# Can I delete internet logs?



## xico

I'm trying to scrub my hard disk clean. I've defragd, I've run a thorough scan disk, I've run clean disk. (My Os is Win98SE), run Cleanup Batch, and now I'm gone into Find/Files or Folders with the temp and bak files. (I've only got 2.5GB left out of a 40GB Drive--so I'm looking for freeing up space) And I've got a bunch of xDB10B5 (1.49 internet log Temp files), xDB1174 (1.14 ) xDBC191, etc. 

What do these do? And is it safe to delete them? There's an awful lot of space there, but I don't want to free up so much that it won't run.
Can anyone give me a little info. I'll bet there's 3 or 4 GBs being used up, and if these files aren't necessary . . .


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## walkeriam

I don't know the answer to your question about those files but you can go to START, FIND, FILES and FOLDERS and type in where it says NAMED **.tmp,~*.*,*.chk * . Make sure it is looking in C: drive. Once it stops searching, you can go to EDIT, SELECT ALL then FILE, DELETE. This will put all those files in your recycle bin. If your computer works properly after that (which it should) you can empty your recycle bin to gain drive space.


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## WhitPhil

The folder Internet Logs is created by ZoneAlarm.

BTW From Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View tab and ensure that you have "Show All Files" selected, and UNselect "Hide File Extensions for Known File Types".

Now, under that folder you will normally find a LDB file, named after your computer name, and a lamdb.rdb file. These are the ZA main files.
You may also find a Backup.rdb file, tvdebug.log and ZAlog.txt file.

The latter is logging all ZA alerts, if you have this selected and can be removed it not needed.
TvDebug.log file can be deleted. If you don't do this periodically, this file will continually grow larger.

I have also found that over time, the RDB and LDB files also grow over time. So, periodically I restart to DOS/Safe mode, rename the files and reboot. ZA then rebuilds these files. After a couple of days, ensuring that all is well, I delete the 2 renamed files.


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## xico

Thank you Whitphil and Walkeriam! Absolutely great! Thank you.


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## GoJoAGoGo

I use a Disk Cleaner weekly and have no problem deleting all the Temporary Internet Files that are found.


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## xico

Thank you, GoJo! I like your testament to the incredible usefulness of this site. It's truly a goldmine of information that is right on target!


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## xico

Gojo, I have to add that I've used the disk cleaner, but that doesn't do a thorough job. The former editor in chief of Windows Mag has a web site (www.langa.com) where he has this little app that cleans up the batch files, plus instructions for extra cleanups.

Scrub Your
Hard Drive Clean!
(for FREE!)
Any one of these six free batch files can scrub your hard drive clean of many junk files, freeing up (typically) anywhere from tens to thousands of megabytes of otherwise-wasted disk space. You can pick any or all of the files (they're all free); the files are listed below in roughly-increasing order of "cleaning power."

These free files are part of a detailed series of articles on system maintenance; as the series progresses, these files are being enhanced, improved, and extended. Read the free LangaList Newsletter for details and to be sure you get the next versions as soon as they become available!

All files are fully documented in accompanying articles, and/or in internal comments you can read with any text editor, such as Notepad. Please read all notes, instructions, and precautions about these files before running them. These files have been run successfully on tens of thousands of systems, but it is your responsibility to ensure that these files are OK to run on your specific system.

Pick The Free File You're Interested In:

1) Cleanup.Bat For Batch File Novices 
(Basic hard drive cleanup in a simpler, easy to edit and modify file)

2) Cleanup.Bat For Batch File Experts:
(Basic hard drive cleanup in a more powerful, flexible [but harder to understand and edit] version)

3)WipeTIF.Bat Completely Erase All Temp Internet Files (More thorough cleanup: Compact your Cookies Index, and completely erase Everything in your "Temporary Internet Files" area!)

4) CleanALL.Bat: More Power! (Combines the power of Cleanup.Bat AND WipeTIF.Bat for truly awesome cleaning! Scrubs your Temp and Tmp areas, erases all Temporary Internet Files, and compacts your Cookies Index!)

5) Clean9x.Bat: Still More Power, Plus Extra Safety! (All the benefits of the above, with efficiencies and special disk-integrity checking.)

6) CleanXP.Bat: A version of CleanAll that works on WinME, 2K and XP!

Appreciate this free Langa.Com service?
Please help support the web site--- click on one of the ad banners on the page!

This page is at www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm

I've only done the novice clean up, but he also says "Click on Start/Find/Files and Folders, and in the "named" box, type "*.tmp, *.bak" (but omit the quotes). Set the "Look in" pull down list to C:\ or "Local Hard Drives," and enable the "include subfolders" option. Then click "Find Now".

