Duplicate windows files on drives C and D

[daveleonard]

I am running win 7 ultimate. Due to my own bad choices I ended up with 112,552 duplicate windows files between drives C and D. I downloaded and used a "duplicate cleaner" which did scan and mark the dups for me. But when it came time to delete them I got the error "error in process exception of type system out of memory exception was thrown." I did run as administrator and was able to delete a few files but too many exists taking too much time manually. Also, my pc will not restart automatically so I do it manually. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not.

I also tried loading a new version of win from disk but the files followed to the new version. I think they are hard wired being windows file.

Anybody have any ideas how I can get rid of the dups? Thanks a lot.

Edited May 28, 2011 by daveleonard

[randomuser88]

Why do you have 2 harddrives there should be 1 main harddrive and you might have removed the core system files

[daveleonard]

No, I did not say I have two hard drives. C is the hard drive but windows files can be hard linked to those on C which makes them impossible to delete without deleting them on both drives C and D.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

I must state that I am not a Win7 user.

 

If I read this correctly - you have C:\ and D:\ drives. D:\ is a partition on the hard drive.

You have "backed up" your system files to D:\ in effect duplicating them.

 

Due to my own bad choices

What did you do exactly?

Was this using the Backup option from Win7 itself?

 

There is a tutorial here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/backup-and-restore

 

If you had backed up your system then reinstalled Win7 the backup will still exist on D:\ if that is where you put it.

If you wanted to reinstall and change the backup choices then I would format D:\ first.

 

Once you have deleted the contents of D:\ you should be able to re-set the Backup options without re-installing.

 

Hope this is of some help - as I said - I am not a Win7 user.

[daveleonard]

What I did exactly is to copy windows.old to my new version of windows and I put it on D drive. I then lifted the files I wanted to keep like docs, pics, favorites, etc and attached them to my new OS. But, I did not realize that windows would try to protect itself by not letting me delete what I copied. My dup cleaner did identify the dups and would have deleted them for me had I had enough memory on my system to do it, but I don't. Your idea of re-formatting D is interesting and may solve the problem but I have never done that and don't know where to start. Thanks.

[randomuser88]

What is the D drive

 

what is the D drive

[daveleonard]

D drive is an auxillary drive but C is primary.

[KenB]

Again - not a win7 user so hope this makes sense:

 

Start ...type in ...diskmgmt.msc ....ENTER

You will see the drives listed.

You should be able to right click on D:\ > Format.

This will wipe the entire contents of the drive.

 

( I am away until next weekend .....hopefully somebody will pick this up ).

[RandyL]

As Ken said that method will indeed format and wipe drive D in Windows 7 whether it is a partitioned drive or a seperate drive as long is it is not the drive Windows is installed on.

 

Aside from that you have a ton of issues going on.

 

Duplicate file cleaners.

Many of the Windows files have duplicates for good reason and often in different locations. Deleting one can cause major issues with Windows. This is why I suggest to never use such programs unless you understand exactly what is what and never with core Windows files and this includes program dll files.

 

Windows old.

This implies that you reinstalled Windows "over the top". This means you reinstalled Windows without going through the full format procedure first and just reinstalled the basic Windows files leaving your programs and data intact. This would create such a folder in essence doubling the files on the primary drive.

 

The reason this is done is to get Windows back to a usable state without wiping everything and to create a folder on the same drive in order to retrieve your data. After that you copy the data and delete the folder. Although some files need deleting from safemode. I've seen this with Windows XP but no other operating system.

 

Drive C and D.

In order to backup to another drive the drive would have had to be created or already exist as a partition unless it is a physically seperate drive. On some computers a drive is split for data storage. On others it is a recovery partition which is usually much smaller in size.

 

Do what Ken suggested as it will say which is the case. As you say you have a huge amount of files I suspect it might be a seperate partition of the primary drive intended for data storage.

 

I also tried loading a new version of win from disk but the files followed to the new version

Where did you get this version? What version is this? What are all your versions? What version was installed originally? Windows 7 Ultimate I presume.

 

I downloaded and used a "duplicate cleaner"

What program?

 

What is the make model and number of your computer.

Needed for rcovery options.

 

I will tell you my honest opinion.

Since you said you did backups of favorites etc. I would burn all your data backups to disk and format the drive while reinstalling Windows. Since you can get into Windows create the recovery disks if you have not already done so or do not have any.

[daveleonard]

Thanks Randy for your reply. You are talking to an old, retired rank amateur so I hope this makes sense. I tried the disk mgmt route but again, windows would not let me format over windows files. Understandable! Nor will it let me delete windows files. I understand win is just protecting itself. I've learned an important lesson: never copy win files to another drive. My pc is an Acer Aspire 4736z laptop, intel pentium processor 14500, 2.3 ghz, 800 mhz fsb, 14.0" HD led lcd, 2 GB Memory, 320 GB HDD. Here is where things get sticky: my OS is win 7 Ultimate but not original. I hope you will be understanding here because I had to use a copied version of the OS. I live on a tiny island here in the South Pacific. We don't have IT folks here, not even a PC store. It takes a full days travel time just to get to the mainland of Mindanao, so we do what we have to do. I say all that so you understand I cannot reload a fresh copy of win 7 but must reload the option that carries over all my files because I don't have the necessary codes to send to microsoft. So, since windows will not let me manipulate win files from inside windows and since I cannot reload a fresh copy, I get the sick feeling I must go to the mainland and replace my harddrive or buy an original win 7 disk. (which is what I should have done to begin with). I currently have nearly 500,000 extra windows files on my pc, half of which I don't need but I don't think windows differentiates between original win files and copies but protects them all equally.

[RandyL]

That does indeed pose a problem as we can't advise on issues related to non-legitimate software which unfortunately is what your Windows 7 is. But there is a couple things I am allowed to do.

 

Yes a brand new version of 7 will do the trick but expensive.

 

You could try the Acer e-recovery if it wasn't deleted during your latest install. Take a look at the pdf file here. http://www.acer.com.ph/ac/en/PH/content/recovery-solution or here http://static.acer.com/up/Resource/Acer/Docs/PH/20110221/recovery.pdf

 

Also you should have been prompted the very first time you booted up to make a factory image disk. If you did so now would be the time to use them. Back up your files first as they will be gone. The system will be like it was when you bought it with either recovery option.

 

The last option is to try and get Acer to send you the disks if they support that option on your model or region. The cost is extremely low. See if these links work for you. http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2631 There is a link on that page. Direct link https://secure.tx.acer.com/RCDB/Main.aspx?brand=Acer

 

I'm sorry I can't advise you on the other options. I do strongly advise to use one of the options I mention. You will need to have a genuine copy of Windows in order to update.

[daveleonard]

I understand Randy and its nobody's fault but my own. I do have the original acer start up disk. I will give that a try and do things properly this time. Thanks a lot for your help. Does your group accept Philippine money orders? That's the only way I can send a donation since I no longer have US credit cards. Take care.

[RandyL]

Please do let us know how things go. As for donations we use Paypal which accepts a number of different world credit cards. If you can donate that would be great. If you can't we totally understand. Good luck Dave.

[KenB]

kertison

 

We don't allow links to "pay for" software.

 

I also note that you have an entry in a spammers' database.

 

Also this thread is well over a year old !