Arrgh.

[kengr]

I've been mostly unable to do anything on this system for almost two days.

At 3 am Wed morning, the weekly Norton AV scan started. This is a major performance hit at the best of times.

It continued all thru Wed along with warnings from XP about low disk space.

Finally this evening I had to abort because the drive was full.

After doing much digging, I discovered 9.3 *gigabytes* of temp files in an obscure directory (C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp). The dates of a lot of them matched up with the time NAV runs.

I'm not sure if Norton or WinXP is to blame. I suspect XP may be at least partially to blame because I discovered a while back that the "recent documents" list went all the way back to when I first got the system.

So, is there a setting that tells XP to get rid of old temp files and the like?

Comments

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

You might try Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Clean up

Another thing that might help is to clean up your temporary internet files. If you use Explorer go to Tools - Internet Options. Under the General tab, in the middle of the menu, hit Delete Cookies and Delete Files. You'll get another option when you press Delete Files. Check the Delete All Offline Content box. Another thing you can do is to go to the Advanced tab on the Tools - Internet Options menu. Scroll down to near the bottom of the menu and check the Delete Temporary Internet Files When Browser is Closed box.

[kengr]

That's what's driving me nuts. Windows brought that up *itself* as the disk space got lower and lower. And it doesn't consider the contents of that directory to be "temporary files"!!!!!

That's why I figured that there's got to be a setting somewhere that's messed up.

Well..

[seawasp]

So, is there a setting that tells XP to get rid of old temp files and the like?

Format C:, of course.

Then install some flavor of Linux, or if you MUST, Win2k.

(sorry, I know, cheap shot)

Norton, according to a number of sources, is far down the list now in good AV programs. Time was it was the best, but now apparently it's about middling level.

Re: Well..

[kengr]

Well, it was *supposed* to havbe Win2k on it, but due to some hassles with PayPal (may Virigar eat their souls!) I forgot that the system I was buying was one that was available with either. So the seller defaulted to XP.

And since I *do* need to be able to support idiots running it, I left it on the system.

I've got one "has to run "Linux" box (that Cobalt RAQ4 I scored last week) and will be setting up another one I can more easily mess with eventually. And I've got a couple systems slated for Win2k.

But I'm leaning toward "this *has* to be misconfigured" at the moment. Of course, trying to *find* the config setting I'll need is going to be a major task since MS help file writers never ever write them so that the search terms that come naturally to someone who knows what they are doing will work.

As an example, I suggest trying to find how to network a pair of Win95 or 98 boxes using a serial or parallel connection. They do tell you how to do it. *If* you happen to hit on the insane keyword for it...

Re: Well..

[kengr]

Oh yeah, aboput Norton not being so hot. Yeah, I'm not gonna renew the sub next time it expires. And I'm not about to buy new versions of Systemworks given the fiascos. But the Norton Utilities part of the package still does still that I haven't found better tools for, even though it does do them as well as it could.

My primary AV program is F-Prot. Gonna have to dig up a new secondary.