Re: mystery file showed up during defrag

Sharon F wrote: 
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:23:55 -0500, richard wrote:

I ran chkdsk and the files still showed up. I then ran disk cleanup to remove all the temporary files, and the two files still showed up after a search.

I right-clicked on the files and chose "delete" and the popup asked if I wanted to delete this history item. I chose No, but the term "history item" suggested that the two files might be in my history file. I have FireFox automatically delete my history file upon closing the browser, and I manually cleared the history files as well.

Would it be safe/wise to delete these two items in the Search pane? Or leave well enough alone?

The reason I brought up system restore: Video files are not something that
XP's System Restore usually tracks. However it does consider the user
folders as part of the "system." The user's folders include their desktop
and a record of their Recycle Bin items.

If the video was stored on the desktop or placed in the Recycle Bin and a
system restore point was created (automatically or manually), there is a
good chance that file was copied to a system restore point. 

Later you delete the file from the desktop (or empty the Recycle Bin) but
there's still a possible copy in System Restore. This is why, I recommended
clearing all but the most recent restore point. (NOTE: I've had "deleted"
files reappear in my Recycle Bin after using a previous restore point so
have personally seen this happen.)

Disk Cleanup has the capability of cleaning up all restore points except
the most current one. If your system is running fine, create a new restore
point. Then run Disk Cleanup, click on the tab for the More Options page.
Then click the Clean Up button in the System Restore section.

On the other hand, if you're reluctant to do this/want to keep your restore
points - System Restore has a set size limit. As new restore points are
created, old ones are deleted. In other words, if there is a copy of the
file in System Restore, it will eventually disappear on its own. No extra
steps needed for this to happen besides waiting for enough time to go by
for the restore point(s) to be removed.

For the history items that you've asked about - these are simply history.
References - bits of text - that refer to a file that exists or existed
since the last time History was cleared. These do not take up a huge amount
of space. We're talking teeny tiny bits of text (usually path statements).
I wouldn't worry about these at all.

NOTE: There is "history" for the browser such as firefox and there is also
"history" for the Windows Shell such as most recent files, most frequently
used programs, current Windows Explorer paths so that you can go "forward"
and "backwards" in the file browser, search history, etc. Some of this
history is stored in the registry (which also has its own history trail).
Sounds like a lot but these really are just tiny bits of text references. 

Thanks, Sharon, for your good explanation.
richard
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: mystery file showed up during defrag
    ... > wanted to delete this history item. ... XP's System Restore usually tracks. ... and a record of their Recycle Bin items. ... Disk Cleanup has the capability of cleaning up all restore points except ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: need help!!!!!
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    ... When I did a full system restore on my comp i wanted to save all my history ... do it´s backup so I copied the same folder and thought that the adress book ...
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  • Re: Defragging a New XP Install
    ... Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. ... System Restore and remove all but the latest System ... to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit. ... The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)