Hard Disk - Remove Metadata?
I recently re-installed Windows XP Home on an old laptop when replacing the hard disk. All updates have been installed. After about a month of 'perfect performance', I find that the hard disk now has as much metadata on it as it has 'normal' files. Over many years I have never seen this before and have two questions: a. How did it get there? b. How can I clean it off?I note that there are some 'cleaning' articles on the knowledge base, but I cannot really follow the instructions and, in any case, none appear to refer to a 'build up' on a hard disk. Any suggestions will be welcomed.1 person got this answerI do too
March 12th, 2010 3:26pm

By 'Metadata', I'm assuming you mean 'cached' files.Windows Update uses a cache for a few reasons. One is to allow for a rollback to a previous version. Basically, uninstall the latest update and reapply the older ones. A second reason is so the the files are present on the system so newly installed 'Windows Features' can get the update automatically applied and/or a repair can be run to re-apply the files should something happen. By default, Windows will use upt to 15% of the C partition disk space to cache updates. If you have a large C partition, that is a LOT of space. To keep this to a minimum, I personally install my OS on a partition of 50 to 100GB depending on the hard drive size. I use the rest for storage or installing large programs to.15% of a new 500GB drive is 75GB! 15% or 50GB is 7.5GB...you do the math. I can't imagine Windows cache EVER getting that large, but 'waste not, want not' as they say.As far as 'cleaning' these (cached updates) off, it is not recommended, or possible in some cases. I hopoe this helps to understand what is happening.Mark <> Microsoft Partner
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March 12th, 2010 6:31pm

Helpster: I appreciate your comments, but perhaps I ought to explain further. If I use Auslogics for defragmentation , I get a large area of disk which is shown as NTFS Metadata. This has only happened recently. Before this I only got the 'expected' cell usage. If I use Auslogics for the same purpose on another computer, I only get the 'expected' cell usage. If this is a cache, can you explain why it has only just appeared? For further information, I do not use the machine to deal with images etc and I have tried to reduce any identifiable metadata by stripping off unwanted bits. One last question, is it possible to change the default size of the Windows cache? Altering this might show if this is really the problem.
March 13th, 2010 1:19am

Helpster: and any other interested party!The problem of some 35GB of metadata appearing on my hard drive has been cured! Although I don't understand why. In playing with the settings for Virtual Memory, I selected 'No Page File' but did not click 'Set'.On re-inspecting, the Virtual Memory had reverted to its last setting, 'Allow system to manage', BUT on chcking the hard disk, ALL the excess metadata had been cleared. Using Auslogics program to clean the hard disk then found in excess of 1300 Junk Files which had not previously been noted.One assumes that the page file had in some way been corrupted.
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March 17th, 2010 1:43pm

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