Believe me, I thought I had cleaned everything up. What a surprise! That's why I was wondering what in the world I was getting into. 
Anyway, thanks for the info. These programs must keep writing new files.


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## WhitPhil

Just to clarify

Internet Logs and Temporary Internet Files are not related whatsoever.

The former are ZA files and the latter is the IE browser cache.

BTW If you are finding TMP files under the Windows directory that start with FFF and have a long file name, these are created by MDM. 
You can stop this by UNselecting MDM in MsConfig.


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## GoJoAGoGo

xico:

I'm glad you like and agree with my testament. Thanks for the Langa website link. It should provide me added information on Disk Cleaning.


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## xico

Thank you, Whitphil. That's an important piece of information. Thank you.


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## pgriffet

http://www.purgeie.com

very interesting site about IE cache and history, and they have a shareware which allows to handle cache, cookies and history.


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## xico

Thanks. I'm headed over that way right now.


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## ATHiker95

WhitPhil said:


> The folder Internet Logs is created by ZoneAlarm.
> 
> BTW From Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View tab and ensure that you have "Show All Files" selected, and UNselect "Hide File Extensions for Known File Types".
> 
> Now, under that folder you will normally find a LDB file, named after your computer name, and a lamdb.rdb file. These are the ZA main files.
> You may also find a Backup.rdb file, tvdebug.log and ZAlog.txt file.
> 
> The latter is logging all ZA alerts, if you have this selected and can be removed it not needed.
> TvDebug.log file can be deleted. If you don't do this periodically, this file will continually grow larger.
> 
> I have also found that over time, the RDB and LDB files also grow over time. So, periodically I restart to DOS/Safe mode, rename the files and reboot. ZA then rebuilds these files. After a couple of days, ensuring that all is well, I delete the 2 renamed files.


You say the Internet Log folder is created by Zone Alarms but I have Hotsynch files for my Palm Pilot in there (extension is .dmp.zip) that are quite large - about 10 of them each holding between 15-60mb) and I also have Retrospect Express(my backup software) .dmp.zip files in there. The Iamdb.rb file you mention as a Zone Alarm file is a Retrospect Express file on my system (XP Home) or so it says under the Type column. The Backup.rdb file is also a Retrospect Express file. I'm not sure what is contained in tvdebug.log as when I try to open it, it says it is in use. Do you know anything about these hotsynch files? They're listed like this - HOTSYNC_2nd_2004_11_14_11_56_45.dmp.zip Would they be safe to dump?

Thanks,
Mark


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## Deke40

I gain a lot of space by periodically deleting the Recycle Bin from DOS and also the C:\Windows\Tempoary Internet File\Content.IE5 by right clicking it and deleting it. When you delete it form the recycle bin you will get a pop up saying it can't be deleted, just close the popup out and close the recycle bin and it will be gone. The .IE5 will recreate itself.

The Recycle Bin can get real big even when it show empty. Just right click it and look under properties and see the size of it. Do the same to the Content.IE5.

The batch files you mentioned probably do a lot of this but I just do them manually for a quick gain in resources.

Recycle bin command in DOS:

Deltree c:\Recycled


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## WhitPhil

ATHiker95 said:


> You say the Internet Log folder is created by Zone Alarms but I have Hotsynch files for my Palm Pilot in there (extension is .dmp.zip) that are quite large - about 10 of them each holding between 15-60mb) and I also have Retrospect Express(my backup software) .dmp.zip files in there. The Iamdb.rb file you mention as a Zone Alarm file is a Retrospect Express file on my system (XP Home) or so it says under the Type column. The Backup.rdb file is also a Retrospect Express file. I'm not sure what is contained in tvdebug.log as when I try to open it, it says it is in use. Do you know anything about these hotsynch files? They're listed like this - HOTSYNC_2nd_2004_11_14_11_56_45.dmp.zip Would they be safe to dump?
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark


Mark:
I'm not familiar with HotSyching to a Palm Pilot, but somewhere along the way the Hot Sync has managed to get itself asssociated with ZA's folder.

The RDB and LDB files ARE ZA's control files.

Your product, Retrospect Express, also uses these extensions and when it was installed has these associated with it. This ONLY means that if you double click on a RDB/LDB file RetroExpress will attempt to open it. In the case of the ZA files, it will be unable to.

As to whether you can delete these sync files, I have no idea. I would "think" that you could, since once a sync is complete, the 2 systems have the same files. You may wish to just move these files to another folder for a few days to ensure that all is well.

