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What is Disk Cleanup Wizard?

Posted By : michael of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on June 8, 2004

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Whenever I try to do my dsik cleanup, it crashes my computer after about half an hour. It gets to about three bars, says it's "Compressing Old Files" and stays that way till my computer completely shuts down. The next time I reboot it, everything moves really slow, if it comes back on at all. I've done a defrag in safe mode, too already. Any ideas? Thanks!

This question was answered on June 8, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Windows and Windows applications create temporary files as they run Working programs store bits of data in files called temporary or temp files These are files that can be erased when they are no longer needed In a good situation these temp files are deleted when the applications close Yet poorly written programs bad shutdowns, program hangs, and computer crashes often leave unneeded temporary files on the hard drive With time these files add up eating up hard disk space and at times impairing computer performance If your computer is acting sluggish, deleting accumulated temp files may help to speed it up Also some shutdown problems and download problems can be cured by cleaning up your temp files Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP come with a Disk Cleanup Wizard that streamlines the process of clearing out unwanted temp files To access the Wizard click on the Start button and choose Programs (All Programs in Windows XP) Then choose Accessories, System Tools, and Disk Cleanup.

The wizard will give you the option of cleaning up all your hard drive partitions if you have more than one It will show you how much space is being taken by unneeded temporary Internet files, as well as other temporary files, downloaded program files, and offline Web pages This Disk Cleanup Helper will even empty the Recycle Bin for you Just check the box in front of the item, click OK, and the wizard will clean up your disk Get rid of at least the temporary Internet files and other temporary files Remember that the files in the Recycle Bin take up hard drive space so you may want to have the wizard empty your trash as well.

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Posted by michael of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on June 8, 2004

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