
they didn't delete.  I don't remmeber temp files having h or r
attributes in win98.  Am I just forgetting things??  The temp files
have the same attributes as they will when they are installed
somewhere?

Thanks a lot.

Wow.

First, you need to climb out of the Win9X and Windows 3.X hole. Fine
products in their day, but this is a newer day (and getting older by
the minute).

Not understanding how a product works and thinking it is working
incorrectly I think is part of your issue.

Scandisk? Where do you get that?

Uninstall folders? Yours sounds about average and you can certainly
delete just about anything you want. You might regret is later though
if you delete stuff just because you don't understand what it is, but
yeah - you asked "can they all be deleted?" The answer to your
question is: yes they can. Maybe you need to ask a better question.

There is stuff in your personal temp folder every day? Me too! But
it is only 1/10000 of my hard disk space and I have never deleted
anything from there by hand. Some of my stuff goes back to June!

Calm down a bit, ask questions that make sense and you will get good
answers.

 

[JS]

Then use Windows 'Disk Cleanup' to create more space on your C: drive.
Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

Also take a look at CCleaner as a tool to remove Internet history info,
cookies, temp files, auto complete and other junk.
Note that when CCleaner is first installed most if not all the options
are checked which is far too aggressive. So I recommend unchecking
all the items listed in 'Applications' tab and in the 'Windows' tab
selectively place a check mark for only those options that are of some
value in increasing the amount of free space on your PC.
The 'Analyze' button allows you preview (without actually deleting)
what and how much hard drive space you will get back.
Also available is customization, see Options/Custom to add any
other/additional folders you want files deleted from.
http://www.ccleaner.com/

If you recently installed Windows XP Service Pack 3:
Look for an odd folder name which is located here
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\cf8ec753e88561d..........\
Note: the apparent random set of letter and number may vary from my
example above but whatever the name is, it will be more than
600MB in size and can be safely deleted.
You may also see a number of other folders or files located in the:
C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ directory
They also can be deleted.

You can also free up more disk space by reducing
the number of 'System Restore' points:
Select Start/Control Panel/System, then in the System Properties window
click on the System Restore tab.
Next select the drive letter where Windows is installed (usually C,
Then click on the Setting button
Now in the Drive Settings window move the Disk space usage slider to the
left to reduce the amount of drive space System Restore points will use.
This will remove some of the older restore points and free up some space.

Disable Hibernation and delete hiberfil.sys file (If you have it enabled):
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...sys-hibernation-file-in-windows-xp-and-vista/
and:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/hibernate.mspx
and: http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html

If you are using IE7 and then installed SP3 read the info below.
IE7 users will find the folders listed below on their hard drive:
$NtServicePackUninstallIDNMitigationAPIs$
$NtServicePackUninstallNLSDownlevelMapping$
They are needed to uninstall IE7. However, if you installed IE7 and
then installed XP SP3 you can no longer uninstall IE7 and these
folders can also be deleted.

Next if you still need more space:
Remove the files used to uninstall updates to Windows
These folders and associated files in these folders are safe to remove,
however once deleted you will no longer be able to un-install a patch or
update that was associated with the deleted folder/files.
I would keep the most recent set (last two months just in case) of folders
and delete the older updates.
As a safety net I burned these folders to a CD before deleting them.
These files are located in the Windows folder and have folder names
like $NtUninstallKBXXXXXX$.
They are hidden folders so enable viewing of hidden files in Windows
Explorer.
Warning: One folder you should not delete is: $hf_mig$
Also See the following web pages on this issue:
http://www.pagestart.com/ntuninstall.html
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

You can reduce the size of the Internet Explorer Disk Cache:
How and Why to Clear Your Cache:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/customizing/clearcache.mspx
Just follow the instructions but instead of increasing the size
(as stated in the article) decrease it.

Finally: Check the Recycle Bin one more time and empty it
if necessary as some of those files you deleted in the steps
mentioned above may find there way into the recycle bin.

 

[mm]

Wow.

First, you need to climb out of the Win9X and Windows 3.X hole. Fine
products in their day, but this is a newer day (and getting older by
the minute).

Not understanding how a product works and thinking it is working
incorrectly I think is part of your issue.

Scandisk? Where do you get that?

Well XP runs some program after a crash, that finds clusters that
aren't assigned to file names. If it's not called scandisk, it's a
lot like scandisk. It even names the files it writes with the same
name, even if it doesn't put them in exactly the same directory as
win98 does.

Uninstall folders? Yours sounds about average and you can certainly
delete just about anything you want. You might regret is later though
if you delete stuff just because you don't understand what it is, but
yeah - you asked "can they all be deleted?" The answer to your
question is: yes they can. Maybe you need to ask a better question.

So I gather you agree that I'll never need the files that uninstall
service packs.

I'll put the other files in a subdirectory so I don't have to see
them. If I ever need one, I'll put it back where it was if necessary.

Maybe now that I have JPSoft, Take Command List, I'll look inside them
and figure out which ones I will never use at all.

There is stuff in your personal temp folder every day? Me too! But
it is only 1/10000 of my hard disk space and I have never deleted
anything from there by hand. Some of my stuff goes back to June!

If it doesnt' get deleted when Windows is done with it, and you don't
run a cleanup program, it will never get deleted.

Calm down a bit, ask questions that make sense and you will get good
answers.

LOL Where *are* my tranquilizers.

 

[JS]

You're welcome.

 

[Richard]

news:e6i%[email protected]...

