Delete Dross Q for JK

John

Recently I cancelled/interrupted the rendering of a 25GB avi file, yet that
sucker still lives -- somewhere -- on my hard drive. I've tried lots of
searches via Explorer with zero success, so my "Plan B" was to dust off the
PC DOS 6.3 command manual and rig up a command string that will ID this ghost
file... until I spotted your DeleteDross routine -- but it sounds like I need
to feed DeleteDross the filename -- is this correct ?

Any thoughts/ideas appreciated -- thanks for your time.

Harry
--
"A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money"

boatperson
Fri Nov 26 08:53:01 CST 2004

John

I tried searching for "*.tmp" and "ASH*.*" which were the leading 3 chars in
the name I provided to MM2, but no luck -- could it be that this ghost file
is actually corrupted and not even recognized as a valid file -- i.e., would
you suggest a scan for errors on the hard drive ?

Harry

"BoatPerson" wrote:

> John
>
> Recently I cancelled/interrupted the rendering of a 25GB avi file, yet that
> sucker still lives -- somewhere -- on my hard drive. I've tried lots of
> searches via Explorer with zero success, so my "Plan B" was to dust off the
> PC DOS 6.3 command manual and rig up a command string that will ID this ghost
> file... until I spotted your DeleteDross routine -- but it sounds like I need
> to feed DeleteDross the filename -- is this correct ?
>
> Any thoughts/ideas appreciated -- thanks for your time.
>
> Harry
> --
> "A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money"

PapaJohn
Sat Nov 27 00:27:13 CST 2004

If you were doing the rendering with Movie Maker, the folder the temp file
would be in is defined in your Tools > Options > Settings
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

.
"BoatPerson" <boatperson@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:929062F7-ACF4-40B5-9F8A-0DCF8CB810D5@microsoft.com...
> John
>
> I tried searching for "*.tmp" and "ASH*.*" which were the leading 3 chars
> in
> the name I provided to MM2, but no luck -- could it be that this ghost
> file
> is actually corrupted and not even recognized as a valid file -- i.e.,
> would
> you suggest a scan for errors on the hard drive ?
>
> Harry
>
> "BoatPerson" wrote:
>
>> John
>>
>> Recently I cancelled/interrupted the rendering of a 25GB avi file, yet
>> that
>> sucker still lives -- somewhere -- on my hard drive. I've tried lots of
>> searches via Explorer with zero success, so my "Plan B" was to dust off
>> the
>> PC DOS 6.3 command manual and rig up a command string that will ID this
>> ghost
>> file... until I spotted your DeleteDross routine -- but it sounds like I
>> need
>> to feed DeleteDross the filename -- is this correct ?
>>
>> Any thoughts/ideas appreciated -- thanks for your time.
>>
>> Harry
>> --
>> "A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money"

boatperson
Sat Nov 27 05:19:01 CST 2004

PJ

Thanks, I'll make a note of that.

I'm still getting used to this "dot-net sign-in" procedure -- I actually
found it a couple of hours after posting, but had trouble getting back in to
the NewsGroup. However, I resorted to the room-full-of-monkeys approach by
issuing the following DOS command:

C:\ dir *.* /p /a:-s-d /o:-s /s

and paged through a few hundred screens and finally found this:

C:\Documents and Settings\RHM\Local Settings\Temp\
11/25/2004 01:29 PM 26,688,552,971 MMJF.tmp

The curious thing is that neither Windows Explorer nor Delete Dross were
able to find this file when fed the "*.tmp" search critera, so I'm gussing
that WinXP itself (Home in my case) puts certain directories and/or files
off-limits... since the DOS command did find it and is not subject to XP's
assumptions. While I could have deleted this file in the DOS mode, I wanted
to see if, armed with the above info, I could get Explorer to find this file.
The answer was YES, but I had to feed it almost the entire filespec (!!!) to
complete the "search":

C:\Documents and Settings\RHM\Local Settings\Temp\*.tmp

A further irony here is that clearly, in retrospect, I could have found this
file much quicker if I had just used the *.tmp (instead of *.*) criteria in
the DOS command, but Explorer/WinXP had led me to believe that there were no
such "huge" temp files... so I wound up having to page through several
hundred screens worth data -- talk about frustrating.

