Cleaning up after reinstall?

[Don Wiss]

I've just formatted my main drive and reinstalled XP Pro. I've updated all
of Windows. Now left behind are lots of hidden Uninstall files. And lots of
restore points. Can I delete all of this? I've run defrag. It is
interesting to see the space used on the drive. A clump at the beginning,
then some further out.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

 

[Guest]

I think this can be done by opening "My Computer" right click C-Drive/OS.
Select properties and click on "Disk Cleanup" Check all the boxes in the
list. And Click OK.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I've just formatted my main drive and reinstalled XP Pro. I've updated all
of Windows. Now left behind are lots of hidden Uninstall files.

What uninstall files? If they are the uninstall files for Windows
updates, you can delete them, but of you do you will never be able to
uninstall those updates.

Although it's highly unlikely that you will ever need them, I
recommend keeping them just in case. They take up only a tiny amount
of disk space

And lots of
restore points. Can I delete all of this?

Your only choices are to delete them all, all but the most recent, or
none. I would leave them alone.

But if you have the default of 12% of your drive dedicated to restore
points, I would dramatically reduce that to whatever gives you about a
weeks worth of restore points. Any more than that has no real value.

 

[Don Wiss]

What uninstall files? If they are the uninstall files for Windows
updates, you can delete them, but of you do you will never be able to
uninstall those updates.

In the Windows folder there are 103 folders of them. They take up 160 MB. I
can't imagine why I would ever want to uninstall a Windows update.

Although it's highly unlikely that you will ever need them, I
recommend keeping them just in case. They take up only a tiny amount
of disk space

160 MB is not a tiny amount. This is an older machine. The drive is only
34GB.

Your only choices are to delete them all, all but the most recent, or
none. I would leave them alone.

How do I delete them? I went to Accessories -> System Tools -> System
Restore and see nothing for such.

But if you have the default of 12% of your drive dedicated to restore
points, I would dramatically reduce that to whatever gives you about a
weeks worth of restore points. Any more than that has no real value.

Where is this? I do not see it on the Restore options.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

 

[Tony Meloche]

(snip)

Where is this? I do not see it on the Restore options.

Go to your C drive icon and right click - slide down to "Properties".
Click "Disk Cleanup". After that page loads, click on the advanced
options tab. The bottom item on that page allows you to delete all but
the most recent System Restore file.

Tony

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In the Windows folder there are 103 folders of them. They take up 160 MB. I
can't imagine why I would ever want to uninstall a Windows update.

Because occasionally, no matter how unlikely, a Windows update does
cause problems for some people.

160 MB is not a tiny amount.

At today's hard drive prices, 160MB is under 15 US cents worth. That
is *certainly* a tiny amount.

This is an older machine. The drive is only
34GB.

That's a very small drive these days. My personal view is that if 15
cents worth of disk space is important to you, the only real solution
to your problem is to buy more disk space. But it's your choice, of
course.

 

[Don Wiss]

At today's hard drive prices, 160MB is under 15 US cents worth. That
is *certainly* a tiny amount.


That's a very small drive these days. My personal view is that if 15
cents worth of disk space is important to you, the only real solution
to your problem is to buy more disk space. But it's your choice, of
course.

The machine already has two other larger drives. But they are not C:. They
are filled with files. I do not wish to put the effort into rearranging to
make one of them C:. The C: drive is a 15,000 rpm SCSI drive. SCSI drives
cost a bit more. Besides, it is very wasteful to spend money upgrading an
old machine. The chances of my having to undo a Windows update (like SP1 or
SP2) are 0%. So can I simply delete all those folders?

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The machine already has two other larger drives. But they are not C:. They
are filled with files. I do not wish to put the effort into rearranging to
make one of them C:. The C: drive is a 15,000 rpm SCSI drive. SCSI drives
cost a bit more. Besides, it is very wasteful to spend money upgrading an
old machine. The chances of my having to undo a Windows update (like SP1 or
SP2) are 0%. So can I simply delete all those folders?

As I believe I said in my first message in the thread, yes you *can*
delete the hotfix uninstall files. My preference is to keep them, just
in case, because they take a tiny amount of disk space. If that amount
of disk space is significant to you, feel free to delete them, but be
aware that it restricts your future options. If all goes well (and it
probably will) you will never need these files.

 

[Guest]

I tell ya...I had a half a gig of garbage after an install.
What I did was go to System Properties/Advanced/Clicked "Settings" under
Performance/Clicked the "Advanced tab/Under Virtual Memory selected
change/Ticked "No paging file" hit Set button. OK out. Restart PC.
Opened "My Computer" opened properties of C-Drive. Tools Tab. Did a simple
Error check. Then did a defrag to completion. And repeated defrag until the
report showed nothing in the lower window. Went back and reset the VM to
either System Managed or Custom. Mine is set Custom/ Initial...1600Mb and
Max...4096Mb.
Remember to hit the "Set" button before OK-ing out. Through that I regained
my half gig of space.

 

[Daave]

As I believe I said in my first message in the thread, yes you *can*
delete the hotfix uninstall files. My preference is to keep them, just
in case, because they take a tiny amount of disk space. If that amount
of disk space is significant to you, feel free to delete them, but be
aware that it restricts your future options. If all goes well (and it
probably will) you will never need these files.

Another option is to copy them to another location (another hard drive
or CDR), then delete them. This way OP is covered "just in case" and he
gets to reclaim the hard drive space.

 

[Unknown]

Click start--all programs--accessories--system tools (IE locate system
restore) on the left side click on system restore settings.