Clearing harddrive of certain things?

R

RedEdge77

Joined
Jul 13, 2005
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There are some things that i would like to delete off my harddrive but have no clue how to. All i know how to is delete cookies but even when i do that some th ings still "linger" around.

So i was wondering if there is a way to see everything thats on your harddrive and then be able to delete it?
 
Deleting Temporary Internet Files is easy, it's found in a drop-down menu where the "Delete Cookies" button is. That's if you use Internet Explorer.

Windows has a "Disk Cleanup" tool that will empty Temp folders. Windows XP has a similar tool, and in fact I believe it's called the same thing.

Anything in the "Temp" folder should be safe to delete. Ditto the "Temporary Internet Files" and "Internet Logs" folders.

Beyond that I'd be hesitant to randomly delete files from the hard drive. Can you be more specific as to what files you want to delete? Is there a file you want to delete but can't for some reason?

-Bob
 
What i'm trying to delete are a couple songs and movies that i have downloaded that i know longer listen to or watch.

I know all about the temp. files and that stuff but it doesn't seem to delete these even when i empty the trash can.
 
Just to check, you've moved some files to the recycle bin, but the files are still there when you click "Empty Recycle Bin"?

-Bob
 
I did a Google search for cannot empty recycle bin and saw several solutions, depending on the cause of the problem and your particular operating system.

Good Luck,
Bob
 
Best thing in the future when this is sorted is make a folder that all the Downloaded stuff goes into, that way its easy to clean up. There is a freeware program called CCleaner that is great for a one foul swoop clean job of cookies, temp, internet temp recycle bin etc. Check it out.


http://www.ccleaner.com/
 
When it absolutely, positively needs to be deleted CCleaner does the job. I recently added it so my must haves for computer cleaning software. I highly recommend it. :D :thumbup:
 
From what I have seen on CSI or some other show, (bad reference, I know) even deleted files remain on your hard drive until something takes up that space it once occupied. This includes items sent to the recycle bin and then deleted after that. Not much else I can comment on the subject
 
well you can really clean a hard drive if you are that paranoid or you could fill it up with cd's and then delete them or you could limit the size of your recycle bin.
 
wonder if this thread has any thing to do with the government trying to get google logs:D

somebodys been a naughty boy:jerkit:
 
wonder if this thread has any thing to do with the government trying to get google logs

somebodys been a naughty boy
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Nawww i've been good. The reason i asked was because the computer has been running slower than normal even when i closed down most of the programs that were runninng. I think its is just a temporary thing.
 
ever thaught of viruses, sence i dont run a firewall or any thing any more i get tons of em. aint nothing to steal but my porno passwords so no sweat off my balls.

it beats paying 70+ a year in virus protection that lets them in anyway. once mine gets slow i just reformate it, have a friend wipe the boot drives, and reconfigure off a rescue disk, takes 10 mins tops and i aint got to worrie about all that clutter that i end up saving every where.
 
Tanto Fiend said:
From what I have seen on CSI or some other show, (bad reference, I know) even deleted files remain on your hard drive until something takes up that space it once occupied. This includes items sent to the recycle bin and then deleted after that.
Click to expand...

This is true. Normally when you "delete" a file, the space it took up is just marked as writable again. It's still there until something overwrites it. Some programs such as Eraser will overwrite the file for you. Of course there may be temporary files lurking around as well as stuff in your swap file. You have to be careful if you want to securely delete something. The best way to make sure something is gone is physical destruction of the drive.

RedEdge77 said:
The reason i asked was because the computer has been running slower than normal even when i closed down most of the programs that were runninng. I think its is just a temporary thing.
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Simply deleting files probably won't help unless you're about out of disk space. Have you defragmented your disk lately? Are there any particular processes that are eating up a lot of system resources?
 
When your computer is booting up press the F2 key or the delete key to enter the set up phase, then mark the "safe mode" selection and run your ad remove programs and delete the programs that are bothering you, then delete your files that you do not like, then run scandisk/all. Then run the Eraser programs that overwrite the entire disk. There should be no file fragments at all after you do that.
 
If you're looking to get rid of files that were "deleted", get IOLO Search & Recover(have a serial for 3.5a if you want it). Can either do a scan of your entire system(2 different levels to go from), or use the quick 'terminate' option and overwrite your files a few times with 00's(I usually have this sucker set to 7x).

cybershredder is another nice one, I use it to get rid of my cookies and temp, again, overwrites the data with 00's. 1x,3x,5x choices, depending on how fast you want to kill it(on how much you want to destroy it).

dban will clear everything off your computer, but takes a couple days.
 
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