Hard drive getting full

TechnoMage2021 · Apr 8, 2024

For a very long time, too long probably, when a person ran out of space on their HD they'd just buy a bigger one!
Without any thought that their HD might just be full of S**t.
I purposely buy comparatively small (120GB ssd's) because I know I'll perform proper maintenance on them and keep them Clean, Lean and Mean!
I keep a 1TB backup drive in my PC, for storage of Images, ISO's and Music. I never store large files like that on my main Drive.
And even for ISO's, I have permanent home for those on an 8TB drive on another computer.

Firefox is one of the worse pack-rats I've ever seen. In just one day it can generate thousands of 'Temporary Internet Files'.
And they don't go away by themselves. But I have a fix for that:

This one line, in my Cleanup batch file, deletes all the TIF's while preserving my saved passwords and log-ins.
del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.*"

That line can also be run from a command prompt, for anyone wanting to test it.
Or just stick it into your own Batch File.

And then at the end of the run, I'll get a report like this:

And, that was just one day, and nothing atypical (special or different) about it either.

Keeping a Clean Machine is so simple, I'm surprised that so many users are totally adverse to it!

Cheers Mates!
TM

Cowboy · Apr 8, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
For a very long time, too long probably, when a person ran out of space on their HD they'd just buy a bigger one!
Without any thought that their HD might just be full of S**t.
I purposely buy comparatively small (120GB ssd's) because I know I'll perform proper maintenance on them and keep them Clean, Lean and Mean!
I keep a 1TB backup drive in my PC, for storage of Images, ISO's and Music. I never store large files like that on my main Drive.
And even for ISO's, I have permanent home for those on an 8TB drive on another computer.

Firefox is one of the worse pack-rats I've ever seen. In just one day it can generate thousands of 'Temporary Internet Files'.
And they don't go away by themselves. But I have a fix for that:

This one line, in my Cleanup batch file, deletes all the TIF's while preserving my saved passwords and log-ins.
del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.*"

That line can also be run from a command prompt, for anyone wanting to test it.
Or just stick it into your own Batch File.

And then at the end of the run, I'll get a report like this:
View attachment 92853
And, that was just one day, and nothing atypical (special or different) about it either.

Keeping a Clean Machine is so simple, I'm surprised that so many users are totally adverse to it!

Cheers Mates!
TM

Failed (Linux user mostly. Not use to Windows cmd syntax)

PS C:> del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.*"
Remove-Item : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/S'.
At line:1 char:2
+ del /F /S /Q "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Prof ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Remove-Item], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemComman

Bree · Apr 8, 2024

Cowboy said:
Failed (Linux user mostly. Not use to Windows cmd syntax)

Failed because you used a Powershell prompt. This needs to be run from a Command prompt.

Cowboy · Apr 8, 2024

Bree said:
Failed because you used a Powershell prompt. This needs to be run from a Command prompt.

Thanks!

ICIT2LOL · Apr 8, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
For a very long time, too long probably, when a person ran out of space on their HD they'd just buy a bigger one!
Without any thought that their HD might just be full of S**t.

Yes TM that is just what I was contemplating to do as I have a spare 1TB Pci express drive but but deleting this misplaced backup folders I have enough space and even more so after running those command prompts that you replied with

I shall when I get time have a look at your other stuff in your reply too!!

Winuser · Apr 8, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
This one line, in my Cleanup batch file, deletes all the TIF's while preserving my saved passwords and log-ins.

I just ran that command. I don't know how many files was removed but I didn't think is was going stop.

TechnoMage2021 · Apr 9, 2024

In just one day, deleting the Temporary Internet Files Created by Firefox, can run on and on for several screens (pages), using the command I posted above. And yes, that runs in DOS, not in the Windows Command Shell. In Windows that's called a Command Prompt.... the word DOS is seldom if ever mentioned. I guess that's just considered too "Old School" even though it's on every Windows PC. DOS is what I started out with, back in 1980, and I still use it every day.

In just a few months, on any well used PC, over a million TIF's could be created, and yes that will take a few minutes to clean up that mess.
In my past life as a Computer Repair Tech, I've spent Hours, cleaning up a customer's PC. That was before I put all my Cleanup tricks into one Batch File. That computer cleanup would be a lot simpler today.
And since my Cleanup.bat program counts all the files on the C: drive both before and after the Cleanup, the final printout shows exactly how many files were removed. (File count, not Megabytes) When that number is really GREAT, I like to copy that screen, crop it and then save it.
Like this:

Yes, that 339068 files was just from one day, now carry that out to a year, and you've got 123,759,820 (junk files). More or less!
And, I've had to clean up PC's that have had NO Maintenance for several Years. Long enough for a CMOS battery to die.

Cheers Mates!
TM