where are all those files?

[donald girod]

When I do a virus scan, the program finds about 170,000 files (and of
course the scan takes forever). If I check the properties of all the
folders listed on the hard drive (from "my computer"), I can account for
at most 50,000 files. I don't believe I am overlooking hidden stuff
since I have the system set to display hidden files, and I can see all
the stuff in the Windows folder for instance. But obviously I am
overlooking something. I am running SP2, which was installed on top of
the original SP1, and so there are lots of backup copies of things. But
clearly I am missing most of the stuff on the drive, and I wonder if I
really need 100,000 files that I can't find; also, I wonder if there is
some way to reduce the pile of stuff. I have to think that this is
slowing the system down. I have been on the verge of trying to
reinstall windows, but am daunted by the amount of effort it would take
to get all the drivers and stuff up to date. I am also not sure exactly
what is accomplished by reinstalling from the Dell disk.

I know that I sound sort of retarded. I'm not really, but I definitely
don't understand the rat's nest on this computer's hard drive.

The computer is a Dell Inspiron 8200, if that matters.

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

Have you tried doing a disk cleanup?
You probably have a lot ot temp files that need deleting.

 

[donald girod]

Have you tried doing a disk cleanup?
You probably have a lot ot temp files that need deleting.

ccleaner found about 200M of crap which it supposedly blew away, and the
virus scan found 180000 files AFTER ccleaner. So perhaps ccleaner
does not really get rid of anything, it just thrashes the disk for 90
minutes, or perhaps something else is going on. disk cleanup never
finds much (for instance, 1M of temporary internet files at the moment),
at least not much compared to the 180000.

The machine only has 7G space used on the disk; by comparison, my
desktop has 11G used, and 48000 files, all of which I can identify using
properties on the folders.

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

Hi, Donald,

Sorry to hear you are having problems with CCleaner, it usually does a nice
job cleaning up.

You might also double click Internet options in the control panel and get
rid of Cookies, History, and Files(temp files)

Another place to try is Search in the Start menu, typing : *.tmp and
*.dbx

highlite all the files listed and delete them.

Let me know if this helps.
Jerry

 

[donald girod]

Hi, Donald,

Sorry to hear you are having problems with CCleaner, it usually does a nice
job cleaning up.

You might also double click Internet options in the control panel and get
rid of Cookies, History, and Files(temp files)

Another place to try is Search in the Start menu, typing : *.tmp and
*.dbx

highlite all the files listed and delete them.

Let me know if this helps.
Jerry

I wouldn't blame ccleaner, it probably did what it was supposed to. I
think it is some other problem. Just as an aside, though, deleting
*.dbx is going to blow away all outlook express mailbox files, unless of
course this method doesn't find such files, in which case there are
probably lots of other files it doesn't find.

I would really like to find a file-listing utility that is as thorough
in what it finds as the average antivirus program. Such a thing must
exist...?

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

Maybe some one else has another good idea to help,
I have gone as far as I can,

Sorry,
Jerry

 

[Shenan Stanley]

<snipped thread>
View the whole thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...f8/dc3ca72c9ebb7271?tvc=2&q=#dc3ca72c9ebb7271

I wouldn't blame ccleaner, it probably did what it was supposed to.
I think it is some other problem. Just as an aside, though,
deleting *.dbx is going to blow away all outlook express mailbox
files, unless of course this method doesn't find such files, in
which case there are probably lots of other files it doesn't find.

I would really like to find a file-listing utility that is as
thorough in what it finds as the average antivirus program. Such a
thing must exist...?

You need to turn off hidden and system file hiding, etc.
(warning - you will see 'desktop.ini' files appear when you turn off system
file hiding.)

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
(You may want to turn this off on your system.. 3GB?!)

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

 

[Cooler Dude]

When I do a virus scan, the program finds about 170,000 files
(and of course the scan takes forever). If I check the
properties of all the folders listed on the hard drive (from
"my computer"), I can account for at most 50,000 files. I
don't believe I am overlooking hidden stuff since I have the
system set to display hidden files, and I can see all the stuff
in the Windows folder for instance. But obviously I am
overlooking something. I am running SP2, which was installed
on top of the original SP1, and so there are lots of backup
copies of things. But clearly I am missing most of the stuff
on the drive, and I wonder if I really need 100,000 files that
I can't find; also, I wonder if there is some way to reduce the
pile of stuff. I have to think that this is slowing the system
down. I have been on the verge of trying to reinstall windows,
but am daunted by the amount of effort it would take to get all
the drivers and stuff up to date. I am also not sure exactly
what is accomplished by reinstalling from the Dell disk.
I know that I sound sort of retarded. I'm not really, but I
definitely don't understand the rat's nest on this computer's
hard drive.
The computer is a Dell Inspiron 8200, if that matters.

Did YOUR file count include all the individual files contained
within each .zip, .cab, .rar or any other compressed/archive
files that you have?

 

[Hertz_Donut]

ccleaner found about 200M of crap which it supposedly blew away, and the
virus scan found 180000 files AFTER ccleaner. So perhaps ccleaner does
not really get rid of anything, it just thrashes the disk for 90 minutes,
or perhaps something else is going on. disk cleanup never finds much (for
instance, 1M of temporary internet files at the moment), at least not much
compared to the 180000.

The machine only has 7G space used on the disk; by comparison, my desktop
has 11G used, and 48000 files, all of which I can identify using
properties on the folders.

CCleaner is a total waste of time!

Honu

 

[Shenan Stanley]

CCleaner is a total waste of time!

I disagree and will continue recommending it.
I appreciate you sharing your opinion, although you have presented little to
back it up.

Where-as a search of these newsgroups alone will show people who have
recovered from a few MB to a couple of GB of space and as far as any type of
registry cleaning goes - regcleaner is probably the safest I have seen...
Although the benefit from doing such a thing is likely negligable and should
*always* be done with care. Its startup list and uninstall list are pretty
convenient as well.

 

[donald girod]

Did YOUR file count include all the individual files contained
within each .zip, .cab, .rar or any other compressed/archive
files that you have?

I learned from my brother that most antivirus programs in fact count
files inside compressed formats (.zip, .cab, etc), and this probably
accounts for why antivirus reports 180000 files and a normal count is
more like 50000. A dos-based count on the computer revealed around
50000, and this is what one would expect from checking directory sizes.
So I think I have resolved the issue. It simply bothered me that
there 130000 files on the computer that I could not see, and suggested
that something had to be radically wrong. It might be that I could blow
away some of the compressed files, but I doubt I would know what I was
doing.

 

[Cooler Dude]

I learned from my brother that most antivirus programs in fact
count files inside compressed formats (.zip, .cab, etc), and
this probably accounts for why antivirus reports 180000 files
and a normal count is more like 50000. A dos-based count on
the computer revealed around 50000, and this is what one would
expect from checking directory sizes. So I think I have
resolved the issue. It simply bothered me that there 130000
files on the computer that I could not see, and
suggested that something had to be radically wrong. It might
be that I could blow away some of the compressed files, but I
doubt I would know what I was doing.

I thought it might be that ;-) I had a similar query, i.e. why did
a DIR listing show so many files less than the number reported by
my AV/Spyware progs. A quick count of the content of some large
zip/cab files provided the answer.

Maybe you could move some/all of these compressed files to another
disk that you don't scan with your AV and retrieve any if you
require them?