Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| TuneUp Utilites and .DAT_BAK_* files?
I noticed that in:
C:\Documents and Settings\user name\
there are a lot of files that end in .dat_bak_**** where the *'s are numbers like this: NTUSER.DAT_BAK_59114
I think I remember reading somewhere that these were back up files done by TuneUp Utilities if you used the TuneUp Registry Defrag, but I did a search and I can't find the topic anywhere.
I think they are because as a test I did a registry defrag and after booting up I noticed there was a new one in there with the current date and a time stamp of a minute before.
I've got quite a few of these now and they are getting kind of big so I want to delete the oldest ones. Is that safe?
Further, I did a search of my HD for .dat_bak_ and I found quite a few more with varying names in different folders. Are these all from TU also?
For example:
C:\Documents and Settings\Local Service\
C:\Documents and Settings\Network Service\
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
C:\Documents and Settings\Local Service\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
C:\Documents and Settings\Network Service\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
with files like: UsrClass.dat_BAK_76169
And then there are accompanying log files with the same dates and times too. Most are zero byte files and empty. |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
 ·Comcast
| Personally, I would open the Rescue Center and delete older backups from there, not deleting them from a folder.
You can even have them deleted automatically...
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera |
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Rxdoxx
Premium,Mod
join:2000-11-03
Middle River, MD
clubs: 
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
Host:
Software
Washington & Balti..
| Dadkins, I found (TU2006) that "automatic" deletion is not automatic.
I have cleaned/deleted those accumulations manually a number of times since I first started using TU (2004).
Here is my current list, and you can see I haven't done it in close to a year, and there still is a listing there from last August... so while TU may be automatically doing something, it is not touching some files, and when I first became aware of this and started deleting them, the list was pretty big.
--
To be on a pedestal is to be in a corner |
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Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida | Yeah, I thought that changing that setting wold clear it up to but obviously it doesn't. I've looked all over TU for a setting that would clear these up but I've never found one.
So Rxdoxx,
You just delete them? No ill effects? |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| reply to Rxdoxx
2007 here... Auto works fine.  |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
2 edits | reply to Sentinel
Nada... |
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Rxdoxx
Premium,Mod
join:2000-11-03
Middle River, MD
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
Host:
Software
Washington & Balti..
| reply to Sentinel
said by Sentinel  :So Rxdoxx, You just delete them? No ill effects? Yep, no ill effects.
I figured that was the "restores" from when I use their registry cleaner and whatever...
So I delete the older ones that my system has worked fine without needing.
They don't take that much space, so I keep the last couple just in case.
Same with CCleaner, their back-up is a little more obvious (and not a parallel hidden log also), a couple of times a year I go and delete all but the latest 2 or 3.
Never been a problem, but I do give it enough time that if something glitched, I can restore.
--
To be on a pedestal is to be in a corner |
|
Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| reply to dadkins
Wow, I don't know how because I just don't see anyplace to delete old backups from Registry Defrag. I see checkboxes for the other utilities but I don't see one for the Reg Defrag. |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | ...and I don't see the .dat_bak files... Odd.  |
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MarkAW
Barry White or lil bratt
Premium
join:2001-08-27
Canada
 ·Bell Sympatico
·Cogeco Cable
| reply to Sentinel
I use TU 2006 and have mine set to delete after 2 days and it seams to work for me. |
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Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| It deletes the .dat_bak_ files? I know that it deletes the backups that are in the TuneUp Rescue Center screen but that is my original question because the .dat_bak_ files are not listed anywhere in there.
The problem is that the TuneUp RescueCenter lists many of the applications in TU but not all. It does not list the Registry Defrag Utility and it is that utility that creates the .dat_bak_ files. I'll bet that if you do a search for the files you will find some. The Rescue Center does not remove those.
Of course if you have never used the Registry Defrag utility then you will not have the files. |
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MarkAW
Barry White or lil bratt
Premium
join:2001-08-27
Canada
·Bell Sympatico
·Cogeco Cable
| reply to Sentinel
Oh i see what you mean now when you use TU to defrag the registry it creates dat_bak_files of your system. In a word yes it is safe to delete the oldest ones for each dat_bak_file that is created is the same file just with new data which is created with every backup that you do of the registry.
