(regular)

26/01/2007 14:19

HDD Defrag/fragmented files

One for Brendan or any expert. Two questions.

When I have completed a Defrag, I am left with 14p/c of fragmented files. The disk layout looks as though it is bleeding with so much red.

About 30 or so files are 93MB \Windows\Installer\(numbers/letters).MSP One is a GoogleEarth dbCache.dat of 142MB, and two are Thunderbird folders of Inbox and Junk or 178 and 109MB.

The question is, what can I delete to clear some of the fragmentation, and can the MSP files be deleted? I realise that to delete the Inbox would be to delete all my emails - but what of the Junk box? Is this where the junk reference data is installed?

Going into Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Sort by Size, I have dozens of security updates for XP, some Notifications, Updates, and Hotfix's etc. I am trying to get some more space on the PC and want to delete what is not necessary. Any advice?

At the moment I am down to 11 p/c available disk space, and am moving some stand-alone programs to the back-up disk drive to make more space on the C drive. The D drive is for data only.

(regular)

26/01/2007 15:02

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

MSP files are update files, and are required. Don't delete.

Google earth file you can delete, but next time you use it will be created again, so not really worth deleting.

Thunderbird junk folder should be where spam is put, so you can clear that out within Thunderbird.

Within add/remove. You need to keep the updates and hotfixes, as they are mostly security related and performance updates to the OS. If you delete them, then next time you run OS update, they will all be flagged as needing downloading and installing again.

Best thing is to make sure you've run disk cleanup (or even ccleaner if you want a slightly more thorough job) then run defrag again.

As you only have a limited amount of free disk space, defrag may be struggling to work effeciently at shuffling things around, so it's a good idea to run it several times.

By far the best way of making room, is to remove any unwanted programs

(regular)

26/01/2007 15:23

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

Thanks Brendan, at least it is clearer in my mind if not on the disk.

I'll get ccleaner and give it a go tonight.

I am gradually getting rid of programs I haven't used in a long time.

Big programs like PhotoShop and MS Office 2003 take up a lot of space, but I use then quite often.

Anyway, thanks again.

(regular)

26/01/2007 15:40

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

when making room on disks, sequoiaview http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ is excellent, as it shows visually which directories and files are taking up most space. Download it, use it, then delete it until next time you want use it.

The run cleaner and defrag again.

As a note, always run cleaner before defraging, so you aren't defraging lots of temp and cache files

(regular)

26/01/2007 17:31

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

Just had a thought. I doubt defrag is actually running. If you are down to 11% free space, then defrag needs 14% minimum free space to run. Do you get an error message telling you that?

(regular)

26/01/2007 21:19

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

Yes, I get the error message, but it will allow you to defrag - "so long as you understand it will be slower", as it more-or-less says.

By using the ccleaner, it gave me another 3 p/c, and now up to 14 p/c but still blood red fragmentation.

I'll give the latest advice a go now.

(regular)

26/01/2007 22:05

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

if you can get more than 15% free, most of that red will go first time. When you run it with less than that available, it only does a partial defrag, so you will never get rid of the red.

(regular)

27/01/2007 16:59

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

I've shifted a lot to the back-up HDD until I need it again, and have now got up to 17%, but using cclean and defrag is not making a lot of difference to the "red", and I have carried out 4 or 5 defrags.

Logmon is another with a big fragmentation. Strange this, as a month or so ago, I had only a few fragmented files, and now quite a few.

I'll keep with it and defrag as often as I can to try to clean up the disk.

Thanks for your help and advice.

(regular)

27/01/2007 18:47

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

If you've run defrag a few times, then things are probably as good as they are going to get. You probably have a few big files that are defragmented, and defrag doesn't have enough room to sort them. I shouldn't worry about it tho, you probably won't get a huge amount of performance increase out of defragging further, so quite OK to leave as it is.

(regular)

29/01/2007 09:45

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

I discovered, by way of googling, that the .MSP and .MSI files are Microsoft update files, and can be removed with (apparently) no ill effect.

To make sure, I moved all the .MSP/I files to my backup HDD - just in case - and the rebooted.

The %free space went from 15% up to 55% !!! The .MSP/I files went back to when I bought the computer, and are the automatic updates and so on.

The files were in a hidden folder and the only way to see them was by opening up the explorer from within SequoiaView - that showed that about half the HDD space was taken up by these files.

I thought something weird was going on of late, as each time I defregged, there was less space. I appears that every time I went online, and an update appeared - more HDD space disappeared. I'll keep an eye out now for these update files, and delete them after installation.

