Index.dat

Hello

I have a file in my cookie folder "Index.dat" and I want to delete that
file, but the system wont allow me. I have tried to start the computer up in
dos mode, and tried to delete from there but dos wil not accept the command
"Delete"

How do I delete the file

Thanks
Claus

Index.dat Suite
http://support.it-mate.co.uk/mode=Pr...index.datsuite

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!


"Claus" wrote in message
...
Hello

I have a file in my cookie folder "Index.dat" and I want to delete that
file, but the system wont allow me. I have tried to start the computer up
in
dos mode, and tried to delete from there but dos wil not accept the
command
"Delete"

How do I delete the file

Thanks
Claus

Posts by MS-MVP Gary Terhune:

12 December 2001 in the Win98 General Discussion newsgroup:
snip
My somewhat famous posts on the functioning of the TIF system can be found
within some of the following messages
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=+%...l=en&scoring=d

particularly,
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...%40tkmsftngp03 and
it's containing thread.

In these posts, I often use the phrase "smoke and mirrors" (in fact, that's
what I based my Google search on, g.) Why? Because that's what the
TIF/History/Cookie system is. A bunch of Smoke & Mirrors. These systems are
simply not what they appear to be upon casual inspection. While I've
explained TIF and Cookies sufficiently (I think) in the above noted posts,
here's an addendum on History.

History, in IE5.x and 6, is nothing more than an Index.dat--in Win98 it is
typically C:\Windows\History\History.IE5\index.dat. It is *not* the same
Index.dat as that found in the TIF folder, and cannot even be located using
Find in Windows 98, nor, for that matter, can its parent directory,
History.IE5 be thus located (whereas the index.dat for TIFs, and its parent
directory, Content.IE5, *can* be located in this manner.) The contents of
the History index.dat file are virtually represented as URL "shortcuts"
within "sub-folders" of the System folder called History. (The "sub-folders"
are not true directories--they're virtual representations, just like the
"shortcuts" themselves.) Different from the TIF index.dat, which catalogues
the files contained within the TIF sub-folders, the History index.dat simply
records the URLs visited in Internet Explorer, whether remote URLs (FTP,
HTTP, etc.) or Local files (file://). (Local files that are loaded into IE
are not normally cached within the TIF system.) Another major difference
that is worth noting is that you *can* directly delete entries in the
History index.dat by deleting the "sub-folders" of the History directory or
the "shortcuts" contained therein. Whether this is a good idea, or not, I
cannot say. It may or may not cause problems within the index.dat file
itself. But deleting a "shortcut" within History *does* delete the
corresponding entry within the Index.dat file. Or rather, the information is
overwritten in the Index.dat file with placeholder characters.

Because the History index.dat file is intimately involved in the functioning
of IE, if it becomes corrupt, it *will* interfere with IE's functioning. It
is for this reason I recommend using deltree from within DOS to completely
eliminate the History directory and its contents whenever problems with IE
arise that indicate corrupt supporting files (problems not unlike those that
prompt the suggestions of deltreeing the TIF directory, though certain types
of errors are *known* to derive from a corrupt History index.dat.) The same
philosophy applies to Cookies and its index.dat. Cookies, History, and TIFs
are integral members of the IE program, and while even serious problems with
any or all of those sub-systems may not actually stop all IE functionality,
IE is to one degree or another hampered in its functioning if any part of
these is not performing correctly. Because the corruption in any one of
these index.dat files is as likely to be within the structure of the file
itself as it is to be within any particular entry that might be wiped using
the methods available in Internet Settings or other utilities (like Window
Washer), when problems arise, I happen to believe that a completely clean
slate is the best course--completely wipe out every bit of those directories
in DOS and let Windows rebuild them from scratch when it reloads.

One last note on History. Oddly enough, and due to what logic I can only
imagine, when you "delete History" in Internet Settings, it not only deletes
the contents of the History index.dat file, (or rather, most of the
contents--some header info and the "Today" "sub-folder" remain,) that
particular method *also* wipes many system MRUs--things like the Run MRU,
and the Find MRU (MRU = Most Recently Used, the drop-down menus found in
those applets.) This has been known to cause some people consternation, and
if a user thinks that information is irreplaceable, s/he would be wise to
either write that info down before using the "delete History" button, or to
delete History in some other manner as suggested above.

*None* of these index.dat files, or the system folders containing them, can
be deleted or even directly modified while Windows is running, at least, not
as a "normal" Windows is construed . Direct Access is denied. I've never
used Commander. Maybe, someday, I'll find and load a copy of WC, just to see
what it's really capable of. (There are probably several applications that
I might at least occasionally use out there, but which I don't, simply
because if I did so regularly, I might not maintain sufficiently pure
practices in the Windows native apps, which are what I support. Commander is
one such app. Using alternatives to Outlook Express is another such case.)
In any case, I can only address what I see as some issues that you raised.
If, as I understand you to say, WC can find and allow access to (deletion or
editing of) the index.dat files we have been discussing, then I can only
assume that Commander has in one way or another unloaded Windows as I know
it. My first inclination is to suspect that WC actually unloads Windows and
then loads itself as an alternate shell--somewhat similar to restarting in
MS-DOS Mode. What the mechanics are, exactly, I can't say. However, while
much of your post is a paean to WC, and nothing I am really in a position to
discuss, it also indicates a less than perfect understanding of the History
system, and so I thought it wise to expound upon that subject. As noted, my
previous discussions of TIFs and Cookies are already out there, and while I
can't be certain that they are 100% accurate within the limits of any one
post (just as I cannot be 100% certain that every bit of information I have
provided here is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth), a
reading of all of them should pretty much cover all the bases.
end

....and on 8 December 2001:

snip
Get back to a clean slate. I, personally, prefer to use what I call a "pure"
DOS prompt, one arrived at straight from full reboot. Holding down or
repeatedly pressing the Ctrl key (sometimes F8) will usually succeed in
bringing up the Startup Menu. (Really needs to be just before Windows
starts, after POST, but this moment can be difficult to pin down.) At the
C:\ prompt:

smartdrv (This will keep the thing from taking all day--literally--to
finish the operation.)
cd windows
deltree tempor~1
deltree history
deltree cookies

(and while you're here, I would)
deltree recent

All of the above assumes you have a standard installation and haven't moved
things to different locations, which, having a small drive, I doubt you have
done.

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot. I know others have suggested "Restart in MS-DOS
mode", and that is *usually* just fine. I am just never very trusting that
the Restart in MS-DOS hasn't been somehow screwed up (not unimaginable!)
Either way, SMARTDRV needs to be loaded. (If you get information returned
after loading smartdrv, a bunch of info about Drive Caching, then smartdrv
has already been loaded.)

2. To keep your TIF in good shape, you have a couple of options:

Option A:
---In Internet Settings (rt-click the IE icon on your Desktop, then
Properties,or use the Control Panel item)--On the General tab, Temporary
Internet Files Settings. Set the limit for the TIF size to 20 MB. (This
keeps it large enough to not often cause problems, yet small enough to also
not cause problems.)
---*Regularly*, say weekly, use this same section described above to Delete
TIFs. When prompted, also delete "Offline Content". Here's the deal. The TIF
folder is not a normal folder. I have, in the past, gone into great detail
describing the TIF folder, in a manner meant to convey the basics, though
the details are even more complicated. A search of Google might turn it up,
or, if you're really interested, I might be able to dig it out of my
archives.

*Nothing* is what it seems in the TIF folder. The very best policy with
regard to the TIF folder is to keepa you hands OFF! Don't delete anything
there, don't launch anything from there (*copy* a file to some other
location if you want to retrieve it and make use of it.) The only thing that
it is acceptable to do directly to the TIF folder is to DELTREE it in DOS,
as above. It all has to do with how the Index.dat file operates. Plus, there
is a bug in Outlook Express that creates hundreds of "Offline Content" files
in the TIF, which is why that advice to include Offline Content in the
cleanup is so important. You can't see this stuff by simply looking in the
TIF folder in Windows Explorer, so I suggest not even trying, s.

Option B: Get CacheSentry from
http://www.mindspring.com/~dpoch/eni...chesentry.html
(David's site has total-traffic limits, so if the above link fails late in
the month, use google.com to look for an alternate download site.)

CacheSentry does an excellent job of managing IE's TIF folder. It also
includes a fix for the OE bug. It can slow things down if you leave it on
all the time, so I run it in a runonce configuration, as a startup item,
with the /i switch (for the OE Bug fix.) Instructions for running CS are
included in the Download, and it's important to read them through. Most
important is that you need to set the original IE TIF limit to the maximum
possible, i.e., the size of your hard drive (or partition.) Then use CS to
set the real limit. This is to prevent IE's TIF manager from ever deciding
that it needs to act.

And, yes, you still have all these problems in IE/OE 6. And CacheSentry
works just fine there, too.

"Claus" wrote in message
...
Hello

I have a file in my cookie folder "Index.dat" and I want to delete that
file, but the system wont allow me. I have tried to start the computer up
in
dos mode, and tried to delete from there but dos wil not accept the
command
"Delete"

How do I delete the file

Thanks
Claus