If you are using IE7 and then installed SP3 read the info below.
IE7 users will find the folders listed below on their hard drive:
$NtServicePackUninstallIDNMitigationAPIs$
$NtServicePackUninstallNLSDownlevelMapping$
They are needed to uninstall IE7. However, if you installed IE7 and
then installed XP SP3 you can no longer uninstall IE7 and these
folders can also be deleted.

Hi "JS",

In fact you _can_ uninstall IE7, but have to uninstall SP3 first. Likewise
if SP3 is installed after IE8, you would need to uninstall SP3 before
uninstalling IE8. Of course anyone with a successful install of those things
and that is perfectly satisfied with later IE versions could delete the
uninstall files. However, I prefer the idea of moving the $ files to
removable media for possible later use.

IEBlog: IE and Windows XP Service Pack 3
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/05/05/ie-and-xpsp3.aspx

XP SP3 Post Installation Cleanup
http://www.aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=33827

Warning: One folder you should not delete is: $hf_mig$

(And $jf_mig$ should not be deleted either.

FWIW. --Richard

 

[Richard]

news:e6i%[email protected]...

If you are using IE7 and then installed SP3 read the info below.
IE7 users will find the folders listed below on their hard drive:
$NtServicePackUninstallIDNMitigationAPIs$
$NtServicePackUninstallNLSDownlevelMapping$
They are needed to uninstall IE7. However, if you installed IE7 and
then installed XP SP3 you can no longer uninstall IE7 and these
folders can also be deleted.

Hi "JS",

In fact you _can_ uninstall IE7, but have to uninstall SP3 first. Likewise
if SP3 is installed after IE8, you would need to uninstall SP3 before
uninstalling IE8. Of course anyone with a successful install of those things
and that is perfectly satisfied with later IE versions could delete the
uninstall files. However, I prefer the idea of moving the $ files to
removable media for possible later use.

IEBlog: IE and Windows XP Service Pack 3
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/05/05/ie-and-xpsp3.aspx

XP SP3 Post Installation Cleanup
http://www.aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=33827

Warning: One folder you should not delete is: $hf_mig$

(And $jf_mig$ should not be deleted either.

FWIW. --Richard

 

[JS]

Yes, I know about the SP3 uninstall work around,
thank for reminding me.

Also there is a way to delete at least some of the files
and subfolders in the $hf_mig$ folder.

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks for all the help in the past and I hope you can help me again.

I have too many files!  scandisk, uninstall, temp files!

I only instealled XP about 2 months ago, and already
I have I think almost a gigabyte in files I don't need.

Almost all are dated in May or June, and now it is July 16

Scandisk
Scandisk creates folders like found.001 etc. when it runs, but the
folder attributes are "hsd"!  Hidden, system, and what does d mean?

Why are they hidden?  I thought I was supposed to look at them. Isn't
the reason these folders and files are created (instead of just
deleting the unattached? clusters), is so that I can look at them and
decide if I want to save them, if I want to rename them to what they
were originally???   (In windows 3.1 or 98, I used to find missing
files, files that were lost in crashes, in .chk files.)  

Why are they called system files? I thought I was suposed to look at
them and delete them if I didn't want them.  May I delete them?    (I
know how to change attributes if necessqary to allow me to do so.)

Uninstall
I have 83 folders, 3 with names like $NtServicePackUninstall$
              and 75 with names like $NtUninstallKB842773$
              and 5 with similar names, starting with $
and each of them seem to contain subfolders and files millions of
bytes long, at least 500 Megabyte total.  They have attibutes h and d.
Can they all be deleted?

I know in win98 there were uninstall files, but they were only one
rather short file per program (maybe 100 lines long) and they weren't
at the root level of the Windows folder. They were in some folder I
rarely opened. Now I see them all the time, and I have to scroll
through 4 pages of these folders to get to folders that relate to
running windows.  Can I delete them?  Will I be unable to uninstall
the related programs if I do?    

(I"m never going to uninstall a service pack or a KB item anyhow,
right?, since everything is working well for weeks now.)

Temp files
Except for four or five crashes early on (right after I first
installed windowsXP, SP 2 and 3, and after I then installed IE7) I
have always terminated windows normally.   Yet I my personal
Documents&Ssettings/personal/LocalSettings/temp, I have 60 folders
including one each from the first 9 days of July, one from yesterday,
and two from today!  Can I delete all the ones except today's and
yesterday's???

There are also hundreds of individual files.  Why so many?  I deleted
most of these, except for today's, but some have attributes h or r and
they didn't delete.  I don't remmeber temp files having h or r
attributes in win98.  Am I just forgetting things??  The temp files
have the same attributes as they will when they are installed
somewhere?

Thanks a lot.

If CHKDISK is finding "lost" file then you have a bigger problem than
too many files.
Your system is failing as it should not have lost files that often.

 

[JS]

The temp file in user now has more than 1,5 GB of tempfiles.
It is impossible to delete them
I can only delete up to 10 max.
Otherwise the explorer is blocked.
I have tried EasyClean
I have tried deleting in all modes.

Who can help?

Take a look at CCleaner as a tool to remove Internet history info,
cookies, temp files, auto complete and other junk.

Note that when CCleaner is first installed most if not all the options
are checked which is far too aggressive. So I recommend unchecking
all the items listed in 'Applications' tab and in the 'Windows' tab
selectively place a check mark for only those options that are of some
value in increasing the amount of free space on your PC.

The 'Analyze' button allows you preview (without actually deleting)
what and how much hard drive space you will get back.

Also available is customization, see Options/Custom to add any
other/additional folders you want files deleted from.

http://www.ccleaner.com/