Make Disk Cleanup Compress Older(or Newer) Files on XP
Using the Disk Cleanup utility in Windows XP is a great way to clean up files and get more hard drive space. One of the options is to "Compress Old Files", but the default setting is files older than 50 days. This setting can be modified if you only want to compress really old files.
To get to the Disk Cleanup utility, right click on one of your hard drives in My Computer, and choose Properties.
Click on the Disk Cleanup button.
The Disk Cleanup utility will scan your hard drive to determine the amount of space to be saved. Click on "Compress old files" in the list, and you will notice the View Files button change to Options. Click that.
In this resulting window you can change the amount of days to wait for unaccessed files to be compressed. Click OK and you are done.
I cleaned disk with compress old files checked. Now I get windows file protect error of "Files required to run windows properly have been replaced by unrecognizable versions." and it wants meto put in the win disk. I have HP Presario XP Windows media center and HP did not give me pure windows disk but I made a recovery backup disk. Windows error message does not accept this backup to replace files. I there any way I can undo the "old file compress" and restore the windows files?
Lisa,
You should be able to run a system restore and restore your last known good configuration.
If you are not sure how to do it just click Start \ programs\ Accessories \ System Tools \ System Restore
A wizard will pop up and follow the instructions.
I will post a step by step how to restore your system using the System Restore utility.
I have been losing space on my hard drive , so i went looking around and found that a file called software distribution is one of my major space grabber , can the file be cleaned out or do i have to just let it take space from my hard drive, Also i have windows xp pro ,what files can i manually clean out
thanks Jamie
Jamie,
The Software Distribution folder is where XP SP2 will store software files during Microsoft Updates. If you downloaded and installed SP2 then there will be a lot of junk left behind. I believe this was for uninstalling SP2 if you wanted.
I am not one to recommend deleting any files unless a backup has been preformed and you are sure of what you're deleting.
You can always compress that folder. Right click that folder \ Properties \ Advanced \ select compress contents to save disk space.
When I run disk cleanup with the compress old files box checked, the old files are no longer removed from the list. Windows XP . What is the problem, plus will this compression of old files improve speed.
Richard, the same thing is happening to me. It started a few months ago and I'm still trying to figure out what to do about it. :-\
Richard,
To answer the question of speed … no your not going to notice any speed boost by compressing old files. It is really just a way to clear space on your Hard Drive.
As far as the files no longer removed from the list … I would need to look at that … Are you looking at View Files under Description in the Disk Cleanup dialog box?
My laptop is runing low on memory. So if I delete all of my compressed old files will that help a little?
Ah… I have killed my computer. I compressed old files not really knowing what I was doing and now I am experiencing Lisa's problem (see 19 May)… unfortunately I cannot restore my computer to an earlier date because there are no ealirer dates that it will let me restore it to. I can't understand this as I constantly update my computer. I am away on business and so my XP disks are at home. Eek. What can I do? Is there another way of restoring my computer?? Help will be very warmly welcomed. Thanks!
hey..i m having some problem here. few days back my registry files were corrupted..so i re-install the windows xp sp2. when i tried to upgrade some error was there.i made a new installation from the win xpsp2 setup. and give location of that c: drive again. now laptop is working fine but my c: drive is eating space .i checked that ,the windows folder contains another "windows"named folder in it . now i am confused that which folder to delete. ? can you help me ?
I used line 48 on Kellys korner to delete my compress old files link in disk cleanup . How do I get my compress old files on disk clean up back?
Is there anyway to uncompress all files on my C drive? Its causing a performance hit on my system
Please Help!
I used the Windows disk cleanup to compress older files and it made my computer crash. The only thing that shows up on my screen is a dos window that says it was shut down improperly. Once I press enter the same dos screen keeps popping up. How can I fix this??
Thanks so much
My soloution is to just leave the computer alone and make the tea
Kicking back with tea is always great! I need to do that more often!
I am trying to load a new PC game on the computer for my son. It says I need uncompressed hard drive, I have probably compressed this computer multiple times over the past few years. I"m afraid I will lose to many important things on my C drive if I mess around too much. Help Please.
how come my laptop dont have "compress old files" in the disk cleanup? HELP!!! THANKS
You *can* uncompress all your compressed files. Open a command prompt, go to the root of the hard disk, and type
compact /u /s /a /q /i
The problem with compressing your files is that they are always going to take longer to process. Better to connect a big external hard drive
Would using "compact /u /s /a /q /i" uncompress every partition of my hard drive? Or do I get to choose which partition to uncompress?
Good HowTo! One question - If one ran a disk clean up and compressed old files is there an easy way uncompressing the compressed files all at once?
easiest way - which is too slow to be reasonable - is to search for all files in C: and then turning on the attirbutes column - sorting by that and then selecting chucks of files and turning compression of via properties dialog. Like already mentioned - this isn't really a valid option as I have tens of thousands of files I would like to uncompress.