Is it OK to delete temporary files on an external disk after Update

BobSter2 · 13 May 2018

Hi

This is the first time I've had to plug-in an external drive to provide extra (temporary) diskspace during a Windows Upgrade. (Win10Home 1709 to 1803 on a 128GB SSD laptop).

I don't need the rollback option anymore and I have responded to the System Prompt 'do I want to delete it?' (yes, I do want to delete it). I plugged the external drive back in before responding, but the files (in $WINDOWS.~TMP on the external drive) were not deleted allong with the files on C:

I assume that I can just manually delete the files on the external drive, but can anyone confirm that (i.e. that I won't suffer orphaned patches, or whatnot).

Summary:

Is it OK to delete temporary files on an external disk after Update-0-temp-files-07.jpg

All the blurb I could find on the internet was about temp files on C: not on external drives.

Running Disk Cleanup on the external drive doesnot offer the option for 'Cleanup system files'.

Win10 Home 1803

thanks

Barman58 · 13 May 2018

What I would always recommend is that you set everything up (hardware wise), as it was when you did the upgrade - Then right click on C: and click on properties, then Disc Cleanup and set all the general items you want to clear and also select the System Files Option and edit this to meet needs it includes proper removal of the Windows Old

You can do this manually but it's a better thing to allow windows to do it as they are less likely to delete some odd file that is needed

What I would do in your situation where the system appears to have "lost" the Windows .old and other files is to leave things as is for an update cycle, just in case the system suddenly "needs" one of the files and throws an error