Disk cleanup XP (drive c)

The only box checked on disk cleanup is Temp Internet files. I spoke with a tech at Compaq and he told me it was ok to check the rest of the files. While doing this I ran into a problem. I'm embarassed to say that I can't remember what happened except that I had to restore to an earlier point. (this was about two months ago) I do remember that the only files that had changed at this point was "compressed old files" and that I kept getting some message to put the disk in the drive. Can all of these files be cleaned? I believe I remember it saying that the compressed files would not be deleted so what the heck happened?

download program files
temp internet files
offline web pages
recycle bin
setup log files
temp files
web client/publish temp files
compress old files
catalog files for the content indexer

I'm sure I must have my notes on exactly what happened somewhere.

Thanks,
Edith

 

Edith, I suppose the compression of the old files could have corrupted one that was needed. Anything is possible.

As a matter of form, I never recommend compressing those files unless drive space is running short and you have no other option. In fact I have edited the Registry so that the clean up process doesn't offer that option any more. It causes trouble on some systems when a file being checked for possible compression is corrupt and it hangs the entire process.

You most certainly should be able to run the Disk Cleanup routine without fear of hosing your system. What happened to you was a fluke so don't let it deter you from using that applet in the future. Just don't check the box for compressing those older files, it's not worth it.