9

So I did a drag&drop extraction from 7z (windows), which creates temporary files (this was on purpose, as I was extracting to a network share.)

Unfortunately, 7z crashed during this process and 7GB of temporary files were left behind on my disk. I tried deleting %TEMP% via Disk Cleanup and manually, but the files were not there.

Anyone knows how to locate 7z temporary files?

Edit: This is a work PC, so I cannot install 3rd-party software.

The Fiddler
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6 Answers6

11

Using the run command: (WIN+R) type "%TEMP%" and hit enter.

This will bring up all the temp files stored on your PC through the user account you are on.

7-zip tells you the temp location it uses (extract from 7-zip.org/faq.html):

7-Zip doesn't know folder path of drop target. Only Windows Explorer knows exact drop target. And Windows Explorer needs files (drag source) as decompressed files on disk. So 7-Zip extracts files from archive to temp folder and then 7-Zip notifies Windows Explorer about paths of these temp files. Then Windows Explorer copies these files to drop target folder.

To avoid temp file usage, you can use Extract command of 7-Zip or drag-and-drop from 7-Zip to 7-Zip.

Uwe Keim
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Ash King
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2

C:\Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\Temp under windows 8.1

found MANY 7zipExxxx.tmp folders ...using up 16GB ! reboot did NOT help. Using CCleaner did NOT help. Manually looking at TEMP folders did NOT help.

What I did was use WinDirStat to see all my files and lo and behold 7zip was not clearing a thing.

Hope that helps others.

Ander Ferreras
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1

Also, there's an option in CCleaner that need to be unchecked: Options > Advanced > Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 24 hours.

Jawa
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sanchez
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0

I don't know if too late but here is another solution if you're using 7-zip.

Open the 7-zip File Manager, go to Tools\Options. Then in the Options Window:

Image

Go to Folders Tab, and select Current option in Working Folder setting. Default value is System Temp folder.

It applies when you work on external devices. I don't know if exists a similar option in Winrar.

Stephen Rauch
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mijail
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0

Just wanted to shed some light on why all of this happened after playing around with the benchmark tool in 7zip.

Some of those benchmarking options can use MASSIVE amounts of memory. Enough memory to make Windows start increasing your page file from the initial size you (or Windows) have set... even if it isn't going to actually consume every last MB that it's preparing.

So, let's say you set your initial page file size to 4GB with a maximum size of 24GB and you have 16GB of RAM...

And you decide to do some kind of 1GB dictionary test with 8 threads or something..

You're going to seemingly lose 10-12GB of disk space because your page file is going to increase with the examples given.

Then when you restart, the page file goes back to the "initial size" you have set.

Hope that helps anyone in the future that may come across this.

Freakshow
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0

After rebooting, I somehow got back the missing 7GB. Strange, but not completely unexpected (there's a reason why people say "have you tried rebooting?" :) )

Thanks to everyone who answered!

The Fiddler
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