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re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 9:15 pm Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) Ines, First step is determine which program, if any on your Computer is creating these files. Try opening one. The file names you listed do not corespond to any User.xxx files in my Win98SE system. It's possible they were created by Malware, so run whatever Spy/Adware programs you have. Try a google search with the complete File name. Also try the full Path and file name. Select the most recent files and move them to a different directory, then run your System normally and see if anything unusual happens. If none of the "Last Accessed" dates are within the last week, it's probably safe to delete them all, but I wopuld want to know where they're coming from first. You could try running "Disk Cleanup" to see if they can be removed all at once. Post back with whatever you find. BW On Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 4:26 pm, Ines wrote: >I was out of space on my hard drive and noticed about 5,000 user.* files about 2,637 >kb in size each in my Windows directory. >Can you tell me what they are? They are named with numbers or letter after, such >as user.85C, user.DBA, userDB9, etc... >They were created over a couple of years... > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 18, 2007 at 2:31 am Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) They are probably copies of user.dat, which is part of your registry. Some sort of system back-up program is (probably) creating them. Note: DO NOT delete user.dat ! And user.da0 is the (normal) windows-created back-up of user.dat. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 18, 2007 at 9:42 am Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) Since no .Dat files were noted by OP, I doubt these are registry backups, which BTW are rb0001.cab thru rb0005.cab and are found in C:\windows\System\sysbackup in Win98SE. User.dat and System.dat are the current regristy settings, which, when a backup is ceated, are both saved in the rb000x.cab file. Win98SE default is 5 copies, hence rb0001 thru rb0005. More can be created but the .cab extension is still used. Somehow I doubt 5,000 copies of the registry. I've seen reference to the User.da0 file before, neither of my Win98SE systems contain this particular file??? http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry BW On Monday, June 18, 2007 at 2:31 am, Jacob6601 wrote: >They are probably copies of user.dat, which is part of your registry. Some sort of >system back-up program is (probably) creating them. >Note: DO NOT delete user.dat ! And user.da0 is the (normal) windows-created back-up >of user.dat. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 18, 2007 at 10:24 am Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) (rb0001 thru rb0005), should read rb0000 thru rb0005. oops. This link should explain the User.da0 and System.da0 question http://brianlivingston.com/windowmanager/archive/cgi-bin/new/livingst/980810bl.htm Appear to exist in Win95. BW On Monday, June 18, 2007 at 9:42 am, bob wells wrote: >Since no .Dat files were noted by OP, I doubt these are registry backups, which BTW >are rb0001.cab thru rb0005.cab and are found in C:\windows\System\sysbackup in Win98SE. > >User.dat and System.dat are the current regristy settings, which, when a backup is >ceated, are both saved in the rb000x.cab file. Win98SE default is 5 copies, hence >rb0001 thru rb0005. More can be created but the .cab extension is still used. Somehow >I doubt 5,000 copies of the registry. > >I've seen reference to the User.da0 file before, neither of my Win98SE systems contain >this particular file??? > >http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry > >BW > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 18, 2007 at 5:30 pm Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) I never said windows created all of those files. Ines appears to know better than to rely on MS to backup his system. You were correct on the "User.da0" point though. I don't see it in my 98 install either. My bad. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 18, 2007 at 6:00 pm Posted by bob wells (1636 messages posted) Yeah, and I never said you did. Just expressing my doubt that 5,000 User. anything files were created by the OS. More likely Some poorly written software or, the ever-present scourge of the millenium, "Malware". On the User.Da0, google was my friend. Sounded familiar but wrong for Win98SE. No, not bad, just mistaken in this case. No harm, no foul. :-) BW On Monday, June 18, 2007 at 5:30 pm, Jacob6601 wrote: >I never said windows created all of those files. Ines appears to know better than >to rely on MS to backup his system. >You were correct on the "User.da0" point though. I don't see it in my 98 install >either. My bad. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Monday, June 25, 2007 at 5:43 am Posted by Ines (3 messages posted) Hi, I was out of town, so just picked up the messages. Thanks. I deleted all the files without a problem. Thanks for the info. I finally figured out that they are created on opening and closing my browsers. It happened with Opera, Firefox, and IE. Any ideas? On Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 4:26 pm, Ines wrote: >I was out of space on my hard drive and noticed about 5,000 user.* files about 2,637 >kb in size each in my Windows directory. >Can you tell me what they are? They are named with numbers or letter after, such >as user.85C, user.DBA, userDB9, etc... >They were created over a couple of years... > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: What are User.* files such as user.85C Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 9:08 pm Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) My guess is the firewall or anti-virus. Physically unplug your internet and see if they are still being created; If so, disable one, then the other to determine which one it is. You can then look for the setting to turn this feature off. NOTE: You might also look for similar files called system.* -- system.dat is the other part of the registry. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 98 Discussion Forum