Windows 98 computer question/help

Reg · 03-30-2003, 03:39 PM

Hi

Our PC at work is an IBM unit ( Its a p3 733 with 128 ram) that came with a partitioned disk with the OS of W98SE on part of the 10 gig hard drive.

It has been a couple of years now since we have purchased the system and I checked the other day to see how much space was left to use. Upon my review, I noticed that my windows TEMP folder has three files in it that are taking up about 3GB of space.

I do not know what they are. Is it safe to delete them? Sometimes the compter is very slow, doing things like long pauses after you click something and the like. I do not want to screw things up and lose alot of information.

I am a self taught computer user and while I know more about them than my 911, I still would appreciate some opinions from you.

Thanks so much!

Reg

CamB · CamB's Garage

What the hell has this got to do with the war?!!???!

Oh wait - off topic, not war forum. My mistake.

What are the names of the files???

Reg · 03-30-2003, 04:41 PM

they were some weird files that I couldnt read and cannot remember.

I'll post from work tomorrow.

Thanks.

Reg

Reg · 03-31-2003, 07:53 AM

~PDT4461.tmp is what the files are . There are 7 of these such files with different numbers in their names with different dates on them and the largest is taking up 2gb of space.

The computer sometimes seems very slow in responding to mouse commands which makes me think something is up.

Thanks again for any comments or suggestions.

Reg

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Reg:
You can try to delete everything that's in the TEMP folder. If a resource is using a file you are trying to delete, it won't let you delete it.
3 GB of temp storage would result in a slower system. If you are worried about deleting something, then just keep it in the recycle bin, restart your computer, and check your appilcations to ensure they are running properly. Then delete the files from your system completely.

Also: you should periodically clean out your temporary internet files, internet history, and cookies. (In MS Internet explorer just click on "Tools" and "Internet Options" they you should see buttons that you can click to delete temp. internet files, cookies, and history.)

Once you have deleted all the old junk, you may want to run a Disk Defragmentor if you haven't in a while. Defragging your hard drive should also make your system run a little faster.

HTH,
-Zoltan.

PS: CamB: cute post about the "WAR FORUM" It's nice to see a non-War related post here...

Reg · 03-31-2003, 08:17 AM

Thanks Z-man!

I have attempted to defrag the drive a few times. I even set it to run through in the middle of the night because it was taking so long to run through.

I came to work the next dat and moved the mouse and received the message somthing like "contents of drive changed, restarting" not knowing if it had in fact defragged the disk.

Reg · 03-31-2003, 09:42 AM

The files are too big for the recycle bin

Can I just cut and paste them to another file folder? Should I rename them too?

Thanks!

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Just delete them. I wouldn't worry too much about the temp files.

regarding Defrag: make sure all applications are closed, and the screensaver is turned off, and re-run defrag.

-Z.

adrian jaye · 03-31-2003, 01:21 PM

I agree with Z man,

just delete them, also regually do a Scandisk, as well as a defrag.

oh, and BACKUP !

RustyLeskiv · 04-03-2003, 11:16 AM

If you want your defrag to work better and without interuptions, then restart the computer in Safe-Mode, and then run Defrag. That way nothing that can interupt defrag will load. When defrag is done just restart your computer in regular mode.

Zendalar · 04-03-2003, 11:31 AM

Safe mode = veery slow defrag...Well its slow anyway, usually takes hours to do, so you might wanna leave it on for a night.

Norton SpeedDisk does better job, lot faster, but its commercial software.

Zendalar · 04-03-2003, 11:33 AM

oh yeah, if nothing else helps:

Reg · 04-04-2003, 10:02 AM

thanks again

I deleted the one large temp file and then turned off screen savers and power savings and let it run the course.

So far , so good but I have yet to run all my apps. I think it has something to do with system save IBM software that was put onto the disk from the factory.