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View Full Version : Disc cleanup tool in windows XP


Twoflower
15-10-2007, 12:02 PM
damn i need to vent here.

so for some time, my c drive was under 200 MB. Every time, this window pops up whit the "low space" warning and the disc cleanup tool starts.

So, yesterday, when i tried to install the UT3 demo, of course this happened again. Since it was time for dinner anyway, i thaught i'd let it run and see if it realy finds some free space i ve missed.

Boy was i surprised when i came back from dinner.

Mind you, this is a tool which comes whit windows XP, and is from microsoft. You can find it in your start menu, but i would advise against it. realy.

The damn thing sure made room for new data. It deleted 7GB of my 8 GB system drive.

Among these 7GB were such things as ALL my applications ( sound player, video player, internet browser, Teamspeak, ICQ, photoshop, acrobat reader, all codecs for media playback, microsoft office, everything ! ), all my documents in c:mydocuments, all my settings and favorites and bookmarks of damn every program ever installed, almost all registry entries and cruicial windows elements.

out of confusion i rebootet and was greeted whit the message that "windows element windows\system32\something.dll is missing, please reinstall". My pc never worked again.

How can they deliver a "cleanup" tool ( well, yes, it did clean up, but you could just make it format your harddrive ) which is such a major screwup ?

never ever use that thing, guys !

needed to rant.

Khab
15-10-2007, 02:02 PM
I rarely use that tool but I have never heard or seen the issue you describe. If you need to get your files back there are tools out there that can help you to recover the files. I use a program called GetDataBack.

Twoflower
15-10-2007, 02:08 PM
i would have tried to, but i couldnt even boot windows any more. had to reinstall from scratch.

i see now that this program promises to do it even then. i ll try it tonight when i get home. thx for the tip :)

Tunga
15-10-2007, 02:51 PM
That tool shouldn't go near those things. Sounds like yours was horribly broken or you got a virus.

Kalos
15-10-2007, 02:58 PM
I have used the tool many times, but I've never got it to munch through system files before. Something extra-ordinary happened to it, as I've never managed to get the regular version of it to do anything like that. My partions are far bigger however, I don't like limiting space and then having to rejiggle the partion sizes to make something fit. Though it's hardly helpful, perhaps you could consider a bigger harddrive?