Deleting Duplicate C drive files

[oracle]

Hi Everyone.

I wonder if you might be able to help me,

The other day, my dell inspiron 6400 laptop decided not to turn on anymore,

I took it to a PC store to get them to retreive all my data which thankfully they did, as well as reinstalling Windows XP afresh.

They gave the laptop back to me, and told me all my retreived data (all the stuff in 'My Documents' and the C Drive) was in a folder on my desktop, which it was.

After rebuilding the settings for my pc (downloading Firefox, reinstalling software etc) for a while, I decided to copy the 'my documents' folder (in the retreived data folder on my desktop) to My Documents on my newly restored version of Windows XP, in an effort to get everything in its right place.

Halfway through this copying process, a window popped up saying that space on my C drive was getting critically low, almost to the point where damage may be caused. . . How has that happened the pc had just been wiped?! I said to myself.

So there was about 1% of remaining space on my 70GB hard drive. I decided to try and compress the files on there, and now i have 5.43GB of free space.

A friend informed me that maybe i've duplicated what was already on the C drive. If this is the case, is there some way to delete duplicate files on the C drive?

Also, is there some way you can view what is on the C drive, so you know what you are deleting?

I've tried backing up all the important stuff on my pc to a dvd before i do anything but due to files being shared with other users on my pc, i am unable to.

As you may have guessed, i am not that clued up when it comes to PC operating systems, i really am stuck here and would greatly appreciate any pointers.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Simon

[catgate]

... and told me all my retreived data (all the stuff in 'My Documents' and the C Drive) was in a folder on my desktop, which it was.

So have you looked at what size this newly created folder is? And just how much have you re-fed in that is already in this folder?

A judicious little bit of Exploring may throw some light on your problem.

[oracle]

To be honest i wouldn't know how to find that out.

I've been clicking around for some time trying to find a way of seeing exactly what is on my C: drive, and what has been added, duplicated and can be deleted.

Could you advise a novice on how to do this?

Cheers, Simon

[Luis 2012]

I think your problem is that you selected COPY when you meant to MOVE the folder from the Desktop to My Documents. The folder is probably 5GB and when you COPY it your making duplicate files. But if the folder is ALREADY on the Desktop, then just move it, don't copy it cause then you'll have two folders with the exact same files

[Dencandy]

To be honest i wouldn't know how to find that out.

I've been clicking around for some time trying to find a way of seeing exactly what is on my C: drive, and what has been added, duplicated and can be deleted.

Could you advise a novice on how to do this?

Cheers, Simon

To find out what's on your C drive, Simon, do the following:

- click on My Computer, then rt click on the C drive icon

- click on Open in the drop-down menu that appears. Your screen will then show you the top layer of folders on your C drive & their names. But this doesn't tell you much, so to find out more:

- look at the toolbar second from top on the screen and you'll see a little rectangle with tiny coloured squares in it (to the right of "Folders"). Move your curser over that & the word "Views" will appear. Next to the little rectangle you'll see a tiny down-pointing arrow, so click on that, then click on the word "details" at the bottom of the little menu that appears. Your screen will instantly change to show you the same files but with more information, like "date modified", etc. To see even more details move your curser to the top toolbar and left click on the item "view". You'll see another drop-down menu with a dot next to the word "details". But below that you'll see an item "Choose Details", so click on that. You'll then get another drop-down menu that enables you view many more details about each folder or file. You just check the little boxes, then "OK" and voila, at all appears on the screen.

Before changing anything, experiment a little bit with this as you'll learn a lot about your computer & the file/folder system & how it all fits together.

You can also open each folder and dig down deeper into each level doing the same thing.

When you've got a bit of confidence about this stuff you can look for the 2 folders that you think might be duplicates and then look inside them (open them) to make sure they are the ones you want and are the same (except perhaps for a few minor details).

When you feel happy about it, simply delete the one you think you don't need. Don't worry, if you delete the wrong one you can easily restore it again from the Re-cycle bin.

A word of warning, don't think you can then go through all your files cheerfully deleting files that appear to have identical names and were even installed at the same date and time. Most often they are NOT duplicates & you can really mess things up randomly deleting so-called duplicate files. There are even programs around that claim to help you identify & delete "duplicate" files. Stay clear of them, they'll mess up your system, unless you know what you're doing.

