Temporary internet files taking up too much space

[mousepotato]

My temp internet folder has cookies and a few photosuite images from the last 24hrs, just like you'd expect. But, there are about 15 other folders under it that appear to have the exact same content. They are all named with seemingly random names, except one, <i>ContentIE5</i>. ContentIE5 has all the same cookies, plus 8 more folders, randomly named and full of the same cookies. Why so many copies of the same cookies?

Checking the properties on all these folders reveals big differences in size. They are about 2-10MB each. Windows explorer shows about 100 items, but doesn't show size. Totalling them up, I get about 300KB. Explorer is not showing me some files in there, even though I have <i>show all files</i> checked in <i>folder options</i>. Checking properties on Temp internet folder, it shows about 140MB. I have it set in Windows to 30MB.Disk Cleanup is not removing these files. It does remove some files. Usually 10-15MB, not 140MB. Same thing when I try to remove them in <i>Internet Properties</i>.

WTF?

My hard drive is only 2.1GB, so this space means more to me than most.

I know what your thinking, "2.1GB... Go buy a new one". Well, I have been saving to buy a new system and the account keeps getting raided for one reason or another. I guess, I could buy a new HD, then the rest of the system later. But, I would like to know if something is wrong.


<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[camieabz]

Just delete all files you know are temp internet files. Keep the folders and other questionable files just in case.

I had this, deleted all the folders and it made no difference, but I don't advocate it, as all systems are different.

Whoa!!! I just checked the folder. I also have these. They must recreate as you go. Hmmmm, I'd still delete the files.

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by camieabz on 06/04/01 10:03 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[mousepotato]

I tried deleting all the files in a folder. It didn't change it's size much. I can only see about 300KB worth of files. I tried <i>select all</i>, then <i>cut</i>, to move them to a backup folder. When I pasted them in the new folder, I found that there was more than one file with the same name (different size and/or time, same name). Windows was asking me to overwrite/not. I clicked on <i>yes</i> instead of <i>yes to all</i> to find out how many. 40 , I'd guess. Still had the same number of files in the new folder, compared to what I could see in the old folder. But, the new folder was less than 1MB. The Temp Folder, while appearing empty, was still 10MB.

I'm going to try backing up these folders on CD (just in case), then deleting them. But, they are system folders, will they delete? Will they come back.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[mousepotato]

Deleted all folders and cookies that were in Windows\Temporary Internet Files. The <i>Properties</i> still show 5.20MB, although it appears empty. While deleting, Windows was warning me that I am deleting programs. WTF, no programs can be seen with Explorer. I saw dates as old as last October. I think that might be when Win98 Upgrade was installed on Win95. I surfed around for a while. I now have 164 cookies/HTML docs/images, but no new folders. Folder size is still 5.20MB, strange.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

I think the size of the temporary internet files folder is fixed and can be resized. See Tools/Internet Options -Temporary internet files - settings.

I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.

 

[Guest]

This works for Win98, I don't know if it works with WinME because you need to go into DOS (he he good old DOS) and use a file manager like Norton Commander (he he good old DOS) or something that shows you hidden directories. Go into C:\windows\tempor~1.

Under this directory there is a hidden directory called 'content.ie5'. This directory also contains a hidden file called 'desktop.ini' which you can delete.

Contained in the Content.ie5 directory there are a number of weirdly named directories eg. 6OXZ1J9S, GTMB8XEV etc. I don't know what the naming convention is for, but that's where all the Internet temp files are. As well as these directories, there is also another desktop.ini file. Delete this file and any other desktop.ini files you find in the subfolders. Doing this will allow you see the contents of these folders in windows from which you can delete them.

Using the Internet will recreate the desktop.ini files as well as all the weirdly named directories but you will be able to delete these files before venturing back out onto the Internet

I hope this helps.

--

No signature. But I'll think of one eventually.

 

[mousepotato]

Yeah, I had that set at 30MB. I think there was some spyware in there, maybe? The files were hidden. I could delete cookies from them, but that didn't come close to emptying them. I just got done deleting a file called index.dat from there. I had to go to DOS to see it. It was 5.2MB and hidden in Windows Explorer. I surfed around a little more, and now I have 170 cookies, etc. <i>Properties</i> shows 67 bytes. Haha, take that you spyware bastards (you gotta blame somebody).

