Removing certain Windows files & sub-directories

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05_CHASBRO

I have Windows XP Pro, SP 3 installed on the C:\ partition of my Hard
Drives. Can
I can I safely remove any of the following Windows files from this
partition? (1) In Win\Downloaded Installations (directory): There are folders
& files created in the year 2008 & others going back as far as 2004; (2) In
Win\ServicePack Fies\i386\
Root Directory: there are 2450 objects created in the year 2004 & 640
objects created in 2008; (3) In the C:\ drive root directory: two files –
pagefil.sys (700+ Mb) & hiberfile.sys (500+ mb).

I will appreciate constructive guidance to these three questions but I am
not interested in responses that question why would I even consider doing
this. Thanks!
 
My system does not have a Win\Downloaded Installations directory

In C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386\ there are numerous files related to the
installation of the Service Pack(s) - deleting them will probably not harm
your computer, but you won't be able to repair system issues by using tools
such as SFC.EXE

pagefile.sys is your paging/swap file - if programs need a paging file, this
is what they use. You can set your paging file to 0 in Control Panel if you
need to get rid of this.

hiberfil.sys is the file that holds the contents of your memory when you put
the system into Hibernation. If you delete it, it'll just be recreated - so
you'll have to disable Hibernation in the Control Panel also.

- John
 
Many thanks ! I really appreciate your helpful guidance & your clear & direct
response to my inquiry.
 
05_CHASBRO said:
I have Windows XP Pro, SP 3 installed on the C:\ partition of my Hard
Drives. Can
I can I safely remove any of the following Windows files from this
partition? (1) In Win\Downloaded Installations (directory): There are
folders
& files created in the year 2008 & others going back as far as 2004; (2)
In
Win\ServicePack Fies\i386\
Root Directory: there are 2450 objects created in the year 2004 & 640
objects created in 2008; (3) In the C:\ drive root directory: two files -
pagefil.sys (700+ Mb) & hiberfile.sys (500+ mb).

I will appreciate constructive guidance to these three questions but I am
not interested in responses that question why would I even consider doing
this. Thanks!
Click to expand...
If you don't ever let the system hibernate, then you can do without
hiberfile.sys.
Pagefile.sys is also the paging file. This file allows XP to pretend that
it has 4gb of virtual address space.
Deleteing this file can be harmless (if you are using very small programs
and if you have lots of spare RAM).
Deleteing this file can also cause the system to hang. I would need to be
extremely desparate for disk space before I deleted this file. But, before
I got that desparate, I would just add another disk.
Jim
 
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