can I delete ALL USERS folder?

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Guest

Hello again,

My laptop only has a small hard drive (60gb) so I try to keep it relatively
free. Lately it has crept up to 75% full.

I notice that the ALL USERS folder records itself as over 17GB, yet when I
open it, it is almost empty and the sum total of all it's folders is under
1GB.

The laptop always logs to the ME folder and this is the folder I always use.

How can I find (and delete) all this extra bulk on my hard drive?

Apologies in advance for lack of technical reference, hope my question makes
sense?

XP sp2 - AMD 64 - Presario laptop - otherwise clean and healthy. Ulikeits
operator.

many thanks, SH
 
'shoulderhead' wrote:
| Hello again,
|
| My laptop only has a small hard drive (60gb) so I try to keep it
relatively
| free. Lately it has crept up to 75% full.
|
| I notice that the ALL USERS folder records itself as over 17GB, yet when I
| open it, it is almost empty and the sum total of all it's folders is under
| 1GB.
|
| The laptop always logs to the ME folder and this is the folder I always
use.
|
| How can I find (and delete) all this extra bulk on my hard drive?
|
| Apologies in advance for lack of technical reference, hope my question
makes
| sense?
_____

What is an ME folder? Do you have a lot of shared media files (iTunes,
Napster?) I can't think of any other reason C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users could get that large. If this is the case then you probably want to
keep those files.

What you should do is look in the subfolders within C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users and find out what subfolders contain a lot of data, then
examine the type file and content. Then, if you still need help, post this
additional information in the same thread (DO NOT start a new thread; just
add you reply to my post.

At any rate, a 75% full 60 GByte hard drive still leaves 15 Bytes free.
That is plenty unless you plan to add hundreds of hours of music, thousands
of still images, several hour long video recordings, or a half-dozen very
large game installations.

By the way, if you previously posted, then 'Hello again,' doesn't really
connect to that previous post, and hardly anyone will bother to look for
your previous post.

Phil Weldon

| Hello again,
|
| My laptop only has a small hard drive (60gb) so I try to keep it
relatively
| free. Lately it has crept up to 75% full.
|
| I notice that the ALL USERS folder records itself as over 17GB, yet when I
| open it, it is almost empty and the sum total of all it's folders is under
| 1GB.
|
| The laptop always logs to the ME folder and this is the folder I always
use.
|
| How can I find (and delete) all this extra bulk on my hard drive?
|
| Apologies in advance for lack of technical reference, hope my question
makes
| sense?
|
| XP sp2 - AMD 64 - Presario laptop - otherwise clean and healthy. Ulikeits
| operator.
|
| many thanks, SH
|
|
 
Phil Weldon said:
'shoulderhead' wrote:
| Hello again,
|
| My laptop only has a small hard drive (60gb) so I try to keep it
relatively
| free. Lately it has crept up to 75% full.
|
| I notice that the ALL USERS folder records itself as over 17GB, yet when
I
| open it, it is almost empty and the sum total of all it's folders is
under
| 1GB.
|
| The laptop always logs to the ME folder and this is the folder I always
use.
|
| How can I find (and delete) all this extra bulk on my hard drive?
|
| Apologies in advance for lack of technical reference, hope my question
makes
| sense?
_____

What is an ME folder? Do you have a lot of shared media files (iTunes,
Napster?) I can't think of any other reason C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users could get that large. If this is the case then you probably want to
keep those files.

What you should do is look in the subfolders within C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users and find out what subfolders contain a lot of data,
then
examine the type file and content. Then, if you still need help, post
this
additional information in the same thread (DO NOT start a new thread; just
add you reply to my post.

At any rate, a 75% full 60 GByte hard drive still leaves 15 Bytes free.
That is plenty unless you plan to add hundreds of hours of music,
thousands
of still images, several hour long video recordings, or a half-dozen very
large game installations.

By the way, if you previously posted, then 'Hello again,' doesn't really
connect to that previous post, and hardly anyone will bother to look for
your previous post.

Phil Weldon

| Hello again,
|
| My laptop only has a small hard drive (60gb) so I try to keep it
relatively
| free. Lately it has crept up to 75% full.
|
| I notice that the ALL USERS folder records itself as over 17GB, yet when
I
| open it, it is almost empty and the sum total of all it's folders is
under
| 1GB.
|
| The laptop always logs to the ME folder and this is the folder I always
use.
|
| How can I find (and delete) all this extra bulk on my hard drive?
|
| Apologies in advance for lack of technical reference, hope my question
makes
| sense?
|
| XP sp2 - AMD 64 - Presario laptop - otherwise clean and healthy.
Ulikeits
| operator.
|
| many thanks, SH
|
|
Click to expand...
It would be a good idea to enable 'show hidden files" and "show system
files". There ought not to be much of either kind in that folder.