I don't know what's in that index.dat, but when I was deleting whole folders with that hidden sh1t, Windows kept saying "This is a program. Delete?" Hell yeah, <b>DELETE</b>. There shouldn't be any programs in my cookie jar, right?

Must be the roommate going to all the porn sites, heh. He'll click on anything. It's a good thing we are on cable modem. I heard about this guy that didn't realize he was being disconnected from AOL and dialing a 900 number until he got a $400 phone bill at the end of the month. LOL

We'll see if my cookie jar stays clean. But, the way to clean it up from now on will be to go to DOS. C:\windows\tempor~1 : Delete *.* ; Auto-logon will not work on my first trip back to my regular sites, but I got 140MB back.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[dhlucke]

Ok, here is what I do and it seems to work out pretty good. Someone suggest anything if I can do it even better.

I regularly delete:

Everything in the C:\WINDOWS\Cookies folder.
Basically everything goes except the .dat file which won't delete. Someone tell me if I should get that out of there too.

Everything in the C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files folder.
The only major loss is the .ico files for the icons in the links list.

Everything in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder.
This isn't so important for the internet, but it keeps the computer clean. I recently had something install a program that was monitoring my internet usage. Also, programs like ICQ are constantly downloading crap. I edited my registry so that ICQ can't install it at least.

This leads us to spyware. Although most turns out to just be basic cookies I turn up stuff regularly. I think it comes from programs I install as well as websites I visit. I've used a number of programs like Optout, but right now I'm using Ad-aware 4.6 to get spyware out of there.

I also keep my history set to 0 days. I don't bother so much deleting stuff through internet explorer. Nonetheless from what I read above there seems to be stuff that is invisible floating around. I set my invisible files and system files visible and none show up. What am I missing?

<font color=red>Amd or Intel? Who cares?? Not me...</font color=red>

 

[dhlucke]

I do notice that my folder sizes don't make sense so is there more that I don't see?

<font color=red>Amd or Intel? Who cares?? Not me...</font color=red>

 

[mousepotato]

I read your thread about AdAware a couple weeks ago. I immediately downloaded AdAware and found 19 (I think) spyware programs. I let AdAware remove them. I then had to reinstall my mouse and joystick. Now I now which files not to delete when I clean up.

Maybe these spyware programs are creating the extra folders and/or .dat files. Right now, if I check the properties of Windows\temporary internet files, it shows 67 bytes, 1 file, 0 folders. It used to say 139MB! The setting is at 30MB. Explorer hides the files from you, and even DOS is lumping several files into one .dat file. When I was deleting whole folders with Windows, it would stop and say "You are about to delete a program. Are you sure?", then it would delete some more info and say that again (with most of the folders, at least. some did not have programs in them).

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[dhlucke]

Yeah, I understand that others do have problems sometimes. I'm never had a problem removing spyware.

Can you delete that dat file in the cookies folder? I can't delete it.

<font color=red>Amd or Intel? Who cares?? Not me...</font color=red>

 

[mousepotato]

Yeah, I can delete those cookies. I didn't do all, just a few. I have a .dat file in there, too. It's only about 2.7MB. I have to go to Dos to see it. I didn't try to delete it. Should be no problem in DOS, I think. In Windows, The only way I think you could do it would be to delete the whole folder, if that's possible. I tried deleting \Windows\Temporary Internet Files. Windows wouldn't allow it.

\Windows\Cookies has 625 objects, 380KB, (38X,XXX bytes), 2,8XX,XXX bytes used, 625 files, 0 folders.

I wonder, why the hell we need so many cookies. I changed my sig in response to rcf84's. At that time I was trusting that windows was taking care of them for me. When will I learn? That sig fit perfectly now!

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mousepotato on 06/05/01 12:01 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[wapaaga]

why don'y you just back up what you need and reformate the hole hard drive it would proaboally be faster then all the time you have spent on this problem any ways you can upgrade the os the best when you have no other stuff on the hard drive

 

[mousepotato]

Reformat to clean up cookies and temp files? Then re-install OS (I'm not trying to upgrade)? I'm sure that would take much longer than the time I spent so far. Besides, now I've learned how to do it in about 2 minutes (or less).

Temp files look normal now, though. I think it was some kind of spyware or something that caused this problem, and I believe I have erradicted it.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>