The only such program worth using is the freely available CClean (used by many of us on this forum) which will only delete real crap.

Also look at your Add/Remove programs on Control Panel to remove any programs that they installed for trial but no longer use. Simply delete them to free up disk space.

Sorry if all this is a bit long-winded, but it's not a straightforward topic.

[oracle]

The folder is probably 5GB

I can see a folder this big on the C:drive called INFOCACHE.1, it's just one file and was created on the day my laptop was at the store for repair, can this be deleted?

Dencandy, thanks for your clear and informative advice, i was easily able to follow your instructions, although once i could see what was on the C: drive, i couldn't see anything duplicated. If there were duplicates, would it be pretty obvious?

Thanks guys

[Luis 2012]

The folder is probably 5GB

I can see a folder this big on the C:drive called INFOCACHE.1, it's just one file and was created on the day my laptop was at the store for repair, can this be deleted?

I searched for what that files is and many people say they have safely deleted it, but since I've never encountered it before I'm not sure. You can use Google to see if you find anymore info on that specific files, and also if you find any other files that are very large, just search them on Google and decide if you need them. To save space you should run CCleaner as it will delete a lot of junk. You can also decrease the amount of space the Recycle Bin takes up.

1. Right-Click the Recycle Bin

2. Select Properties

3. Move the slider to a smaller percentage, or if you have a Recovery Drive (like D:) you can configure each independently.

You can also reduce the amount of space System Restore takes up (you can also turn it off but I wouldn't recommend it).

1. Click Start Menu

2. Right-Click My Computer

3. Select Properties

4. Go to the System Restore Tab

5. Select a Drive and click Settings

6. Move the slider to a smaller percentage.

You should have saved a couple of Gigs with this, but if you still need more space, go ahead and delete the INFOCACHE.1, as since the computer was running fine before you had it restored, I'm guessing that's a file they left over. One last thing, you can try running Disk Cleanup, if you don't have enough space to installe CCleaner.

[Dencandy]

Luis 2012 seems to know what he's talking about so I'm sure it's safe to delete Infocache.1. A cache normally refers to a temporary storage made to allow some other process or function to happen, as in the case of your internet cache. Normally a cache can be deleted once the process or function is completed.

If you download & run CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/), which many of us on this forum have used for years, it will find most of the garbage that can be deleted & then ask you if you want it deleted. When you install it, make sure you untick the installation of any Google or Yahoo toolbars (unless you really want them). Then, on the opening page "Cleaner", on the item for Windows you'll see a sub-heading "Empty Recycle Bin". I suggest you untick that as you may later want to restore items from the Recycle Bin.

So just run the cleaner for Windows & then for Applications. Don't run the Registry cleaner until you've got your current problem sorted out.

Windows Disk Clean up will also inform you of any old files that can be safely deleted, but it doesn't dig as deeply as CCleaner. Again, I normally untick the Empty Recycle Bin item and deal with it separately.

As for what are clearly duplicates, my experience is that it is not at all clear, unless you are very experienced with Windows. Best to leave it to CCleaner or Disk Clean Up unless someone else tells you it's OK - as is the case with Infocache.1.

By the way, have you had a look at your Add/Remove programs yet? It seems like you might have a lot of stuff there (e.g from Nero and old games, etc) that you don't use. My C drive is 24 GB and I never let it get more than 2/3 full and try to use it only for systems & programs. Data, pictures and music, etc are stored on a separate partition.

[Luis 2012]

Like Dencandy said, you should try looking to see if you have some unnecessary programs that you might want to uninstall. (I would listen to him since running XP and its extras on only 24GB is impressive. I run XP on a 60GB but most of my space is taken up by Games and DVDs.) Anyway, you can also try http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninst...e_download.html as it will delete most of the files and registry entries some Uninstallers leave behind. Also make sure you run CCleaner from time to time, because just by browsing the internet a lot of space is taken up. As a side thing, can you tell us how much space you end up saving. (My record is 10GB, and that was the FIRST time i ever cleaned up Windows.)

Edit: I was trying to insert a link but i guess I'm too tired and it messed up, so yeah, that's all.