Monday, 11 March 2013

Disable old, disconnected offline folders in Windows 7

What:

Windows 7 with offline folders enabled

Problem:

Computer has been moved to a new domain, can't remove cached data and it's taking 40GB on C drive.

Solution:

The Offline Files cache is a folder structure located in the %SystemRoot%\CSC folder, which is hidden by default. The CSC folder, and any files and subfolders it contains, should not be modified directly, doing so can result in data loss and a complete breakdown of Offline Files functionality.
  1. In "Folder Options", on the "Offline Files" tab, press CTRL+SHIFT, and then click "Delete Files". The following message appears:
  2. The Offline Files cache on the local computer will be re-initialized. Any changes that have not been synchronized with computers on the network will be lost. Any files or folders made available offline will no longer be available offline. A computer restart is required. Do you wish to re-initialize the cache?
  3. Click "Yes" twice to restart the computer.
Second method.
  1. Navigate to the following location in the registry:
  2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Csc\Parameters
  3. Create a new "DWORD" Value (32 bit) called "FormatDatabase" , with the value 1
  4. Reboot (the new key we created will delete itself after rebooting along with the Offline cache)

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