ross said:
I have scoured the net to discover how to recover space from the
WinSxS folder. Most say DO NOT TOUCH IT! Sounds like the old keep out
of the registry or it will end up in tears talk. My laptop is Intel
powered whilst there are a ton (and a Half) of AMD folders lurking in
there. How would I go if I just took ownership of these AMD folders
and deleted them away? Making a full backup of course just in case.
Any comments?
This mentions some means of scavenging back the disk space:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592038
Yet it also says, "Scavenging is performed automatically on Windows 7
and Windows 2008 R2 installations".
They probably want you using the utilities to keep synchronized both the
Manifests folder and registry entries. Because of corruption (users or
software), they mention some utilities for trying to fix the component
store, like:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821
Because these are hard links to where are the actual location of the
files, deleting them here under WinSxS means deleting them wherever they
really are. You sure you want to delete those component files? For
example, and by using Rekenwonder's Junction Link Magic (an old program)
on my Windows XP box (where I'm at now) and scanning the C: drive (which
is the OS partition), I'll find those junction links (reparse points)
under WinSxS that are pointing back to the real file, like:
C:\Windows\WinSxS\MSIL_IEExecRemote_b03f5f711d50a3a2.0.0.0_x-ww_6357c34e
is a junction link pointing to
C:\Windows\Assembly\GAC_MSIL\IEExecRemote\2.0.0.0__b03f5f711d50a3a
Junction links are to folders (not files) versus hard links for files,
but what's under the folder is also what's under the junction link.
NTFS lets you define reparse points.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931707
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx
http://www.flexhex.com/docs/articles/hard-links.phtml
When you delete a soft link, that's what you delete, not the file that
it points to. When you delete a hard link, you delete both the link and
the file. When you delete a junction, you just get rid of the pointer
(the real folder remains) - provided you use a tool that only deletes
the junction definition in NTFS (see warning in wiki article on reparse
points on deleting junctions using the wrong tool).
Just because you see it listed in Windows Explorer doesn't mean there is
an actual file or folder there. It could be a soft/hard link or a
junction.
