Can I delete old CAB files???

JCO1 · 9th June 2003

Around 2 yrs ago, a "computer techno guy" <g> (and I am NOT one) helped me install a network at home. After his help, a program called CABBIS would load and appear in a DOS window every time Windows ME would reboot. I would have to manually close this CABBIS window each time I restarted my machine.

I understand (I think) that CABBIS is the program that kinda "images" your hard drive for backup & restore, right? As a result of this program booting on startup, I have significant number (scores) of *.CAB files, most of which are in C:\_Restore\Archive and all are Winzip files . The files range in size from 1KB (just a few) to 300KB or so (depending on when I closed the CABBIS window I presume) to as large as 9.238KB (many files this size and I presume this size file was a "complete" backup). The dates of these files range from 10/2002 to 5/2003. The CAB files in the C:\_Restore\Archive have 2 primary types of names. The first name is "FS1.CAB" all the way up to "FS849.CAB" (there are a lot of these that appear to be sequentially numbered). The second type of name is like "RG3DBFC483.CAB" all the way up to RG3EB81260.CAB" (the letters and numbers seem to increment with their creation dates).

I disabled CABBIS loading upon startup several mths ago, but it appears that some of these files have since been created even though I never saw the CABBIS window (which always appeared as a DOS window) actually open. I think ME creates these on a scheduled basis, correct?

Finally, (and I hope this doesn't confuse things further) I believe that many if not all of these files are not "good" backup/restore files and here's why...I first noticed/found these files back in August after getting rid of a lot of viruses & worms that had infected my system. I had tried to do a "system restore" (didn't really know what the heck I was doing tho) but kept getting an error message like (don't remember exactly) "the restore date you've chosen is bad...choose another date". I successfully deleted all my viruses/worms early this year, & my machine has been clean since, so I assume that any "complete" CAB since that time would be virus-free" (Norton tells me that all of my files are virus-free). At any rate, I know that all CAB files created this year never had any types of virus). I hope this virus issue doesn't take the discussion off in a bad tangent <g>. Whew!

Here are my questions:

1) Can I safely delete any or many of these CAB files in the C:\_Restore\Archive directory? If so, which types?

2) How does ME create a system restore file? Does it do it automatically? Do I need to run a program?

3) Does the Norton "image" utility perform the same function as the CAB file? This is just a 'nice to know' kind of question.

4) I have other CAB files in other program directories (like QUICKEN). I leave these alone, correct?

Thanks in advance. Oh...please don't BURY me w/technoPCspeak. I basically don't know what the heck I'm talking about here.

**markp62** · 10th June 2003

The files in C:\_Restore\Archive are your restore points for ME. If you want to purge these.

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click System, and then click the Performance tab.
Click File System, and then click the Troubleshooting tab.
Click to select the Disable System Restore check box, click Apply, click to clear the Disable System Restore check box, click Apply, and then click OK.
Restart the computer when you are prompted to do so. When the computer restarts, the data store is purged and the System Restore feature begins monitoring the system again.

**Lonny Jones** · 10th June 2003

Quote:

I disabled CABBIS loading upon startup several mths ago, but it appears that some of these files have since been created even though I never saw the CABBIS window (which always appeared as a DOS window) actually open. I think ME creates these on a scheduled basis, correct?

spelling is important "CABBIS" is it possible you have or had:
Caddais BackupOnDemand BODMon.exe Caddais BackupOnDemand - maybe a trial version?
http://www.caddais.com/BackupOnDemand.shtml

Quote:

1) Can I safely delete any or many of these CAB files in the C:\_Restore\Archive directory? If so, which types?

no not manualy, It can be done from dos but only would be necessary if marks suggestion doenst work,
I have no idea if any third party backup programs would put something there ..
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Quote:

2) How does ME create a system restore file? Does it do it automatically? Do I need to run a program?

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;267951
=========

Quote:

3) Does the Norton "image" utility perform the same function as the CAB file? This is just a 'nice to know' kind of question.

Ive no idea
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Quote:

4) I have other CAB files in other program directories (like QUICKEN). I leave these alone, correct?

do not touch any files zipped or not unless you know exactly what they are,, Just use diskcleanup if you are short on disk space

Quote:

Oh...please don't BURY me w/technoPCspeak

i feel exactly the same way sometimes

One of the most important thigs you can do besides keeping everything up to date is to learn how and what can be disable from starting up with windows , it seams dounting at first,
but is very simple..
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm

post back if help is needed
Lonny
My spell check isnttt wooking sorry

JCO1 · 10th June 2003

I disabled "system restore" yet still have 739 of the "FS*.CAB files" totalling 598MB, and 48 of the "RG3E*.CAB" files totalling 428MB.

I presume that one wants to have multiple restore points, but many of mine are from sequential days (like 20 days in a row), where I know that I didn't do anything significant each day as regards adding/removing programs, system maintenance, etc.

Also, hundreds of the FS*.CAB files are less than 100KB, so I'm betting that these are partial files created back when CABBIS was loading upon every startup and I would manually close the DOS window.

It's not essential that I get rid of these right now, 'cause I have plenty of hard disk space. The annoyance is that it takes Norton Antivirus about an hour to just to scan thru these .CAB files. Ditto AdAware.

**markp62** · 11th June 2003

This page has the simplest and best info on System Restore and ME I have found on it.
At this point, I would delete all the files. System Restore will begin making new ones by itself.

Isn't there an option in Norton not to scan certain folders?