index.dat file....removal

[Sm|th 6th]

The article below outlines how to see what is in that index.dat file..but it doesn't say how to delete it... let me know if there is way.

Microsoft's Hidden Files in Windows XP
Posted by waddy on Tuesday, May 07 @ 17:41:05 BST


Thanks to Brian for this Article : MSIE (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer) is known to store your entire history inside a HIDDEN file somewhere in your comp for unknown reasons (or should I say, Unproven reasons). OK, then we just click on "clear history" and "delete files" no? NO! it might seem like it erased the history, but it didnt.

It is stored inside a file called "Index.DAT", which is Hidden. But not hidden in the regular way, even if you enalbe the "view hidden files" option, you will still not be able to see it or even search for it.

Here is how to get that file:

Guide & Information : WinXP Pro-E-man.txt

 

[dejav00]

...

Ctrl+A...Delete key...Ctrl+S.

Meaning, Select All, Delete, Save.

Then, put it back into the first directory, this is what all those "Internet Eraser" tools do.

 

[Sm|th 6th]

????

If it were that simple I wouldn't post here . I obviously tried that. When you open the index.dat in wordpad you delete everything save etc. But when you try to replace the original it says access denied.

Any other suggestions

 

[TheBlueRaja]

Theres another thead i started in the News section which has various ways to get rid of this file.

http://www.xp-erience.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10333

 

[djmorgan]

What I do if your not keen on keep anything from a session.

I have a ram disk that the temp folder resides in makes the Internet connection faster as it's not writing to HD and of course when you reboot the ram disk is cleared erasing the index.dat file - flushed no trace gone forever

You can get the ram disk free from this site

 

[TuMbRaS]

im still thinking though... i agree that a virtual RAM drive can benefit in the speed department, however, it still resides on your hard drive. Secondly, I'm curious??>>but, logic tells me that you would have a pagefile on your harddrive or partition(s) which you can do if you choose - spread it out across multidrives/partitions - having said that.. unless you have a utility or through gpedit, instruct the pagefile to be cleaned upon shutdown... your information will still be there..

also, have you actually looked at your local settings folder under documents and settings??? if you move that folder out of that location..by choosing "send to" when you right click it.. YOU WILL SEE THE INDEX.DAT FILE IS THERE. and it will always be there.. regardless if you "delete" it... every time you invoke IE, it will always be recreated..with the starting size i think of about 60 or 80 kb.. i forget which..

anyway,im guessing that perhaps you are deleting an index.dat file..its just a copy of the original..which will be replaced when IE is started up again.. check it out for yourself.. you will see what i am talking about...

oh, and if i didnt mention it... there is more than one..."index.dat" file in cookies, internet history and temporary internet history folders....

the best that you can do..is either delete...EACH AND EVERYTIME you boot up or shutdown, your index.dat files through DOS or find a GUI based prog that will do it for you... but you will still always have them... you will only be able to reset them...

check this site out for more details:

http://www.fsm.nl/ward/

and...

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Reef/9201/vir/ie/ie_txt.htm

and...

http://www.purgeie.com/indexdat.htm

you will be educated more clearly as to what you can do..and what you cant...

good luck all!!!

~n

 

[djmorgan]

a RAM drive resides in RAM not on your HD, I made NO mention of a virtual Ram drive.

The index.dat file in local settings is only a refrence file, the actual working index.dat file if left alone grows to enormous size - somebody reported 7 meg, I don't know when windows flushes it if ever.

The working index.dat file resides in the folder that you tell IE to use as your temp store.

The pagesysfile is totally different and IS you Virtual store if needed.

 

[TuMbRaS]

okay...

