whats happening to my HDD space?????

[Huzefa]

I was wondering what was happening to my HDD space, so I went about searching the entire HDD to find space by deleting useless files. Amazingly I found 766 Mb of space used in C:\Documents and Settings\hz\Local Settings\Temp and 395 Mb of spcae used in C:\WINDOWS\Temp . !!!!!! Also in my windows directory there are 100's of folders with the names of $hf_mig$ and $MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$ and $NtUninstallKB873339$ and $NtUninstallKB885836$ and so on and on............. again these folders contain 431 Mb of stuff ! so I estimate at least 1.5 Gb of space is being utilized by these files ........ NOW CAN I delete these files without harming my windows OS ???????? ANd just how are those folders being created ??????? And why does windows store so much stuff in C:\Documents and Settings\hz\Local Settings\Temp and in C:\WINDOWS\Temp ... I have not yet deleted any of these files or folders, not sure if any problem can be created if I do so..........................

Thnkx guys,
Huzefa.

 

[Anand_RF]

The $NTUninstal$ folders contain information to uninstall the windows updates that you install. I suggest you don't remove them.
The Local Settings\Temp folder gets emptied when you do a Clear temporary files from Internet options.

 

[Huzefa]

yeah that could be right I wont touch the $NTUninstal$ folders.... But what about folders with the names of $hf_mig$ and $MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$ and so on ??????????

 

[Pragadheesh]

I usually delete the contents in Temp folder inside Local Settings.I think there is no problem in deleting it .
Even i have $Uninstallkb.......... and about 70 folders like that. its total size iss 408 Mb.. is it of any use ? or can i delete it from the system. Wont it affect the normal functioning of the OS(XP SP2)?

 

[mediator]

HI......I suggest u dont touch th things u dont know about. Simply download "Steganos Internet Trace destructor". It will empty all the required folders, IE cache, history, temp files,swap files etc for u in one go. Trust me....its one of the best utilities I have ever used!

 

[aditya.shevade]

Is it happening because of the fact that the system restore of Windows is saving the files (configuration) in the system? It has an option for the amount of space that can be used for that matter. Check that. Even I am wondering why my lappy shows less space every 5 days???

 

[Huzefa]

hmmm Ok.. I deleted all of the files in the C:\Documents and Settings\hz\Local Settings\Temp and C:\WINDOWS\Temp . The space freed should have been approx 900 Mb yet I got only 384 Mb shown ........ I have not touched the $NTUninstal$ folders.... But what about folders with the names of $hf_mig$ and $MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$ ???

Huzefa.

 

[Rollercoaster]

Guys u can simplly delete all the $NTUninstall$ folders. they are uninstall data for hotfixes and updates thru automatic update service and service packs.

I dont think anyone uninstalls these hotfixex or do u?
I always delete them.

Another location u can empty is windows\system32\dllcache (it is a hidden folder) This folder contains extra files from the XP setup CD. These files are basically the drivers n stuff of all kinds of hardware and software u dont have installed. so then when u plugin a compatible new hardware the drivers are picked from here. If you delete these files the worst that will happen is when u add that hardwre/software then windows will ask for the 'windows XP setup cd'. I always delete this too. Because i keep a iso image on my hdd of my *licensed* windows XP CD. so i pop this iso into a virtual drive when needed.

And if u want to delete system restore files do that thru system restore itself, leave teh latest save point intact. this will free a lot of space.

So you can remove them. but as the wise always say - "At ur own risk".
__________
TIP: before doing this manual disk clean up you should always check "Hide protected operating system files" under folder options.
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Happy cleaning. Dont forget to wash hands afterwards

 

[Ramakrishnan]

In this connection you may try a freeware called "Dustbuster" which amazing recovers a lot of space by removing garbage files. I have found this little utity very good.

 

[slagad]

DO not touch the unistall information files go ahead and delete any thing in he TEMP and Temporary Internet files, no harm.

 

[aadipa]

If you don't know what files to delete, better use some software like Crap Cleaner to do it safely for you.