warning about Vista's disk cleanup


Recommended Posts

why would you want to clean a non system disk in the first place? I agree disk cleanup is doing something wrong here, but what did you expect to happen when you run it on a disk only filled with downloads?

i didnt expect it to find lots of temporary files or anything, but i certainly didnt expect it to clean almost my entire drive either.

maybe you should get youself a good drive and not some faulty piece of crap maxtor drive. Get a seagate drive!

Leave everything on default and dont install aftermarket 3rd party crap - its your own fault - learn from it.

wow nothing is wrong with maxtor drives, seagate bought them for a reason...

maybe you should get youself a good drive and not some faulty piece of crap maxtor drive. Get a seagate drive!

Leave everything on default and dont install aftermarket 3rd party crap - its your own fault - learn from it.

Remember to not feed the trolls folks.

Back on topic. I haven't seen this yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it in the future.

Scary if this is a bug. I just checked in on mine and it looks like my system is fine, although It's reporting 3.00gb of "Files Discarded by Windows Upgrade". I originally did an upgrade, and then deleted and did a new install. I moved the program files and windows directory myself before doing the new installation, so I don't know where it's pulling these files from.

@Aero Ultimate - i would have removed Disk Cleanup if vLite could. maybe the next version or the one after will let me do so.

@mfinn999 - i took the screenshots from a newer installation; this incident happened earlier.

i know it was stupidity on my part to have run disk cleanup, but like nevets said, i could have gotten 120gb free!

Edited by anonymous_user
@Aero Ultimate - i would have removed Disk Cleanup if vLite could. maybe the next version or the one after will let me do so.

@mfinn999 - i took the screenshots from a newer installation; this incident happened earlier.

i know it was stupidity on my part to have run disk cleanup, but like nevets said, i could have gotten 120gb free!

Why are you unable to accept the fact that vLite may have caused this screw-up? I've seen nLite hose many a XP system, mine included.

The more stuff you remove via vLite, the harder troubleshooting these kinds of errors becomes - and for what? Saving a couple hundred megs of disk space on a 250 GB drive?

Yeah, if there is any remote possibility that disc cleanup would erase the harddrive then the message boards should be lit the hell up.

Also, if I bought a new car and it had as many holes as ANY release of Windows has had then I would be under the hood before I got out of the car lot.

I ran Vista?s Disk Clean up while I was in a hurry to leave home one evening. Got back and I didn?t have any programs listed on my start menu. Reboot and Windows couldn?t repair the problem or boot into Windows. My fault for not looking before doing the disk cleanup but this was a clean install. I didn?t have any third party performance utilities installed or other tweaking software installed.

  • 2 weeks later...

To all the people making fun of the original poster, etc, etc.. You types don't have any business replying in such a derogatory manner if you haven't investigated the issue yourself.

Now, I too had this problem. Unfortunately I didn't look hard enough and thought it said 98MB instead of 98GB as I quickly checked all the boxes and hit OK. So, a minute later I had a wiped Vista install, only the core was working, nothing left for program files or anything. Note: I had only a stock home premium install, no cleaners, no special installs, just a factory install of vista. Again, FACTORY install on a toshiba notebook, and using disk cleaner wiped most of my install. I would say it a third or fourth time but surely you get the point by now.

So, since this happened just last night, today I just wiped the drive and reinstalled vista. Sure enough, with a clean install that I finished about 30 minutes ago, if I go to Disk Cleaner right now and look, it says something like 68GB... This time I'm not checking that box :)

This is obviously a Vista bug. It is, after all, only a couple months since release..

To all the people making fun of the original poster, etc, etc.. You types don't have any business replying in such a derogatory manner if you haven't investigated the issue yourself.

Now, I too had this problem. Unfortunately I didn't look hard enough and thought it said 98MB instead of 98GB as I quickly checked all the boxes and hit OK. So, a minute later I had a wiped Vista install, only the core was working, nothing left for program files or anything. Note: I had only a stock home premium install, no cleaners, no special installs, just a factory install of vista. Again, FACTORY install on a toshiba notebook, and using disk cleaner wiped most of my install. I would say it a third or fourth time but surely you get the point by now.

So, since this happened just last night, today I just wiped the drive and reinstalled vista. Sure enough, with a clean install that I finished about 30 minutes ago, if I go to Disk Cleaner right now and look, it says something like 68GB... This time I'm not checking that box :)

This is obviously a Vista bug. It is, after all, only a couple months since release..

What model Toshiba?

I'm calling foul on this whole thread- the dialog boxes posted on the first post's screen shots are not the default Vista size (the cleanmgr dialog is a couple of pixels short, the disk properties dialog is missing more than a few lines of blank space under the "Index this drive for faster searching"). I checked it against three of my computers running Vista and all of the dialog boxes were the same size.