--
A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her. - David Brinkley |
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JTM1051
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-08
Moorpark, CA
| reply to Sentinel
said by Sentinel :I noticed that in: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\ there are a lot of files that end in .dat_bak_**** where the *'s are numbers like this: NTUSER.DAT_BAK_59114 ... If you look at Rxdoxx's screen shot you'll notice that there are two types of files:
NTUSER.DAT_BAK_##### and NTUSER.DAT_TU_BAK_#####.LOG
The second file type, NTUSER.DAT_TU_BAK_#####.LOG are TU files.
Following is one of the several similar response search results for "NTUSER.DAT_BAK_"
»www.techimo.com/forum/archive/in···198.html
The ntuser.dat file is your user profile that Windows looks for when you log on. It contains your user settings and preferences so do not delete it. The files with BAK included are back-ups of your user profile.
For more info, if interested, would recommend doing a search for "NTUSER.DAT" and "UsrClass.dat" (i.e., without the "_BAK_"). The NTUSER.DAT_BAK_##### and UsrClass.dat_BAK_##### are back-up files for NTUSER.DAT and UsrClass.dat files. |
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Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| Yeah I know that those are user config files backups (registry) but they do seem to be created by TU, not only the log files. When I do a registry defrag TU creates both the log file and a backup of the user.dat files.
If it is not TU creating them then what program is creating them? At the exact time stamp that I do a reg defrag using the TU utility?
Meanwhile I'll start reading those links you gave. Thanks. |
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Rxdoxx
Premium,Mod
join:2000-11-03
Middle River, MD
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
Host:
Software
Washington & Balti..
| The only thing I can add is the numbers for the back-ups exactly match the TU log numbers, as do the created dates.
I've deleted maybe 30+ of the 'pairs' over the years and that the creation dates match the times I have defragged the registry with TU.
As to why they leave a "hidden" and empty log file... I can only guess at...
maybe it is used to prepare the creation of the .bak file and then emptied when the actual .bak is written. But why wouldn't they delete it???
Maybe it is needed in the restore process, but it still doesn't fully make sense to me.
I can see doing things that way, in case something (like a power failure) interrupts the process when incomplete.. there would be a need for a record to either continue or restore back, but why leave an empty hidden log file otherwise?
A puzzle but a kinda moot point for me, since I delete the older ones... maybe in the future I'll leave one older log without its .bak pairing, and see it TU gets rid of the .log on its own if it doesn't have a match for it.
--
To be on a pedestal is to be in a corner |
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Sentinel
Premium
join:2001-02-07
Florida
| I just find it odd that TU doesn't have anywhere in the program to get rid of these old backups. I mean after a while they would be kind of useless, no? Ad if your registry is large these files can be kind of big, and if you have a lot of them they can take up plenty of space.
But what about the other ones that I show in my image above? The ones in other user accounts like Local Service and Network Service? I am guessing that those are also created by Reg Defrag since they seem to have similar dates and times. They are smaller though. |
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JTM1051
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-08
Moorpark, CA
| said by Sentinel :...But what about the other ones that I show in my image above? The ones in other user accounts like Local Service and Network Service? I am guessing that those are also created by Reg Defrag since they seem to have similar dates and times. They are smaller though. Probably best to contact TU support about the files and as to why they are not being deleted by TU.
Based on what I was able to find in search results, it appeared that the NTUSER.DAT_BAK_##### and UsrClass.dat_BAK_##### were back-up files most likely created by the OS -- did not see anything attributing these files being created by TU.
Shame that TU is creating the NTUSER.DAT_BAK_##### and UsrClass.dat_BAK_##### files, instead of naming the files NTUSER.DAT_TU_BAK_##### and UsrClass.dat_TU_BAK_##### as it does the NTUSER.DAT_TU_BAK_#####.LOG files so one could easily determine that files were created by TU and not the OS.  |
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