Deleting thousands of files

[zrbite]

Hi!

I've found a problem with deleting files. When I delete several thousands of files, the CPU usage goes to the sky, and there is a memory leak about 1 - 5 megabytes / second. (In the performance monitor both the CPU has 100% usage, on the processes monitor the process has a 30-50% CPU usage.) That means a few minutes after the start there will be a few hundred megabytes allocated! After canceling the deletion it continues to allocate memory and use the CPU for a few minutes, then in a few seconds the leak and CPU usage disappears. Like some kind of time-out.

Total Commander version: 7.04a
Delete options:
Use explorer delete method: false
F8/Del deletes to recycle bin: true
OS: Vista 32-bit
Memory: 4 GB (at least there are 3 GB available)
Processor: Core2 dual-core
User: standard user-level, UAC enabled

[fenix_productions]

2zrbite

Please check does it also happen after these steps:

1. go to Configuration -> Operation
2. in "Calculate space occupied by subdirectories" group uncheck "before copying/deleting".

You can also try to hit Escape key once at the beginning of deleting process.

[Hacker]

Hello zrbite,
You can always search for delete cpu on the forums.

Roman

[ghisler(Author)]

This is a known Vista bug, there is no workaround.

[MVV]

I have to say one thing which relates to topic name (not to first post contents). When we [re]move a large ammount, setting an label text may be longer than file removing. I think in that cases it is a good idea to set label text on each tenth file in selection for example (although this suggestion needs to be tested for performance difference).

[Venkman]

This is a known Vista bug, there is no workaround.

Vista has this thing where it insists on indexing everything to search faster. Much more intrusively than the indexing on XP. Bloated Microsoft logic, but still, could it be that this index has to be updated for each individual file so this is what is taking so long?

A workaround perhaps: Temporarily disable the indexing service while bulk deleting (I can look up the service name and .exe if it helps).

zrbite, could you test a delete in a Vista command prompt, if it is faster? Command prompt deletes are usually fast, while deleting in Windows Explorer is really slow on any Windows version. In this case, it could be useful for Ghisler to check out what routines are called for deletion in a command prompt as opposed to Explorer/TC

-V

[sqa_wizard]

Temporarily disable the indexing service while bulk deleting

Stopping a service w/o administrative rights is really difficult on Vista ...

[Venkman]

Absolutely - it would have to be done as in "Run As Administrator" mode

[Lefteous]

Elevate to accelerate this is ridiculous!

[Venkman]

Huh?

[samot]

Did you try to delete the files by passing the recycle bin (Shift-F8 instead of F8 )?

Its usually very much faster and in the most cases the thousands file did not fit in the recycle bin so that the first deletet are removed from it, when the last ones are deleted.

best regards

Thomas

[siealex]

Drawing progressbars and writing text is MUCH LONGER than deleting even on XP! Is it possible to update the progressbar window each 10 seconds, but not on any file?

[HolgerK]

Drawing progressbars and writing text is MUCH LONGER than deleting even on XP! Is it possible to update the progressbar window each 10 seconds, but not on any file?

NewStyleProgress= 1: Use operating system progress bar (default for Windows >=XP)

0: Use TC's own progress bar (default for all older Windows versions)

2: Like 1, but with a not segmented bar (only supported in classic theme)

If you think that drawing the progressbar is main reason for slowing down deletion process, you should try this setting.
Anyway, <Shift+Delete> is fast enough for me.

Regards
Holger

[LDevil]

It's insane, TC has created over 400 threads and it consumes about 80% of CPU (Intel Q9550), and almost 1.5GB RAM!
Almost every thread is in state Wait:UserRequest with start address at: TpCallbackMayRunLong+0xfa.
Is there any way to delete many files using TC on Vista?

[ghisler(Author)]

TC does NOT delete so many threads by itself. Maybe it's a bug in SHFileOperation creating one thread per call?