And if you look real close, you'll see black pixels on the corner of each dialog box. This isn't abnormal, per se, particularly if the user had a black desktop. But, the shadows around the dialog boxes extend around the black pixels instead of overlaying them as one would expect. It looks like the dialogs were cropped and edited and the shadow was added around the image- around the black pixels instead of over them.

Edited by tao muon
  • 4 weeks later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • My issue is I can't access the forum on mobile if the site is set to Desktop mode on Vivaldi because it can't complete the Cloud flare am I a bot check! I know this is a Vivaldi issues as it has started happening on all cloud flare check sites, it's so annoying, I've reported it but no fix yet.
    • Are you going to do performance benchmarks comparing all states? I'd be interested in seeing that in the next "part".
    • My father still uses a programme written in dbase3. Still manages to work with a little help from dosbox. 
    • Microsoft hides these secret Windows 11 performance boost settings available on every PC by Sayan Sen Windows enthusiasts often look for ways to extract as much performance out of their systems as possible, and it's often the case that they try and do so while trying to minimize the heat and power consumption. This is especially relevant in the case of mobile Windows PCs since laptops and notebooks tend to get hot and management of that heat and power is harder in such a form factor. As such users often turn to techniques like under-volting which can be used to squeeze out the maximum capabilities of a chip while also maintaining lowered power levels. There are official apps from AMD and Intel with the likes of Ryzen Master and XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility). While these are quite handy, most enthusiasts probably prefer to dig into the BIOS and play around with settings there like Curve Optimizer on Ryzen, which lets users set various frequency-voltage scaling values. These are essentially called P-States. If you are not familiar with them, Processor Power Management is done through Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) P-states and C-states. While P-states or performance pwoer states handle CPU voltage-frequency scaling, C-states deal with CPU sleep states so that some of the CPU functions, which are not necessary at that moment, can be disabled. The P-states and C-states work together to make the processor run more efficiently. It helps the OS and apps determine which cores can be parked and which should be boosted. Of course not every user is an enthusiast or knows the technicalities and integrities of how things like overclocking or undervolting work. Thankfully for them Windows itself offers something pretty cool, though it is hidden by default on all systems. By default, Windows only has two P-States, "Minimum Processor State" and "Maximum Processor State." However, this can be changed with a Registry trick to expand the options under a secret "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown. This essentially enables the HWP or hardware P-States available on a device, and these are not controlled just by the OS itself as the underlying hardware gets involved too. In total there are five Processor Performance Boost Mode profiles that control how Windows requests and allows CPU turbo/boost behavior under the different power policies. They are: Disabled: In this mode, processor boosting is effectively turned off. The CPU will avoid entering turbo or boost frequencies and instead operate closer to its base frequency ceiling. This can significantly reduce power consumption and heat output, but at the cost of reduced burst performance and responsiveness in short workloads. Enabled: This is the standard behavior where boost functionality is allowed under normal conditions. The processor can opportunistically increase frequency when workload demands it, balancing performance gains with power and thermal constraints as managed by the system. Aggressive: Aggressive mode favors performance more heavily, allowing the CPU to enter higher boost states more readily and sustain them longer. This should in theory improve responsiveness under bursty or heavy workloads but increases power draw and thermal output compared to the default enabled behavior. Efficient Enabled: This mode still allows boosting, but with a stronger bias toward energy efficiency. The system attempts to use boost more selectively, avoiding unnecessary frequency spikes when the performance gain is marginal. Efficient Aggressive: This is a hybrid approach where boost is still performance-responsive, but the system continuously weighs efficiency more heavily than in Aggressive mode. It aims to deliver noticeable performance improvements while reducing wasted power in less demanding scenarios. Here's how to enable the Processor performance boost mode: Open Registry Editor: Press Win+R, type regedit, and click OK. Go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7 (where HKLM stands for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_) Modify the value of Attributes from 1 to 2 (you can find modify option by right-clicking) After that, exit Registry, you should now be able to see the new "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown menu: As you can see there are now five new P-States or CPPC states or power profile available that help define the boost mode processor setting on your PC. Wrapping it up here's a quick run-down of the settings as defined by Microsoft itself. Setting Description Disabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is disabled. Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) behaviour is disabled. Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Efficient Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Efficient Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows calculates the desired extra performance above the guaranteed performance level, and asks the processor to deliver that specific performance level. Efficient Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows always asks the processor to deliver the highest possible performance above the guaranteed performance level. In the next part we shall be comparing these settings to explore how much of a benefit or regression they can provide in terms of performance and power efficiency. If you decide to change the values on your system and are experiencing problems like crashes or an overheating PC, make sure to revert the steps back to the original state.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      518
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      198
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      147
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      93
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      78
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!