Im very curious then.... please let us all know where you obtained the information that says you can successfully delete this one "working" index.dat file?? I am requesting a link or a reference to an article please???

second, define for us, what you mean by "reference" index.dat fiel and "working" index.dat file..again, please refer me to an article or something like that >??

third, please point me to this one particular index.dat file that you mention as being "the" one. even though we all already know that there is more than one index.dat file..all of which contain various forms of data.

fourth... i think im still confused then.. please show me or refer me to an article that states how you can move all of these index.dat files to a temp folder, not a cookies folder, not a temporary internet files folder, and put them all in one temp folder.. im dying to know how to do that!!!!

fifth, at one point during an IE setup does it allow you to choose where you wish to store your index.dat file?? and what about machines that already come configured with IE on it... so in that case, the consumer doesnt get the opportunity to make this magical adjustment..and we now would have to manually reinstall IE and find this option available..???

sixth, common sense tells me... if this could be done as you say..and if we are to believe that there is this one "master working" index.dat file, don't you think that this would have been discussed, documented and posted all over the place..?? wouldnt everybody be doing it?? funny, i've never in my life heard of this, as you describe it... i've never heard of this technique mentioned anywhere ever... s

so please, DO backup your opionated suggestions with facts.... show all of us where you obtained this documentation..and offer all of us please links or reference to any literature that would support your claim...even if its some sort of owners manual...

one thing though.. you are absolutely right about the ram drive.. i DID MISUNDERSTAND YOU..so I WAS WRONG in my reply..and i apologize for that...

dying to learn how you do it..

~n

 

[l0g0ut]

tumbras.... for your fifth question.... i believe the index.dat file is stored in the temporary internet folder for every user.... which can be specified if you go to Internet Options in the General tab... you can see the Setting button which will open a new window... there you'll see the button Move Folder... which is the option to change the temporary internet files folder.... the suggestion is to change this folder to a RAMDisk which will be wiped out after each boot.

now to my question... what if i don't reboot often and i don't want to reboot often? then i can't get rid of the file..... hmm.... i'm tempted to deny write access to my Temp. Internet Folder..... what do you think?

 

[djmorgan]

Sheesh pal chill out, I'm not trying to sell you something here I was answering a question not asked by you, as to doing your research for you well I charge $AUD150.00 per hour minimum 4 hours, so if you want to contract with me fine.

For free:

There is ONLY 1 index.dat file in use at a time, this is the hidden file located in the TIF folder (Temporary Internet Files) and this folder is located where you see IE6 shows it to be, it can be moved anywhere on your system. If you don't know how to do that then I suggest you learn as it's fundemantal and has been a part of IE since about version 4.0

This Index.dat file is the file refered to as being the secret file - I don't believe that, but it is a file that grows in size and cannot be deleted except from DOS. Or other special programs such as spider etc.

There are a number of other index.dat files some reside in the cookies folders some in the spare temp folders that XP seems to create for other users even if there are no other users. On my system at last count I had about 8 index.dat files only 3 of which have had recent activity, TIF, Cookies & History.

These, Index.dat files do not grow and are normally 32 or 64kb in size.

The index.dat file in TIF can be very large if the TIF folder is not kept to a sensibly size, once again if you don't know how to do that then learn.

Now if the above appears in your mind to be 'opinionated' then I'm sorry but it is simply fact not opinion - suggest you visit MSKB and type in "index.dat" for a good read.

So, back to the answer, if you therefore have a RAM drive and make your TIF into the RAM drive then when the RAM is flushed ie system re start the TIF is errased and the index.dat along with it.

 

[TuMbRaS]

Originally posted by djmorgan

I have a ram disk that the temp folder resides in makes the Internet connection faster as it's not writing to HD and of course when you reboot the ram disk is cleared erasing the index.dat file - " flushed no trace gone forever"

....and...."So, back to the answer, if you therefore have a RAM drive and make your TIF into the RAM drive then when the RAM is flushed ie system re start the TIF is errased and the index.dat along with it."

As I have been trying to make others aware of this misnomer that you can permanently delete this file... which you simply can not do...as it will be recreated as soon as you start your pc back up again. Also, thank you for acknowledging with me that there is more than one index.dat file...

the whole point of my replies have been this:

too many times, individuals will come onto places like this..and make blanket statements..whether in general conversation or suggested as a fix/tweak and pass their information off as "fact"...

