DELETION OF OLD UPDATES, HOT FIXES, SECURUITY PATCHES

  • Thread starter Thread starter JHASKINS75
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JHASKINS75

I HAVE AT LEASE 300 PATCHES, HOT FIXES THAT ARE TAKING UP MASSIVE HARD DRIVE
SPACE. SOME ARE DATED BACK TO 2004. CAN I DELETE THEM WITHOUT SERIOUS
ALTERING MY PERFORMANCE. I HAVE XP PRO SP2. I,VE DELETED MANY PROGRAM AND I
STILL GET THE MESSAGE MY HARD DRIVE IS NEARLY FULL TO THE EXTENT OF 85% WHICH
ONLY GIVES ME 4% FREE SPACE. I NEED AT LEASE 15% TO PERFORM A PROPER
DEFRAMENTATION.
 
JHASKINS75 said:
I HAVE AT LEASE 300 PATCHES, HOT FIXES THAT ARE TAKING UP MASSIVE HARD DRIVE
SPACE. SOME ARE DATED BACK TO 2004. CAN I DELETE THEM WITHOUT SERIOUS
ALTERING MY PERFORMANCE. I HAVE XP PRO SP2. I,VE DELETED MANY PROGRAM AND I
STILL GET THE MESSAGE MY HARD DRIVE IS NEARLY FULL TO THE EXTENT OF 85% WHICH
ONLY GIVES ME 4% FREE SPACE. I NEED AT LEASE 15% TO PERFORM A PROPER
DEFRAMENTATION.
Click to expand...


The files used to uninstall updates to Windows can be deleted
if you're confident that they will not have to be uninstalled
in the future. These files can be found in the Windows folder
with names similar to this, $NtUninstallKB123456$. They are
hidden folders so make sure you enable viewing of hidden files
and folders in Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View tab.
Note: Do not delete the $hf_mig$ folder. This folder will be
used by future updates.

Here's a web site which provides an automated way of deleting
these folders.

Courtesy of Doug Knox, MS-MVP
Removes Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs
Registry entries.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

Here's another web site with more information.

Courtesy of Ramesh Srinivasan, MS-MVP
What are the $NTUninstall folders? Can they be deleted?
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Hotfix_backup.htm

Here are some other things you can do to recover space on your hard drive.

1. Reduce the amount of hard drive space allocated to System Restore.

Go to Control Panel and double click the System icon.
Click on the System Restore tab.
Under Available drives, click on the C drive so it's highlighted.
Hit the Settings button.
Move the slider to the left so it reserves no more than a GB of HD space.

2. Reduce the amount of space allocated for Internet Explorer's
cache.

Go to Control Panel and double click Internet Options.
Hit the Settings button in the Browsing history section on the General page.
Note: Hit the Settings button in the Temporary Internet Files section of the
General page if using IE6.
Reduce the amount of disk space used to something between 50 and 100 MB.

3. Reduce the amount of space used by the Recycle bin.

Right click the Recycle bin icon on the Desktop and select Properties from the
menu. Move the slider to the left. 5% should be more than enough.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
JHASKINS75 said:
I HAVE AT LEASE 300 PATCHES, HOT FIXES THAT ARE TAKING UP MASSIVE HARD
DRIVE
SPACE. SOME ARE DATED BACK TO 2004. CAN I DELETE THEM WITHOUT SERIOUS
ALTERING MY PERFORMANCE. I HAVE XP PRO SP2. I,VE DELETED MANY PROGRAM AND
I
STILL GET THE MESSAGE MY HARD DRIVE IS NEARLY FULL TO THE EXTENT OF 85%
WHICH
ONLY GIVES ME 4% FREE SPACE. I NEED AT LEASE 15% TO PERFORM A PROPER
DEFRAMENTATION.
Click to expand...
Just install SP3 in a few days, and it will replace all those things.
However, you can delete all unistall folders for patches, updates, and hot
fixes that you never intend to remove.
You can save all of the rest to a DVD.
Doing this should have no effect on performance.
Jim
 
JHASKINS75 said:
I HAVE AT LEASE 300 PATCHES, HOT FIXES THAT ARE TAKING UP MASSIVE
HARD DRIVE SPACE. SOME ARE DATED BACK TO 2004. CAN I DELETE THEM
WITHOUT SERIOUS ALTERING MY PERFORMANCE. I HAVE XP PRO SP2. I,VE
DELETED MANY PROGRAM AND I STILL GET THE MESSAGE MY HARD DRIVE IS
NEARLY FULL TO THE EXTENT OF 85% WHICH ONLY GIVES ME 4% FREE SPACE.
I NEED AT LEASE 15% TO PERFORM A PROPER DEFRAMENTATION.
Click to expand...

Much like the uppercase lettering you have chosen to utilize and 'scream at
those' you are asking for help from - what you have is not anything of use
to you *if* everything on your computer is working properly.

What you have (what you are looking at) is not the actual patches (unless
you have individually and manually downloaded and saved these patches
yourself over the years in case you might need to install them again - in
which case you should know whether or not you need to keep them and/or burn
them to CD/DVD...) What you are most likely looking at is the uninstall
files so you can go into Add/Remove Programs and remove an individual patch
or 100 since SP2.

So - here is the deal. If you have the uninstall files for SP1a (somehow),
SP2 and all patches since SP2 on your computer - and you remove them - my
guess would be that at MOST you would free up... 2GB to 2.5GB of space. And
I believe myself to be grossly over-exaggerating. What that means is your
hard disk drive (or the partition you chose to place Windows XP upon at the
very least) is woefully too small if that amount will get you from 4% free
space to 15% free space.

If removing those uninstall files does not free up the 15% space - then it
is not that your drive is woefully small - but that you have a lot of stuff
on it and may need to consider a larger hard disk drive.

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...

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 moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
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 64MB and 128MB..

- 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 64MB and 128MB. (It may be 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/

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

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

If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
archived.

Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accommodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for cars. ;-)
 
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