Re: Exceptionally large Installer folder


Ryan Spehle wrote:
My computer is running low on memory so I started searching my
computer for the usage. My Installer Folder is 39.2 GB. I have a
120 GB harddrive (Explorer states 111GB) and this is a good portion
of the harddrive. From what I gather most of what is in the folder
are updates to Microsoft Office and other programs. Is there a way
to clean this folder up without corrupting any programs? Please
advise.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
First - what is your "My Installer Folder" path?

Might I suggest... CCleaner.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can
delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has
installed... http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but
your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the
system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of
the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical
memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and
want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys
file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start,
Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check
box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting
Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab
doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power
Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and
click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I
suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or
close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can
utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores
to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:"
to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline
contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this
could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open
Internet Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being
used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of
extras will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you
have more space than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most
of it seems to be used - likely you need to copy *your stuff* off
and/or find a better way to manage it.

Ryan Spehle wrote:
Thank you for the tips. I was able to clean up some of my hardrive
space (a little over a 1 GB) but I was not able to clean the patch
files from my "Installer" folder. The path you requested is....
"C:\WINDOWS\Installer". This folder is still at 39.2GB.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
It is strange that your "C:\Windows\Installer" folder would be that
size. I have managed machines that certainly are likely to have
more installed than you have (unless you happen to have AutoDesk,
3D Studio, Office 2007 and 2003, full Adobe Creative Suite, MatLab,
SAS, SPSS, Wisual Studio and various other little plugins and
programs installed needed to support a campus of 40K+ students and
their various classes...) and that folder is no-where near the size
you say yours is.

Download this tool:

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Run it and scan the offending folder - is there a particular
sub-folder taking up all of that room?
If so - which one is it?

You don't want to go deleting stuff from this folder - things can
go bad *and* you would lose the ability to uninstall some things.

There is something you could try - but as with anything - make sure
your backups are up to date first (your files/folders/product
keys/email/contacts/Internet favorites/etc) - because things can
still always go bad if the gnat lands on the butterfly's wing in
Alaska on a Tuesday... (In other words - anything can happen.)

You might download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be
exact.)

By the way... "memory" and "disk space" are not the same thing.
If you are getting "low memory" messages - those are different.

Ryan Spehle wrote:
Sorry for the delayed response. I thank you again for your time.
I did download the jdiskreport as suggested. There is not a large
subfolder however 98% of everything is a ".msp" file extension all
located in the "C:\Windows\Installer" folder. I am unable to
create a backup or a System Restore point. The computer will not
allow it, therefore, I do not feel comfortable running the
"msizap.exe" command that you had suggested. If this would solve
the issue with "good confidence", I will take the chance. Please
advise.

Also, I am not receiving a "low memory" message. I apologize for
the confusion by using incorrect terminology.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
Why will your computer not allow you to backup?

System Restore <> Backup of your stuff.

When I say backup - I mean connecting some external media to that
computer (whether that is writing to CD/DVD, external USB drive or
memory stick or a network share on another computer or a network
attached storage device...) and somehow copying at least your stuff
("My Documents", "Desktop", "Favorites", "Outlook Express Email",
"Outlook Email" and any executables you use to install applications
along with their associated product key/serial numbers, etc...) to
that external media. That could be drag-and-drop, that could be
using the built-in backup program, that could be using a third
party backup program or that could be using a program like Symantec
Ghost or Acronis TrueImage or something similar to make an image of
the entire hard disk drive. This is something you should be able
to do if you have zero space free on your main drive - as long as
it boots (and in some of the cases mentioned - whether it boots to
WIndows or not.)

The command I gave is fairly safe to perform. It would be safer
(as would daily use of the computer) if you had solid backups of at
least your stuff as well as the installation media for everything
else.

http://thebackroomtech.com/2009/01/19/howto-use-msizap-to-remove-orphaned-cached-windows-installer-data-files-to-increase-free-disk-space/

Want to be even more safe? Use that external media and simply
*move* everything in that folder (C:\Windows\Installer) to the
external media. Reboot. Now do the other cleanups (not the msizap)
to your machine. Once you have cleaned up/defragged and made a
solid backup of your system to external media (should be able to
now if your problem was somehow a lack of free space) - you have a
couple of choices.

(1) just keep that moved folder contents on the external drive and
continue using the computer until you feel confident enough to
delete the stuff. and/or
(2) *Copy* it back (copy, not move) and then run the MSIZAP command
to see what happens. You have a backup of the folder contents -
you should have a backup of the system state and your stuff.

Ryan Spehle wrote:
Thank you very much for your time on this subject. Using
"msizap.exe" seemed to do the trick and everything seems to work
fine as of yet. I went from
39.2GB to 818MB in that folder. I really appreciate this.

Glad that helped and thank you for returning to let everyone know!

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


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