Any PC whiz kids?

Diogenes

My old machine warned me it was running short of disk space which surprised me as there are few games, some music and not much else. Looking through the files I have found an installer folder in windows which contains 35gb of .msp files.

Any idea what these are and can I dump them?

D :?:

whyamihere

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274533

This tells you how to check for any that can be deleted. 36gb will be a lot of files though, it will be a long and tedious process...

Crapaud

35 gig is a lot!!! I doubt that they are either of these...

msp files

Windows Installer Patch: File used to update the Windows operating system and other Microsoft programs; typically included with security updates or Microsoft hotfixes.

Microsoft Paint Bitmap Image: Monochromatic (black and white) image file created by Microsoft Paint, one of the first painting programs released by Microsoft; also used for storing older clip art images.

Have you tried opening any of them to see what they are / do?

redvee

Run an app called Ccleaner. It will clear up a lot of space for you. First time I ran it, it cleared about 20% of my laptop HDD.

An .msi file is a database of all the files, settings, and configuration information for the associated application.

-liam-

Granted, it is alot of files. I couldn't recommend that you delete them though. Msp files are effectively failed update files/patches for various programmes. The problem is that one of a group of them that were to update a certain programme, would of probably worked in the end and you have no way of knowing which and deleting them could mess up your hole system.

If I was you I'd;

a) Get a bigger hard drive, fresh install of windows and use the existing HD as a slave so you keep all your old stuff if you need it

or

b) Save all your important stuff to dvd/cd and just reinstall xp/vista on your existing HD and take more care of your pc maintenance in future

Crapaud

A quick google suggests that you should under no circumstances delete them!!!

-Liam-'s suggestion - "a) Get a bigger hard drive, fresh install of windows and use the existing HD as a slave so you keep all your old stuff if you need it " - seems to be the favoured option.

Diogenes

Thanks folks, looks like its a new HD if I can't be bothered to clean manually. I have tried this and can see how it works.

I thought running regcure regularly would avoid this sort of thing but from the solution it looks like the reg entry is not there but the patch file (probably failed patch) is sitting in windows so I never saw them grow like triffids!

Thanks for the help.

D

morite

Try holding down shift when you delete the files or directory. Or you could do it from the command line (PM if you need help with this)


Have a look on www.lavasoft.com.
You can download ad-aware. There are 2 versions really...Free and paid for.

The free is good and updates from the same services as the paid for. I would recommend running it weekly but id depends how much time you spend on the internet.

The paid for is better as it can sit in the backgroup and can actively stop Malware/spyware/etc being downloaded to you machine automatically. It can also be configured to do schedule scans of you machine. I set mine to run of a night when I am a sleep but that would depend on leaving your machine turned on

I run this together with Antivir for antivirus (another free one) and never have problems on the internet.

ean

+1 for CCleaner.

Desert Orchid

Mail me if you need anything

I-S

Diogenes wrote:

My old machine warned me it was running short of disk space which surprised me as there are few games, some music and not much else. Looking through the files I have found an installer folder in windows which contains 35gb of .msp files.

Any idea what these are and can I dump them?

D :?:

Sounds like the problem I had last week - 57Gb in the hidden Installer folder. The machine was failing to install an update everyday and then downloading it again the next day thus filling the disk. Check your update history for failed installs.

My solution after research was to reinstall Windows - 1/2 a day. If you don't sort a failed update then some future updates may fail...

Good luck.

snakehips

I just stuck a spare disk in the PC and connected it on the second drive cable in place of the CD drive. I now just connect a CD R/W externally via the USB on the rare occasions that I need to.

Snake

bill57

Once you've backed up all your data, you could first try moving the .msp files to a new location, then reboot and see if Windows starts OK. If so, then delete the .msp files and try again. A lot of Windows Installer files are only kept to allow uninstalls to be performed - you may lose this function if you delete the files.

My recommendation for a home PC is two drives, a small one for Windows and other apps, and a bigger one for data (music, photos, videos). Then use Acronis to make an image of the system drive (which you can keep on the second hard drive). At the first sign of trouble, viruses etc, just re-image your system drive and you're ready to go again in five minutes.