Very large (2+GB) IMG00001.DAT file on secondary drive

[jpivonka]

Dell 1.8mhz running XP

In running defrag on a 'reserve' partition logical drive E: which is generally used for secondary storage I found a file:

IMG00001.DAT - E:\Users\User1\FilesandSettingsJPiv\USMT.UNC - 2,097,148 KB 10/31/2003 2:42 AM

Yeah, 2+ Gigabytes. What is that, and can I delete it?

No, I don't remember what I was doing on October 31, 2003 that would have created this thing. But looking at my files tells me I was setting up that new user, about an hour earlier, on the primary drive.

Could this be some backup summary file that I can do without now?

There are two additional, much smaller files with the same date, time, and folder, their names are IMG00002.DAT and 'status' - this last has no extension and is listed as a 1 k file.

What are .DAT files generally, and is it save to delete this 2GB monster?

[whitebeard21]

looks like image 00001.dat which would be a backup.

[wju425]

What I found in google search - keyword, "usmt":

"The User State Migration Tool (USMT) copies user settings, files, and documents. Then you restore these settings on the new machine so users do not have to reconfigure their desktop settings. It works best for XP and Windows 2000 Professional clients and you do need the client machine to be connected to a domain controller."

It seems that you upgraded from Win98se and USMT stored your previous settings. I advise you to leave it there.

Did any of this ring a bell?

\o/ Billy

[jpivonka]

Billy, thanks for your input (and the google reminder). I did indeed do such an upgrade, but in June, when I migrated from W98SE to WinXP. And at that time I went pretty much de novo with my user setup, which was under another XP user name.

Later, apparently at the end of October, I decided to extablish additional user accounts, so this particular USMT incident must be associated with that.

The user name information given in the directory entry for this monster file is assoicated with the first of the new user accounts I established, if I read it and recall the history correctly.

So it would seem that there is no new machine, involved, and no migration to a new OS involved, only establishment of a new user account.

This machine is a stand alone machine, which is not connected to a domain controller, and not networked. However, it may be that that had not been made clear to the OS at the time that the new user was extablished - I may recall dealing with that at about the same time, but possibly after the user creation.

I am suspecting that shortly after establishing the new user at about 1:11 AM, I did something to that user account that caused (at 2:42 AM) the USMT to make a copy of the settings, files, and documents.

Alternatively, I may have caused the establishment of this file by attempting to migrate the original User settings, files, and documents to the newly established User.

In either case, it seems the file may be outdated and superfluous. But I need to validate that tentative conclusion, and determine the best way to remove it if that is advisable. Any help and hints will be greatly appreciated.

And thanks for reminding me of the value of Google searches for terms related to these problems. I'll have to do some more along that line ASAP.

[Blazer06]

i would rename it *.bak... then see if anything weird happens. if after a week or two (to be tested with normal use)... i would delete it


Blaze

[mssunnyone]

im trying to open my data so i can sve it and use it.

[jpivonka]

I was reminded to recheck the IMG00001.DAT file, and delete it. It was taking up 1/4 of the 8Gb partition, and it seemed redundant. Time will tell I guess. Never did find any good information about what it was or how and when it would be useful.

mssunnyone, what data are you trying to open and use? Maybe you know more than you have mentioned here.

[jimschm]

IMG*.DAT files are the stored settings from the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, if you choose to save the settings to a specific location (versus using the wizard's direct cable or the home networking option).

You can run the F&STW at any time to get stuff out of the images. But it sounds like you don't need the backup, so delete the files.