to that end...and not to poke holes in your "Facts"...butttt..if we were all to assume the information in your last post as "facts" as you indicate... then we would be mislead.. for instance.. you state as fact that index.dat files are normally 32kb or 64kb..thats simply not true... as an example, on both of my machines at home, all index.dat files are 16kb or 32kb..so what you stated...is indeed, not fact, but an observable opinion according to what you have seen perhaps on your pc's as well... regardless, the fact that i DO have different numbers showing up.. does indicate that you are wrong...(and if needed, i can post screen shots) secondly, in your original post..and that is what my point was after... you state, as fact..that the index.dat file, if placed in the TIF within the RAM drive is " flushed no trace gone forever" ..again.. not fact... as it is always recreated...

the fact of the matter is..is that these examples are not that terribly complicated, nor all that important..however, they have the potential of misleading other users that come to this site and others like it..and gather information like you post...and take it at face value without doing any research on their own... if people were to just see your post..and not look into it...then they would be mislead...again, not that big of a deal in this case..but nonetheless... you should hold yourself to be responsible enough to consider what you say on forums like this, and what impact your words might have on other users...

im not trying to be a hard- a**..im just trying to make light of the fact that people make statements and sometimes those statements can be misleading if taken at face value.... and your posts demonstrate this carefree behavior of just spewing out information regardless of the fact if it trully represents valid information or not..which quite frankly, your original post did not.

some people may have known about the other index.dat files..and may have known that yes, you can temporarily delete them...but you have to consider those individuals that may have not known that...and had they only read your statements.. they would be mislead.... thats all im saying...

i, myself have made statements im sure that were not completely valid, as i did not research thoroughly enough..but i hold myself accountable for posting a correction or further information if i know that to be more accurate...

anyway, that's my dime......good luck to you

~n

 

[l0g0ut]

Better solution..

Ok guys.... let's think of a solution.... i tried setting the attribute to the index.dat file to read-only just after reboot... 12 hrs has passed and the file size has not increase.... should be good now....

 

[djmorgan]

Your now splitting hairs and have gone totally off the subject.

The 'Index.dat' file is PERMANENTLY erased if in a RAM Disk (or deleted by other means) when the computer reboots a NEW Index.dat is writen by the system as the system needs to have it present to operate IE.

NOBODY stated that the index.dat could be permanently done without, that it will never be unless somehow you do not load IE.

Now surely you have something more productive to do.

 

[TuMbRaS]

djmorgan

you are right..far more important issues to be productive about than to be pointing out erroneous information to you....

hmmm..had i taken the option of paying $150.00 AUD i think i would have sorely been dissapointed..if not for your behavior alone..... but because your information was not factual... and if you couldn't provide valid information on something as silly as this....i wonder what what kind of trouble could you get someone's pc in for $150.00.....

your words speak volumes about you...

im finished... not worth the time at this point....pm if you want to continue with this..as you are right.. we are wasting valuable forum space....

~n

 

[Terrahertz]

Wow and to think it all started with the "index.dat". This is great reading material..printing it now. djmorgan and TuMbRaS from the look of your post your both very knowledgeble individuals who are also human beings. Cant help it just our curse . It a shame though you two would have a falling out over this.
I'm using a ramdrive and my index.dat is flushed every shutdown and restart. Thats really what we wanted right, to clear it? So cheer up guys its not that big a deal.

 

[TuMbRaS]

bravo terra..... i could have not said it better myself...

no hard feelings dj.... what's said is said and done.... good luck...

and yes..the ramdrive is very interesting to play with...

have a great day guys!

~n

 

[Think]

Nice read, but how do you create a RAM drive in Windows XP?

 

[djmorgan]

Go to the download section of this site and search and download a ram drive utility, recommended you have 256+ mem.

There was an article done on ram drives in the news section about 8 weeks ago I think.

You'll also see that MS have a ramdrive for free but it is limited in features.

Good hunting.

 

[TuMbRaS]

the article dj was referring to i think had two utilities listed..one was freeware i think it was called XP Ramdrive..the other one... not freeware was called RamDrive XP. it comes in two flavors..home and pro versions....

their homepage is:

http://www.superspeed.com/

good luck!!!

~n

 

[Sm|th 6th]

Well to think this tread started with my simple post anyway thx guys I appreciate the help. I tried the spider program it works.. I am also going to go get the ram drive program to play with that.

Just a quick question: basically what is a ram drive?? I am thinking it uses your ram to make a harddrive...is that right