So, with your help and a little bit of googling, the comp is now back to normal - or as normal as a PC can be.

(regular)

29/01/2007 15:21

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

If you are going to delete msi and msp files, wait until a few weeks after they have installed. If you want to remove the patch or change the options, then the system needs those files. So wait until you are sure the system is running fine after install, and that nothing needs changing.

The reason they are hidden away is to stop casual users removing them.

(regular)

29/01/2007 21:14

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

I wasn't too sure about removing them, so that is why I've taken the precaution of moving them to the backup HDD. I've only moved the files pre-'07.

I couldn't find them except by SequoiaView. Two good programs you suggested.

x fingers - still working.

(regular)

10/02/2007 09:17

Re: HDD Defrag/fragmented files

Brendan,
just to let you know that your advice has all worked perfectly. I am now back to 51% free HDD, from just 11% at one time.

The update files were moved to the external HDD with no adverse effect to the computer.

I then had a look at the other 1.5gb file, Logmon.log. This, after googling to find out what it did, is to do with the wireless printer unit. So I then moved this file to the external HDD (15mins), and still all worked OK, as the wireless printer unit made another logmon.log file.

So now all the update and logmon files have been deleted.

I now have another problem that you may be able to sort out.

I installed a version of CD Creator, that I later found was unstable on XP and also unsupported by the company that took over LaCie. The program would not work, and even though I have uninstalled the complete program, I now get a warning box when I boot up.

The warning is "Devices or applications disabled. "CD Recording Software" will cause Windows to become unstable. Windows has prevented these drivers from loading. Click here for more details."

All the click here for more details does is go online and show that it could be one of three programs - two of which have never given any problems. So it must be the driver of CD Creator. How do I rectify this problem and prevent the window every time I boot up?

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm hoping you can come up with some remedy.

(regular)

10/02/2007 10:01

Re: CD creator

Is this CD Creator V4 loaded over XP???? If this is the only error you've got then you are one lucky fellow. I believe that the errors you are getting is because not all of the application has been removed and there will be CD Creator information remaining in the registry.

Try here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285910

If this fails then join the Roxio forum and you will get a load of help.

(regular)

10/02/2007 16:04

Re: CD creator

Thanks Steve, this was my thought, but not how to get around it. I'll go to the forum tonight, as my son is awaiting to take over my computer to print out photos - here

(regular)

10/02/2007 18:10

Re: CD creator

have you run a good registry cleaner?

If that doesn't help, you can do it manually following instructions here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315345

(regular)

10/02/2007 20:09

Re: CD creator

Woops! forgotten the most important bit of advice!!! You might get away with just doing a restore prior to the CD Creator load (but CD Creator over XP can have many and various ways of leaving a bit of it's footprint on your machine and causing problems even if you complete the restore)

(regular)

11/02/2007 11:15

Re: CD creator

Tried the link, but the search didn't find Cdr4_2K.sys or Cdralw2k.sys

I used cCleaner to get rid of anything relating to Adaptec, and found over 20 entries - all of which I deleted. And I still get the warning on boot up.

I didn't go back to a restore point to before I installed CD Creator, as I couldn't remember how long ago I installed it. From vague memory, sometime before Christmas.

I will uninstall any other copying programs I have, to see if this stops the warning.

So I am open to more suggestions.

(regular)

11/02/2007 14:16

Re: CD creator

I strongly suggest you use the Roxio forum. Here's a start http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=805

Assuming it's V4 then there is a lot to check for. A few example problems you encounter might be that you suddenly lose access to a USB port or your machine no longer recognises a drive that you know is there; if you try and load another/similar application then CD Creator may affect that as well.

Here is a typical problem left by V4 http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=16446

(regular)

11/02/2007 21:05

Re: CD creator

If you go to System Restore, click to restore to an earlier time and click next, it gives you a calendar of all the restore points available. Click on a bold date and it gives you the breakdown - by software installation/removal. You should be able to see when the certain program was installed and restore to before it. Remember to check what programs may have been installed since this one as you will need to manually install them again.

I've had a similar problem with the RYA electronic training program... once installed, it would regularly ask for the installation CD and install again, and once installed the computer wouldn't recognise office - open the program and then say to reinstall office. A reinstall of office wouldn't fix it, so I have restored to an earlier point - it wouldn't uninstall the RYA program. Whats stranger, they both worked happily alongside on my old Win ME pc, just not on the new XP SP2

(regular)

11/02/2007 22:17

Re: CD creator

A restore point to Dec is going to cause as many issues as it solves in my experience. Not worth restoring to that far back.

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