IE 6.0 "Amount Of Disk Space" Used 3

[ANFPS26]

I have heard several ideas on this, none agreeing with each other, what should I set my "amount of disk space" to under
IE>>Properties>>Settings??? I want to set it for optimum and forget about it. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[gcw1]

Mine is set to 900mb and I've never thought about it until I read your post.

 

[PAndersen]

The optimum depends upon more settings , see

http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSME/using/workingefficiently/articles/cache.asp

http://www.commerce-developers.com/InternetTips/KeepClean.htm

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks, PAnderson, I have tried the amount of disk space used with several settings and have found that if I increase it too much it causes my "Ram-Idle" program to be constantly freeing up ram that causes the screen and mouse to "hang" for a second or two. I'll keep playing with it. It's no big deal, I just know it causes me problems if it is set too high. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[DaDog]

The faster your connection is, the smaller the TIF (Temporary Internet Files) folder can be. (IMHO)

I have always suggested keeping this setting at no more than 40Mb. I keep my own at 30Mb, the senior tech at work suggests 40Mb. I have broadband however.

On broadband 10, 20, 40Mb is plenty of space as far as this folder is concerned, even at this setting my TIF folder has over 6000 files in it.

Before displaying a page, Internet Explorer looks through the TIF cache to see if that page's component parts are there or not. If they are not there IE downloads them from the web site. If it has to look through thousands and thousands of files first that can slow things down. A dialup connection may find a higher setting better though as even searching thousands of files on the hard drive can be quicker. A setting of a 100Mb can have over 10,000 files, I've seen folks with a TIF over a Gb in size!

The index.dat files in the TIF and History folders are not cleared via IE and cannot be deleted via Windows Explorer and they continue to bloat. Just like most database files they grow with the data but they fail to shrink when less data is present. If clearing the TIF Folder does not speed things up perhaps deleting the index files will. You will have to boot to DOS to delete them, a DOS Prompt will not work. A great file for taking care of this can be found at

http://www.langa.com/wipetif_bat.htm

Hope that helps.
DaDog

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks, DaDogg. On the DOS files listed under TIF and Content.IE5, I just right click and delete the four DOS files, empty the Recycle Bin and re-start. I've had no problems doing this and it seems to empty these files. The file names come back, but they are empty. When I only had 96MB of RAM I had eight of these files listed, now with 256MB I only show four. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[reghakr]

nobrain,

I think it's initially based on hard drive space. We just received 14 gateway 1.8GHz computers with 80GB hard drives. The TIF was set to a ridiculous 960 MB. Since we have a T1, I changed it to 20MB.

I agree with DaDogg and have posted here many times with my suggestions. They are:
choose a reasonable size for the temporary internet files directory. i'd suggest 40MB for a 56K connection, as little as 10MB for cable or DSL.

It's a very good idea to look in DOS, as I've had computers that have had over 100 directories of history, each containing and index.dat file of around 400KB (average)

The only way I became aware of this was by running an old DOS program called Dosshell. it's very easy to navigate and you can even setup your mouse, using the dosstart.bat file, to drag and drop files.

You can downlad Dosshell here. I think you'll make some intersting discoveries:

Dosshell, for locating those hidden files. Place all files in c:\windows\command

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/4936/98dosshell.zip

Then shutdown, choose restart in MS-DOS mode and type doshhell at the command prompt.

reghakr

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks for the tip! "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

I'm afraid that link is no longer a valid link. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

I copied and pasted the address and it worked! Just clicking on the link didn't. Go figure!! "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[reghakr]

nobrain,

Let me know what you found.

reghakr

 

[ANFPS26]

I searched through dosshell and didn't find any history files. Are they designated something else. I delete these on a regular basis using the procedure I mentioned above. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[reghakr]

nobrain,

They should be listed as something like this:

MSHIST~1
MSHIST~2
MSHIST~3

under c:\windows\history\history.ie5

Try this using the MS-DOS Prompt:
================================================
Microsoft(R) Windows 98
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999.

C:\WINDOWS>cd history

C:\WINDOWS\History>cd history.ie5

C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5>dir

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS 7
Volume Serial Number is 0F6B-1BEE
Directory of C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5

. <DIR> 03-09-02 8:47p .
.. <DIR> 03-09-02 8:47p ..
INDEX DAT 1,196,032 03-30-02 11:34p index.dat
1 file(s) 1,196,032 bytes
2 dir(s) 2,164,359,168 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5>cd mshis~1
Invalid directory

C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5>cd mshist~1

C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5\MSHist012002033020020331>
============================================

You'll find an indext.dat file under every history folder that you find

reghakr