ShortMediaware: Hard Drive Cleanup

MediaMan

"Even if your computer is brand new and has an enormous hard drive, the presence of stray junk files can have a negative impact on your computer's efficiency. We’ll examine several different ways to make cleanup an easy - and safe - process."

Tidy up, clean up and do so without wiping c: right over here.

primesuspect

Prof: Great article! Thank you so much for the contribution!

EyesOnly

I've been wondering myself if cleansweep is good or not. Thanks for answering that question. The disk cleanup wizard might be free be it can't uninstall programs in the same way is cs. Whenever i reinstall windows i'll remember to install cs before i install to many other apps.

Linc

Nice work, prof :bigggrin:

Straight_Man

I use Cleansweep and the Norton WinDoctor a lot.... Norton WindDoctor is to registry autofixing, as Clean Sweep is to common "junk" files. Have done this kind of thing since before the Windows Doctor came to be, using Clean Sweep and tools like that which came before it. It is possible, with the Norton SystemWorsk tools, to move programs from HD to HD, to archive programs you do not use much to save space, and to hand edit the registry with an optional install of the Norton Redgistry Editor, which has some features not in the regular Registry Editor. As and if I get time, will write some about the other tools in Norton SystemWorks.

I have rarely had the Norton WinDoctor mess up the registry fatally unless there were major other problems and it could not even be opened or run correctly due to corruption or lack of RAM available for it to work.

Back to CleanSweep-- if you clear a lot of files off, it might be easiest to run a disk defragmenter when done to make the open space be one chunk, then you get less file fragmentation as the little open spaces are used for parts of file bigger than the little spaces and get files written new in multiple parts on physical HD. XP is less likely to get fragmented than 98 or 2000 in this way, you can run the Disk Defragmenter less with XP, but every once in a while do run that in XP also after you sweep the HD cleaner with CleanSweep.

Figured I could tie article into system maintenance picture and show how it fits with some other tools with this post. The article is good, but context of how to use tools together (and WHY to use them together) is often a lacking thing.

John D.

profdlp

Thanks for the nice comments! Also, thanks to all the kind souls who participated in the SM Utilities Polls - they are the ones who really determined what software gets mentioned in the articles.

JD: I did mention that faster defrags were one good reason to keep the clutter off your HD. I like your idea of tying everything together. At some point I'm going to attempt a step-by-step guide to doing a complete system "physical examination".