Clean Up After WinXP SP3

[rwinegar]

I just installed SP3 with absolutely no problems at all. After three reboots all is fine.

Where are the backed up files created during the installation? I would like to remove them. The size of my boot drive has grown considerably. I think it is because of these backed up files. I remember after SP2 there was a very large file to uninstall.

[Doc]

When you installed SP3 it should have told you where the installation and back up files were going.

Unless you are really hurting for space on your boot drive I would wait a while before trying to delete the backup files. Reason why I say this is that it should not have taken 3 reboots for your system to be fine.

Doc

[rwinegar]

I found one of the culprits that bloated my boot drive following installation of SP3. It is a Windows folder called ServicePackFiles. It is around 480 MB. From what I was able to find out, it should not be removed.

I think I am looking for the SP3 uninstall files. I can't locate them. Since the ServicePackFiles folder contains all the old files replaced by SP3 maybe they are the SP3 uninstall files. Maybe there is nothing to remove to restore the drive to pre-SP3 size.

It did not take three boots for my system to be fine. It was fine after the first reboot. What I was trying to say that after three reboots I had no problems.

I do not need backup files. I have pre and post boot drive images on another HD that I can restore if necessary.

[Broni]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290402

[rwinegar]

That pertains to Windows 2000, not XP.

[Welshjim]

rwinegar--If you ever need to run sfc /scannow, the ServicePackFiles\i386 folder will be one of the sources to restore missing or corrupt files. So probably best not to delete. On my PC it is C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

[lgbpop]

That pertains to Windows 2000, not XP.

True enough, but it is the same procedure for XP and provides the same result.

[rwinegar]

What I don't understand is if SP3 is mostly an accumulation of previous MS updates, why did the used space on my boot drive go from 6GB to 7GB? That's an awful lot of space for something that supposedly was already there.

I found the $ntservicepackuninstall$ folder. A properties check tells me it was created yesterday, the same day I installed SP3. This makes sense. But what I can't figure out is why it is blue in color. Only compressed old files are supposed to be blue. How could this be a compressed old file if it was created yesterday?

[Train]

My guess is the restis installed and that does eat hdd space.

[rwinegar]

I deleted the $NTservicepackuninstall$ folder after copying it to a CDR. I do not need the HD space. I am only using about 10% of my boot drive. But I object to it being filled by a bunch of crap that is not necessary to the operation of the computer..

The sum of all other $ntuninstall...$ folders equals 368MB. Would it be safe to uninstall these as well or should I leave well enough alone?

[TrueGreen]

$ntservicepackuninstall$ folder is the uninstall package for sp3. All windows updates come with an uninstall package. Don't know why it's blue, unless it's to attract attention. You probably should not have deleted it because if you have a problem with SP3 you can no longer delete it. As long as you're having no problems don't worry about it. You can delete these files once the update they are for are known to be causing no problems. You should probably wait several months before deleting this type of file.

[rwinegar]

Truegreen - please read my response just before yours again. Before removing that folder I saved it to a CDR. It is not deleted in the sense that it is gone forever. It has just been moved to a portable media. It's available if I need it. It's just not occupying valuable real estate on my hard drive.

[Welshjim]

rwinegar--

if SP3 is mostly an accumulation of previous MS updates

I think the "previous updates" thing has been overplayed by MS. When you installed SP3, if you were at the PC you would have seen that many, many files were uninstalled, and then new, updated versions were installed. At least that was my experience and I already had all Windows Updates "up to date".
(For example, you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7 if you installed it over IE6 but before installing XP SP3. If you want to uninstall IE7 you will now have to uninstall SP3 first. Otherwise you would have many incompatible files between IE6 and SP3.)
Concerning the blue names, in windows explorer Tools|Folder Options|View tab there is a setting "Show encrypted or compressed files in color".
Black=Normal, Blue=Compressed, and Green=Encrypted
The $ntuninstall...$ and $NtServicePackUninstall$ folders are for individual Windows Updates. They contain the files necessary to uninstall the Updates. (They are not the files for the Update, itself). After a few months if you feel you will never want to uninstall the Updates then, yes, you can delete them.
The actual SP3 files are in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 as mentioned earlier. DO NOT DELETE OR REMOVE THOSE FILES.

[rwinegar]

Thanks welshjim. I have always known that compressed files are blue. I only commented on the color because the uninstall folder for SP3 was blue. It was created the same day as SP3 was installed. Windows disc clean up will only compress files that are older than 50 days. I thought this was unusual.

[TrueGreen]

rwinegar, good idea. Wish I had thought of that.