I think it's about time that Microsoft started making available a
"superuser" class of login in addition to just "user" and "admin"... at least
for debugging purposes, but then I guess their dial-up support dollars would
tank -- can't have that happen... what a racket.

Harry



"PapaJohn (MVP)" wrote:

> If you were doing the rendering with Movie Maker, the folder the temp file
> would be in is defined in your Tools > Options > Settings
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
> Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org
>
> ..
> "BoatPerson" <boatperson@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:929062F7-ACF4-40B5-9F8A-0DCF8CB810D5@microsoft.com...
> > John
> >
> > I tried searching for "*.tmp" and "ASH*.*" which were the leading 3 chars
> > in
> > the name I provided to MM2, but no luck -- could it be that this ghost
> > file
> > is actually corrupted and not even recognized as a valid file -- i.e.,
> > would
> > you suggest a scan for errors on the hard drive ?
> >
> > Harry
> >
> > "BoatPerson" wrote:
> >
> >> John
> >>
> >> Recently I cancelled/interrupted the rendering of a 25GB avi file, yet
> >> that
> >> sucker still lives -- somewhere -- on my hard drive. I've tried lots of
> >> searches via Explorer with zero success, so my "Plan B" was to dust off
> >> the
> >> PC DOS 6.3 command manual and rig up a command string that will ID this
> >> ghost
> >> file... until I spotted your DeleteDross routine -- but it sounds like I
> >> need
> >> to feed DeleteDross the filename -- is this correct ?
> >>
> >> Any thoughts/ideas appreciated -- thanks for your time.
> >>
> >> Harry
> >> --
> >> "A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money"
>
>
>

John
Sat Nov 27 05:22:10 CST 2004

Hello,

One of the MVP's just been told that I had a message in here.

The DOS 6.3 command set is not fully implemented within XP

Delete Dross will find any file that you user status allows access
to....to search every location you need administrator access rights in
addition you may also want to enable access to the system areas...this is
NEVER a good thing to do. You would not normally need Administrator rights
to find anything that Movie Maker could create.

As far as finding a particular file goes, you simply enter that name, or
wildcard name into DD and it will do the rest....for example...to find
tempjktest.avi using wildcards you could enter *jk*.* or *jk*.avi and the
program will do the rest and find every occurrence that fits the wildcard
pattern....the benefit of DD is that next time you do a search that wildcard
name will also be searched for (Unless you delete it from the search list
that is)

Movie Maker locks certain files so that they cannot be deleted whilst
Movie Maker is running, and if a normal exit of the program occurs it will
delete those files and sub directories on the way out. To prove that it has
done this go TOOL > Options and then the General Tab and note the folder for
temporary storage. Close MM and go to that location...assuming the location
is unique to MM you can delete all of the files in there (and directories)

Delete Dross was created because of a need to delete temporary files
that are forever being created by the Operating System and most programs
that do not clean up properly after themselves. Because the search feature
in XP is almost useless in respect of remembering wildcard file names used
in the past and because it is in any case VERY slow...I wrote Delete Dross.
It deletes around half a meg every day for me, this has an advantage that is
not immediately obvious....it helps keep down file fragmentation......or
more properly it help keep free space fragmentation down to a
minimum...always good when using Movie Maker or any other program that
creates very large files.

For further help please go to the Forums on my website.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
---------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work


"BoatPerson" <boatperson@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:A5C2AF2B-54BB-409B-A830-AE07EB70D7AF@microsoft.com...
> John
>
> Recently I cancelled/interrupted the rendering of a 25GB avi file, yet
> that
> sucker still lives -- somewhere -- on my hard drive. I've tried lots of
> searches via Explorer with zero success, so my "Plan B" was to dust off
> the
> PC DOS 6.3 command manual and rig up a command string that will ID this
> ghost
> file... until I spotted your DeleteDross routine -- but it sounds like I
> need
> to feed DeleteDross the filename -- is this correct ?
>
> Any thoughts/ideas appreciated -- thanks for your time.
>
> Harry
> --
> "A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money"