I have several thumb.db files and I would like to delete them so that I can free up some hard drive disk space. Do I absolutely have to keep them? Kurt P. Hoddelmann

I have several thumb.db files and I would like to delete them so that I can free up some hard drive disk space. Do I absolutely have to keep them? You do not have to keep them. They are merely used to cache the thumbnails of files and are not critical to the system. If you find them an annoyance, you can turn the creation of thumbs.db files altogether using the information here.

On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 01:24:35 +0000, kurtagious wrote: I have several thumb.db files and I would like to delete them so that I can free up some hard drive disk space.  Do I absolutely have to keep them? Here on my computer, thumbs.db files take up about 20KB each. That's a tiny amount of hard drive space. In these days of very inexpensive hard drives, when you can buy a 500GB drive for $50 US or less, 20KB is worth a tiny fraction of a penny--$0.000002. If you are short of hard drive space, deleting these will do nothing for you. There are several things you can do to save more space than deleting these, but they are all stopgap measures, and you will soon find yourself back in the same situation. The only real solution to your problem is buying a larger drive. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

"K Blake" wrote in message news:91a5c328-5df0-4a5b-a687-a660a51b83d1... On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 01:24:35 +0000, kurtagious wrote: I have several thumb.db files and I would like to delete them so that I can free up some hard drive disk space. Do I absolutely have to keep them? Here on my computer, thumbs.db files take up about 20KB each. That's a tiny amount of hard drive space. In these days of very inexpensive hard drives, when you can buy a 500GB drive for $50 US or less, 20KB is worth a tiny fraction of a penny--$0.000002. If you are short of hard drive space, deleting these will do nothing for you. There are several things you can do to save more space than deleting these, but they are all stopgap measures, and you will soon find yourself back in the same situation. The only real solution to your problem is buying a larger drive. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Ken (gotta get my own back somehow <g>) I just went to one of my folders with 823 .JPG files in it. The Thumbs.db file was 8KB. then I changed the View to Medium Icons - and the thumbs.db file grew to 8MB.... it stayed at 8MB with both large and Very Large Icons. Since the total folder size is about 450MB, that amounts to a little less than 2% of the space - still small, but not insignificant -- Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 17:31:37 +0000, Noel D Paton wrote: "K Blake" wrote in message news:91a5c328-5df0-4a5b-a687-a660a51b83d1... On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 01:24:35 +0000, kurtagious wrote: I have several thumb.db files and I would like to delete them so that I can free up some hard drive disk space.  Do I absolutely have to keep them? Here on my computer, thumbs.db files take up about 20KB each. That's a tiny amount of hard drive space. In these days of very inexpensive hard drives, when you can buy a 500GB drive for $50 US or less, 20KB is worth a tiny fraction of a penny--$0.000002. If you are short of hard drive space, deleting these will do nothing for you. There are several things you can do to save more space than deleting these, but they are all stopgap measures, and you will soon find yourself back in the same situation. The only real solution to your problem is buying a larger drive. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Ken (gotta get my own back somehow <g>) LOL! Any time, Noel. I'm sure not immune to making errors, and I always appreciate being set right if I'm wrong. I just went to one of my folders with 823 .JPG files in it. The Thumbs.db file was 8KB. then I changed the View to Medium Icons - and the thumbs.db file grew to 8MB.... it stayed at 8MB with both large and Very Large Icons. OK, interesting! I hadn't realized how much their size might vary. So since 8MB is 400 times larger than 20KB, that means (using the arithmetic above with a $50 500GB drive) that one such file has $0.00008 US worth of disk space. That's much more money! <g> Since the total folder size is about 450MB, that amounts to a little less than 2% of the space - still small, but not insignificant $0.00008 US worth is not insignificant? Sorry, but I strongly disagree. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

"K Blake" wrote in message news:2a2bbd73-a854-4e2c-a56d-a7298c3e44d4... OK, interesting! I hadn't realized how much their size might vary. So since 8MB is 400 times larger than 20KB, that means (using the arithmetic above with a $50 500GB drive) that one such file has $0.00008 US worth of disk space. That's much more money! <g> Since the total folder size is about 450MB, that amounts to a little less than 2% of the space - still small, but not insignificant $0.00008 US worth is not insignificant? Sorry, but I strongly disagree. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP I tend to look at it as being potentially 2% of the drive, rather than 0.002% - which makes it a little more obvious :) -- Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth