How do I remove / reduce index.dat?

[martin_ayton]

On my PC I'm pretty paranoid about not filling up my hard drive with junk, and particularly junk that I didn't put there, so I run Windows Washer in an attempt to keep things a little cleaner.

On my PDA, with its limited memory, I'm even more paranoid, and I run MemMaid for the same purpose. However, MemMaid doesn't seem to delete or empty index.dat which just sits in my RAM recording everything I do on my browser, steadily growing and growing.

Can anyone tell me how to delete these pernicious files, or point me at a thread which discusses this? I would appreciate it.

[Darius Wey]

Here's a thread from over a year ago where I give David Brandon a few ideas. It may or may not work for you:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31690

Let us know how it goes. :)

[martin_ayton]

Thank you, Darius. I did a forum search on index.dat, but I missed that thread. I don't have a registry editor, or the courage to do a manual edit. I have been looking for an excuse to buy Tweaks2k2 - looks like I found it :)

[1BADRIDE]

What is the size of the file on your PDA? I use WiFi/BT all the time to browse at home and at work. On my A730W (ASUS), the file is 32kb.

[martin_ayton]

The thing is... there's more than one of the little critters:

Profiles\guest\Cookies 48.0k
Profiles\guest\Temporary Internet Files 1.0M
Profiles\guest\History\History.IE5 528.0k

and I could do with that 1.5M on my RAM...

[Cybrid]

The thing is... there's more than one of the little critters:

Profiles\guest\Cookies 48.0k
Profiles\guest\Temporary Internet Files 1.0M
Profiles\guest\History\History.IE5 528.0k

and I could do with that 1.5M on my RAM...delete cachee files, clear cookies, history. done!

[martin_ayton]

Sorry Cybrid, my mistake for not being clear: a version of index.dat resides in each of the folders I mentioned and it is the index.dat file which is the size specified, not the folder itself. So, whist, deleteing the cache, cookies and history does help, it doesn't delete the index.dat files which lurk in those locations. Some of them are small (like who honestly cares about 48k?) but some are too big to ignore.

[Darius Wey]

Have you tried modifying the location of each and then deleting them manually? That was the step I suggested in this post (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=279396#279396) if you had a registry editor, though Tweaks2K2 .NET should also be able to do the job.

[martin_ayton]

Darius, I've had some 'issues' with my laptop recently which have slowed me up a little (when your network admin guy recommends you leave the laptop on the roof of the car and drive off, you know something unpleasant is going on). Things are improving, so I plan to pick up Tweaks2k2 today.

[Darius Wey]

Darius, I've had some 'issues' with my laptop recently which have slowed me up a little (when your network admin guy recommends you leave the laptop on the roof of the car and drive off, you know something unpleasant is going on).

8O :rotfl:

Hope it works out for you. If not, let me know, and we'll follow it up further.

[ppchaser]

You may try Space Reclaimer from Valksoft. This software can cleanup those index.dat file.

Try this link: www.valksoft.com

[martin_ayton]

Yaay! Go Tweaks2k2 :rock on dude!:

That tweak moved the cache etc. and realeased the OSs 'grip' on the index.dat files in my RAM. All except the one in \Windows\Temporary Internet Files, but that's only 16k so I'm not too bothered.

However, it only moves the files, it doesn't allow me to regularly empty them - unless I keep moving them back and to between RAM and SD card, which is a little inelegant - so I'll definitely give Valksoft's Space Reclaimer a try, thanks ppchaser.

[martin_ayton]

Aak! I ran Space Reclaimer and... had a HARD RESET 8O

Thank God for Sprite and a backup taken earlier today. <relief>

I don't know whether it conflicted with the Spb PocketPlus safemode thing, or with MemMaid, but I'll stick with the Tweaks2k2 thing now.

[Darius Wey]

However, it only moves the files, it doesn't allow me to regularly empty them - unless I keep moving them back and to between RAM and SD card, which is a little inelegant...

Yeah, that's the only downside to this little "tweaked" method, but it works, and I'm glad you were able to do something about them. :)

[martin_ayton]

A final (?) codicil to this topic: I notice that moving the cache etc. to the SD card means it takes a lot longer for PIE to be available to me following a soft reset (I have an HTC Blue Angel in case that's relevant). When the cache is in RAM then I can fire up PIE almost immediately after a soft reset - the limiting factor is only the time taken to (re)acquire the cell/GPRS signal. With the files moved, I really need to leave the PPC a good couple of minutes to sort itself out following a soft reset before starting PIE.

This isn't a problem for me, but it might be an annoyance for someone else out there who is thinking of trying this tweak based on this thread, so I thought I'd better mention it.

[ctmagnus]

fwiw, I find that MemMaid will do this exact thing every once in a while. I run it, and it clears everything out, including the index.dat files. But by no means does it do so everytime. I think it's almost a bug in the program. ;)

[martin_ayton]

I have MemMaid, but it has never managed to clean index.dat. I wonder whether that has anything to do with where it is in the startup list: it might be more successful if it is one of the first things to get started after a soft reset. I'll have to play.

Incidentally, the tweak that I got Tweaks2k2 for is right there as an option in MemMaid, which I had all along (duh!).

[Menneisyys]

A final (?) codicil to this topic: I notice that moving the cache etc. to the SD card means it takes a lot longer for PIE to be available to me following a soft reset (I have an HTC Blue Angel in case that's relevant). When the cache is in RAM then I can fire up PIE almost immediately after a soft reset - the limiting factor is only the time taken to (re)acquire the cell/GPRS signal. With the files moved, I really need to leave the PPC a good couple of minutes to sort itself out following a soft reset before starting PIE.

This isn't a problem for me, but it might be an annoyance for someone else out there who is thinking of trying this tweak based on this thread, so I thought I'd better mention it.

Did you try optimizing the card speed (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,42768) along with the cache relocation? It'll really help.