Also, before and after you do the next sync check this folder to see what sync files appear.

As I said above, the Tvdebug file just continues to get larger and larger and needs to be periodically deleted, either in safe mode or via the autoexec file.


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## ATHiker95

Whitphil,
I moved them elsewhere and when I did a hotsync, 3 of them reappeared as seen below:










Sure is a heck of a lot of space! Wonder why it is doing this or what these are for?

Mark


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## WhitPhil

Unfortunately, I have no idea.

Did you do 3 syncs? Or, sync 3 things?

These DMP files could be the work files that Palm uses to sync with??

Wny they are in the ZA folder is weird. Out of curiousity, do *Start >Run > Command*
and
at the prompt, enter *Set*

Note what the values are for *temp* and *tmp*

Also, if there is a Palm config type icon, see if there is anything there?


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## ATHiker95

My Palm syncs with AvantGo (news service), Epocrates (a medical server), and Vindigo (a map program). Perhaps that is why it is dumping the 3 files, but I just now snyched it again and it dumped only 2 files in there this time, one at 62MB and one at 74MB. Here's what I have at the SET command:










Don't really see anything Palm related there.

Mark


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## WhitPhil

You may want to track down a support forum at Palm and ask about the DMP files. And also about what directory they "normally" are created in.

It does seem that the number is based on the items being synced. Perhaps the last time, one of the feeds had nothing to synch???


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## ATHiker95

Thanks, will check with them on this. I know recently I've had some issues when synching some of these items, especially Epocrates. Iwas getting Bad Mem_Pointer problems,etc. but they seemed to clear up. I then started noticing that I was losing space on my C: drive and started looking and noticed that the Internet Log files were filling quickly and a Google led me to this forum. I appreciate the help - seems like another one of those weird computer things. 

Mark


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## Cosmic

I take an entirely different view to the complete problem. 

It seems like people do worry about the idea of "Bloat" on their drives and what impact it has??

My approach is totally different, I could care less about how efficient bytes are used. I dedicate the Drive C to only the OS and its associated files. At present on the system I am typing on, the Drive C is a 40G drive, using something like a wopping 4G's, some of that is a back up file that is also maintained on that drive. Duh, a copy on the same drive.

No partitions, no fancy anything. I only bought a 40G because it was about the same price as a 20G, could have gotten away with a 10G and been swimming in spare capacity.

Part of it is how you attempt to tackle various problems. I don't use Drive C for routine purposes. Never download to it, never use it as a work area, never do anything that involves a lot of read / write / erase / rework type moving data about. Basically set up the system, occasionally add or delete a program.

Everything else happens in a "Work Area" on a Zip Drive or on a physical hard drive loaded as a data drive. These data drives are swappable via a removable rack / tray system. This idea of recycle bin never comes into play because a Zip Drive deletes are not saved or related to the recycle bin. All my bad ideas, simply go down the drain about like operating from a floppy. Very little impact. Also all downloads must go to a ZIP. Almost nothing of a "Raw Unprocessed Nature" goes to any hard drive. 

Therefore defragging isn't a big concern, rarely needed, security is greatly enhanced, back ups become far more easy to do.

Basically my approach always questions "Exactly how do I keep the OS in peak condition"???? Plus how do I keep it totally secure??? One big goal is never, never, never have to ever reload the OS. In coming on ten years, I have met that goal.

So, my basic argument "Bloat" is not the concern if you design the system correctly in terms of hardware. Slowly but surely I am proving this out to myself. I use Win98Se, Win2000 and Win XP Pro in a swappable system where OS's can share two separate hardware systems. I prefer to surf with Win98SE.

Always in the market for new ideas or new programs that sort of support my goals. Started using CCleaner, like the results. Lately have gotten more into this idea of the "Tracks One is Leaving" in various files. I went back and investigated how to be editing or managing the Registry. Sort of now convincing myself, it is far more about how the Registry is organized, defragged or compacted than its size or bloat.

Guess to this stage I am happy, would like to find a program that can "Erase tracks in the data area of the Registry, I can do it manually. Always that trade off between your desires and the next screw up.

If there is any magic touch stone to any of it. You can have too many methods of back up and hopeful one of them will work on restore.  

So I don't think the size of the bloat is the problem but more how the OS is organized to work around it. My fear is always mindless programs to cure "Bloat" screw up and the back ups don't work. 

Plus I rarely can ever see a positive result on decreasing "Bloat" size to increased OS performance directly, assuming nothing else changed. Think I am saying size doesn't matter as well as it is well organized.  

