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General discussion

NEWSCAN FOLDER

by SANDANDUST1 Jun 9, 2005 8:01PM PDT

I have a folder in my win 98se operating system that I want to get rid of. However, I have no idea what it does or where it came from. It is c:\windows\temp\newscan and contains 4 files; "monday, october 07, 2002_" size 139,677KB, "monday, october 07, 2002 (2)" size 308,704KB, "monday, october 07, 2002 (2)" size 52,637KB, and "thursday, february 05, 2004_" size 423,167 KB.

I will not delete these or move them to another drive until I have SOME idea of what they are doing there. Right-clicking properties offers no helpful information. I can't find anything on the web. These files are taking up more than 1/10th of my hard drive and I would love to get rid of them.

In the past couple of years (3 files were created in 2002), I have completed numerous scans, virus checks (both online and off), upgrades, ad-aware type programs, file checkers, edited registry, everything that is normal and many, many more that were not. I have searched on the web in previous years for answers and found none. Nothing in the system corrolates with the dates these files were created. I can find no modifications to the files after creation. The are not part of a system install or major system upgrade that I can find. I have had one virus attack the computer via email attachment in the past 6 years. Removed and fixed quickly (worm). NOTHING, no answers.

No clues. I am very cautious and will not mess with anything unless I am sure I know what I am doing. In trying desparately to create a network, I have spent the past 2 days researching every problem I have come across (see other post in networking).

I'm pretty handy around a computer, but this problem has me completely stumped.

ANY ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks, Randi

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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re: newscan
by Kees Bakker Jun 9, 2005 8:54PM PDT

Seems like work files from your scanner, but -indeed - they are ridiculously large.

By convention, files and folders in c:\windows\temp are only temporary, and can be deleted as you like. Some of them (with a date of today) can be in use, but everything dating from before the last boot can safely be discarded.

Also read through Grif Thomas' post "How to clean unwanted files from the hard disk" in http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6121-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=22053&messageID=243397


Kees

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Not knowing makes me edgy
by SANDANDUST1 Jun 9, 2005 9:24PM PDT

By convention, ''should be safe''; these are terms that make me nervous if I don't know what I'm dealing with. The following from the web page you offered is what makes me nervous. Without knowing where these enormous files came from, I don't know which program to run to see if it will function without it.

Because my lovely Win98SE is so darn shaky (system had a total breakdown last week, wouldn't turn on or anything), I hesitate to remove over 1 GB of files unless I am know why in the world they were created in the first place.

I regularly run disk cleanup, scandisk, defrag, sfc, virus scan, ad removal, etc...


From Grif Thomas's post:

Next, double click on the ''Temp'' folder within ''Windows'', (or within the ''Local Settings'' folder in Win2000/XP). There may be a bunch of files in this folder that were placed there by various programs, or program installations and uninstallations. Normally, these all should be safe to delete, UNLESS you have ''saved'' any personal documents here. Just to be careful, highlight a small group of files and delete them to the Recycle Bin. Restart the computer, run the programs, and generally test to make sure that any necessary files haven't been removed. If you don't experience any problems, and you shouldn't, then remove that bunch from the Recycle Bin, then choose another group of files from the Temp folder and delete them to the Recycle Bin.


Keep the ideas coming! I will more than likely end up deleting them sooner or later, I would just like to know where they came from.

Randi

P.S.

Saved computer without reinstall and no loss of files and very little corruption. Could use help with establishing new network though....see post in Networking. Thanks.

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Do you have a scanner attached to the machine?
by Kees Bakker Jun 9, 2005 9:38PM PDT

And if you don't believe it's safe to delete them delete one of them into the recycle bin and let it rest there for a few days until you are convinced. That's safe enough. Agreed?

Kees

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I WILL DELETE SOMEDAY
by SANDANDUST1 Jun 11, 2005 8:19AM PDT

JUST HATE HAVING A FILE ON MY COMPUTER THAT I CANNOT FIND OUT WHERE IT CAME FROM OR WHAT IT DOES....i CAN FIND NOTHING ON THE NET TO EXPLAIN THE APPEARANCE OR FUNCTION OF THE FILE

TRYING TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY

I WILL DELETE IT SOMEDAY...JUST WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT IT IS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

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PROBLEM SOLVED THANK YOU KEES
by SANDANDUST1 Jun 11, 2005 8:35AM PDT

DUH!!!!!

Boy, do I feel silly!!!!

You mentioned the scanner twice, but it just now hit me after posting my last reply.

My old scanner (stopped using it last year) created files by the date...ie...saturday, june 11, 2005....duh.....but always with an extension and always in the scanner files that I specify...

NEWSCAN must have been created while trying to scan photos at the largest resolution and maybe these are the remnants of those scans that didn't complete.

It all makes sense now....sometimes it takes someone else's insight to discover the problem....THANK YOU KEES

I will delete now Grin

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Bite the bullet.
by Cursorcowboy Jun 9, 2005 9:50PM PDT
I have a folder in my win 98se operating system that I want to get rid of. However, I have no idea what it does or where it came from. It is c:\windows\temp\newscan and contains 4 files; "monday, october 07, 2002_" size 139,677KB, "monday, october 07, 2002 (2)" size 308,704KB, "monday, october 07, 2002 (2)" size 52,637KB, and "thursday, february 05, 2004_" size 423,167 KB.

I see dates eight and four months ago which seems pretty old to me. In addition, I would assume there was something you did or something done to your computer on those dates which caused the file creations. If you don't remember and cannot get the machine to tell you why, consider renaming the folder itself by adding a numeric number to the end of the name, and should -- which I doubt -- anything cause a problem, that thing should pop up an alert that the folder no longer exists -- again I doubt it will, because I would assume a new folder would be created instead. It's up to you to do something since there is literally nothing anyone can tell you of how or why that folder or files were created.
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