Is this folder one of those which cannot be removed?

This laptop also has a 60GB drive, but it is way less that 50% full.

Jim
 
have a look at programms you have installed
control panel and add or remove programs. Could be a lot of junk on start
menu and all programs.
 
Hello,

Many thanks for your suggestions and advice, I'm working through them and
will report back.

The ME folder: If I click MY COMPUTER/LOCAL DISC C/DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS -
I end up with two folders ALL USERS and ME. I think that it is a default log
on which came with this laptop. All the work I do or anything I download is
stored in the ME folder.

Shared media: I mainly use this laptop for video editing when away from
home, but store the video stock on an external hard drive and have very
little media on the laptop itself.

I'm hoping for some time off this afternoon and will look further into
things, trying your suggestions.

Oh, re "Hello again" - just a hello to the group as a whole (I got alot of
help last year). This is a new thread.

Many thanks again, your advice is much appreciated and gratefully received.
All the best, SH
 
All Users includes data that all users on the computer can have access too,
including ME. Strikes me that if you delete that folder you will delete many
things that you normally use yourself. Some of those things may not have
copies in the ME folder, like program folders and shortcuts that show up in
your All Programs list, settings and temp storage space for various programs
or even user files. For example I see that about 70% of the items listed in
my Start Menu are kept only in the All Users folder and 30% duplicated or
only exist in my log-in user folder.

My All Users folder consumes under 110MB, almost none of it user files, so
yours seems to contain a lot more shared Data files than mine. I suspect
they would be in the All Users/Shared Documents subfolders. Unless there are
errors in your harddisk file tables and a good chunk of the 17GB you mention
is actually incorrectly marked as allocated. You can try running chkdsk /f
to see if that frees up any space.
 
Hello again,

Thanks again for suggestions and advice. Not cured yet, but possibly on the
way to finding a solution.

When I use Windows Search to find video stock (avi files), it finds two
copies of each video. If I try to delete one, it deletes both as they both
have the same name and path.

I contacted Pinnacle (software manufacturer of my edit suite) and asked them
if the problem could be to do with their software (eg, making a copy of each
video I capture). They have replied saying that it is more likely to be a
Windows problem and maybe Windows has made two files of the same name.

I have written back asking for more explanation - but in the meantime I
wondered if any users of this forum have heard of this problem? Or am I being
spun a yarn?

If there were two copies of each avi file, it would account (almost exactly)
for the extra amount on the hard drive.

Will keep you posted - and thanks again for all your help. Best wishes, SH
 
shoulderhead said:
Hello again,

Thanks again for suggestions and advice. Not cured yet, but possibly on
the
way to finding a solution.

When I use Windows Search to find video stock (avi files), it finds two
copies of each video. If I try to delete one, it deletes both as they both
have the same name and path.

I contacted Pinnacle (software manufacturer of my edit suite) and asked
them
if the problem could be to do with their software (eg, making a copy of
each
video I capture). They have replied saying that it is more likely to be a
Windows problem and maybe Windows has made two files of the same name.

I have written back asking for more explanation - but in the meantime I
wondered if any users of this forum have heard of this problem? Or am I
being
spun a yarn?

If there were two copies of each avi file, it would account (almost
exactly)
for the extra amount on the hard drive.

Will keep you posted - and thanks again for all your help. Best wishes, SH
Click to expand...
You may be finding the same file twice, once through direct search and one
through the index. If it is the same name and path it is the same file, not
two different ones. Try disabling indexing on the drive and searching again.
 
Hello again,

Finally solved the problem. Many thanks for all your help and suggestions
which prompted me to go deeper and resolve this issue.
The case is so specific to my set up that I doubt if it will be of any help
to others, but here it is just in case:

Pinnacle Studio 10 (Video editing software) had made copies of all my work
(sourced from external hard drive) and stored them on my laptop. It had made
these copies in QuickTime DV format (Apple, Real Player). This is a format I
never use for video editing and the copies were stored in an unnamed file in
the ALL USERS folder.
As such I never found them until an advanced search revealed them.Once
deleted the extra volumes on my hard drive disappeared and it went down to a
much more acceptable level (around 25%)

I only have QuickTime on my laptop as it insists on coming in with iTunes.
Otherwise I would delete it and use WMP.

Thanks again for your help. All strength to the group. SH
 
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