With brings us to the problem of what programs to use for getting organized. Think I am say, first the Registry optimizing programs are the ones to look at, defrag if you are old school, mega one hard drive user, a World impossible to balance out.


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## ATHiker95

Well, that was nice and all, but had little to do with Hotsync files being dumped for some unknown reason onto my C: drive. It wasn't like I pointed them that way. I install all my programs on other partitions and keep my data on other partitions as well. That doesn't mean that when installing a program, nothing at all ends up on C: There is always something of the program that must go to C: I can't control that. My Windows folder on C: is some 2.8 Gigs by itself. 

But you make some good points, although bloat on the C: was not really a concern one way or the other with me - I was just trying to make sure I had enough room to install the Service Pack and this Hot Synch issue is puzzling. I've written Palm in the meantime to see if they have an idea.


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## ATHiker95

After writing to Palm, AvantGo, Epocrates and Vindigo, they have no solutions whatsoever. They just suggest uninstalling all of the Palm software and starting over. Microsoft wants $35 to discuss over the phone, something I'd rather not do. So I guess I am off to uninstall all my Palm software.

Mark


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## ATHiker95

Well, I never figured out why my palm pilot syncs put .dmp files into c:\Windows\Internet Logs, but I just delete them and go on my merry way.

However, I just installed SP2 and interestingly enough, I happened to notice the following files in there, actually 3 instances of the same file. They are named 
IEXPLORE_2nd_2005_04_28_01_43_10.dmp.zip, IEXPLORE_2nd_2005_04_28_01_43_30.dmp.zip,
IEXPLORE_2nd_2005_04_28_04_57_11.dmp.zip

The first two are 38,678KB in size. The last one is 38,863KB in size.

Any idea why those went there? And is it safe to delete those?

Thanks,
Mark

This is just too weird.


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## [email protected]

gOING WAY BACK IN THIS THREAD - I tried to remove a couple of the "log" files that you recommended out of the Internet Logs Folder - BUT - It would NOT allow removal - said another program is using that file - shut it down first??? Can you please advise?

TKS Michael


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## jvenezia

WhitPhil said:


> The folder Internet Logs is created by ZoneAlarm.
> 
> BTW From Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View tab and ensure that you have "Show All Files" selected, and UNselect "Hide File Extensions for Known File Types".
> 
> Now, under that folder you will normally find a LDB file, named after your computer name, and a lamdb.rdb file. These are the ZA main files.
> You may also find a Backup.rdb file, tvdebug.log and ZAlog.txt file.
> 
> The latter is logging all ZA alerts, if you have this selected and can be removed it not needed.
> TvDebug.log file can be deleted. If you don't do this periodically, this file will continually grow larger.
> 
> I have also found that over time, the RDB and LDB files also grow over time. So, periodically I restart to DOS/Safe mode, rename the files and reboot. ZA then rebuilds these files. After a couple of days, ensuring that all is well, I delete the 2 renamed files.


I have a TVDEBUG.log file on my computer and frequently it apparently causes my computer to even crash, and is causing Nortons to say that it has got the wrong amount of space allotted to it or something. When I try to delete it, then it says "ACCESS DENIED".. How on earth can I get rid of the darned thing. It is taking up 21 Megs of space, and I only have 400 megs left of a 6.1 Gig HD. Also I have two other files... RDB and LDB that won't let me delete them either..

jvenezia

[email protected]


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## WhitPhil

Open the file C:\Autoexec.bat (or create one)
and add 

Del C:\Windows\Intern~1\TvDebug.log

Then, this file will be deleted on every boot up.

The RDB and LDB files are the main ZA files. You "can" periodically delete them and then have ZA rebuild them, resulting in smaller files.

In order to do this, restart to DOS (or with a boot disk), CD to the folder and delete them.


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## Finder Taurus

This is how I got rid of the tvdebug.log file and everything in the folder 'Internet Logs'

I went to C:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs and right clicked the folder 'Internet Logs' and clicked delete which sent it to the recycle bin.

I then restarted my computer with the folder still in the recycle bin because at this point it still prohibits you from deleting the file.

ZoneAlarm will create the folder again but this time the tvdebug.log file will be at zero kilobytes and now you can safely delete the files in the recycle bin.

I'm using Microsoft Windows ME operating system so the path of the Internet Logs folder will depend on which OS you have installed.

Important note: ZoneAlarm will reset some or all settings back to default if you delete the folder and everything in it so make sure you open ZoneAlarm and put the settings back the way you want after you restart your computer.


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