[SOLVED] Problems with Windows after removing cache ?

[qazihashmi74]

I was running out of space on the system drive since someone(the vendor) thought 60 GB is enough and separated a 500 GB disk into four partitions. At the time, I had nothing to remove as all the software were in other drives so I started deleting all the cache data from the appdata folder. Since I still didn't had enough space for windows to work properly, I installed CCleaner on another drive and let it run. It only removed 500 MBs which wasn't enough, so I did that last thing I knew. I searched the whole system drive for folders with the word "cache" in them, confirmed that they are indeed cache folders and deleted them. It freed up over 12 GBs which is great.

Everything was okay till the next day. I was just working when everything stopped responding, the cursor was still moving so I waited. After a while, it brought me to the desktop, my programs were still running fine. They icons were out of place on the desktop, the start menu had no other programs then those obtained from windows store. All the apps were running fine except when you open a file associated to with the default windows apps it does not open. Such as .mp3 does not work if you double click on it but Groove Music is working fine. It gives me an "Unspecified error". If I open the files with other programs they run fine.

Imgur is not opening in my country so I can't upload image.

So, is there any way I can fix this problem?

Also, I used EaseUS Partition Master to merge three of the partitions and got one 400 GB drive, I wanted to know if it would be safe to merge this drive into the system drive.
Thanks.

 

[kerberos_20]

well u can combine all partitions together, it will be safe as long theres no power outage, if u loose power, u loose data
so backup first important stuffs

if its scary, u can use symbolic links feature where u can create folder anywhere u want and link it with another partition folder
for example lets say we create c:\temp folder, then we create d:\temp
use mklink -j c:\temp d:\temp command
from now on any app which wants to write any data in c:\temp will write it to d:\temp while thinking its on c:\temp
u can link any folder u want to anywhere u want

as far as your windows goes, u meay need to repair it, use windows install media and reinstall it from there, it wil keep your settings

 

[USAFRet]

Personally, I would start over with a full clean install, configured the way you want it.

With only a single 500GB drive, one partition. OS and everything else.

 

[qazihashmi74]

well u can combine all partitions together, it will be safe as long theres no power outage, if u loose power, u loose data
so backup first important stuffs

OK thanks!

as far as your windows goes, u meay need to repair it, use windows install media and reinstall it from there, it wil keep your settings

I was hoping I wouldn't have to reinstall since it took me a lot of months to get it to the condition it is currently in. But, I may not reinstall for a while since everything is running better then before (except Unity).

Personally, I would start over with a full clean install, configured the way you want it.

With only a single 500GB drive, one partition. OS and everything else.

I would if I could, the disk is almost totally full. I am currently saving to get more storage on my currently.

 

[USAFRet]

I would if I could, the disk is almost totally full. I am currently saving to get more storage on my currently.

Any manipulation of partitions like this really needs a full backup of the whole thing, just in case.
It is quite easy for things to go completely wrong, and you lose everything.

 

[kerberos_20]

no friend for backup to his drive?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I searched the whole system drive for folders with the word "cache" in them, confirmed that they are indeed cache folders and deleted them. It freed up over 12 GBs which is great.

Who gave you the idea, that it would be ok to do that?
It's not.

You can try running system restore.
But yes - most likely your only option is clean install after this.

 

[qazihashmi74]

Any manipulation of partitions like this really needs a full backup of the whole thing, just in case.
It is quite easy for things to go completely wrong, and you lose everything.

Yeah, I know. I should be able to manage a backup in some days. Otherwise, I will just take the risk. I know the power outage "schedule" so I don't have to worry about that. Unless, the power company decides to surprise me. Or my pc.

no friend for backup to his drive?

Far as I know, I have the most storage available, lol.

 

[qazihashmi74]

Who gave you the idea, that it would be ok to do that?
It's not.

I know it's not and neither is running your pc with less storage than required, two of my friends lost there disks because of not having enough storage. I already can't afford another disk, can't risk losing this one.
And if you ask why I didn't just reinstall windows, it's because I work on mobile internet, it's expensive and has terrible bandwidth, so I would have to spend months getting it back to speed.

 

[USAFRet]

And if you ask why I didn't just reinstall windows, it's because I work on mobile internet, it's expensive and has terrible bandwidth, so I would have to spend months getting it back to speed.

Or, you can struggle along for months with a completely messed up configuration, and then still have to do the whole reinstall anyway.

 

[Krotow]

Why this stupid habit to delete any folder without knowing for what these folders are intended for. OS reinstall is your future there and now. Do not waste time in futile tries to fix something. And find someone with spare drive or removable drive with space enough to backup your private files. Space taken by installed software and games doesn't count. You will reinstall them anyway.

No reason to split drives at today for single OS instance in computer anymore. Especially if drive is SSD. Nowadays in modern systems disk management deal with fragmentation much better than 15 years ago. Disk IO performance matter much more.

 

[qazihashmi74]

Okay, closing off the topic. The problem is fixed. I used Windows Repair tool to reset all permissions and guess what, everything is back to where it was, except I still have space. And for the last time, I knew what those folders were for and what consequences I might face. I was ready to face them and just needed some space. Thanks for the help.