Chrome Using 7.6GB of Disk Space. Has a File 5.9GB that hasn't been Accessed for 92 Days

I just ran WinDirStat and noticed that Google Chrome is using tons of disk space.
One file in particular is 5.9GB and hasn't been modified since July 11, 2013, its name is just: 00000001

What is this file? Why was it created? And is it safe to delete?

Chrome WTF To try to give me more insight, I checked Windows Reliability Monitor History for that date. I found that the time it was created coincides with the time I tried to mod GTA IV with ICE Enhancer and texture packs.

Here is how that went: GTAIV WTF

I suspect these two things are related. Could I delete that file? Why was it created?

Derek Ziemba

Posted 2013-10-11T04:07:20.750

Reputation: 1 072

To anyone else who finds this via a search like I did, it is not a bug that has been fixed. Happened to me this year, can confirm the chosen answer works. – Taejang – 2019-06-20T06:35:48.377

10First of all, excellent sleuthing to find the file in the first place and then figure out what you were doing around that time! I'm impressed at your troubleshooting prowess. – allquixotic – 2013-10-11T04:15:54.413

Answers

Guess I posted too soon. Just figured it out. I had an idea to try to compress it with 7-Zip to see what the compression ratio was. I figured that if the compression ratio was extremely high, it's probably some kind of failed download that Chrome allocated space for.

Instead, I realized I could just try opening it with 7-Zip, because it seems like it can open anything, and it worked. It showed what the unknown file contained.

7-zip finds what the file is

Chrome didn't clean up a download properly. Chrome's download manager says the file "Lords Textures.rar" was Removed, but it obviously wasn't.

Derek Ziemba

Posted 2013-10-11T04:07:20.750

Reputation: 1 072

I just had this with a very large (6gb) file too.. it seems like there is a bug – HaveAGuess – 2014-11-26T00:48:27.753

2And just what is in the Lords Textures.rar file? – Cetin Sert – 2013-10-11T08:03:12.010

Lord Neophytes 'All-In-One' Textures http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130818324 I never did get it to work right, as you can see from my Windows Reliability log

– Derek Ziemba – 2013-10-11T09:52:53.647

Move the file to a different folder and restart and use Chrome for a while. If you have no issues you can delete the file.

I think this is a temporary file from the download. But I don't use Chrome very often, so this is speculation.

magicandre1981

Posted 2013-10-11T04:07:20.750

Reputation: 86 560

You were right. I just posted what I found. – Derek Ziemba – 2013-10-11T04:21:49.350

It's most likely a backup or a leftover temporary file for a download. Also found huge files (~1GB) in the exact same spot with no file extension and named 00000001 and 00000002. Opened the files using VLC (free video player capable of playing pretty much any video file) and found out that the files were actually videos I downloaded ages ago, but for some reason Chrome didn't remove these temporary files after the download had finished.

TL;DR I'm pretty sure these files are safe to delete without affecting the functionality of the program. (I've been a Windows power-user for 12 years and I'm a University student of Information Processing.)

Observer

Posted 2013-10-11T04:07:20.750

Reputation: 21

the question was already answered over 1 year ago. – magicandre1981 – 2015-02-15T19:22:43.297

Still a relevant answer, as the original answer involved 7zip and this one is VLC. Probably could have been a comment though – Taejang – 2019-06-20T06:37:24.853