Thinkpads Forum

I have so many different versions of the thinkpad drivers installed, due to updates from the Software Installer. Is there any utility that will automatically delete all but the newest version of each driver?

I know of no utility for that, but you can do the following. Delete all the subfolders within the C:\DRIVERS\ directory except W2K W9x & WIN . That will get rid of most of the extra files. You can also delete everything within the C:\DownloadDirector\ directory.

EDIT: It might be a good idea to leave the file dlmgr.pro in the C:\DownloadDirector\ directory. This file keeps some sort of record of what was downloaded. I am not sure if it would make any difference leaving it there or not.

GomJabbar wrote:IDelete all the subfolders within the C:\DRIVERS\ directory except W2K W9x & WIN . That will get rid of most of the extra files. You can also delete everything within the C:\DownloadDirector\ directory.

Well, I don't have a C:\DownloadDirector\ sub-directory at all, and the only things I keep in my C:\DRIVERS sub-directory are the Connect.txt and Install.txt files, and everything works just fine with Software Installer.

New WIN etc sub-directories are created as needed by Software Installer.

Cheers,

Bill

What about i386, ibmshare, ibmtools folders? They seem to be much bigger... Are they deletable?

bill bolton wrote:Well, I don't have a C:\DownloadDirector\ sub-directory at all, and the only things I keep in my C:\DRIVERS sub-directory are the Connect.txt and Install.txt files, and everything works just fine with Software Installer.

New WIN etc sub-directories are created as needed by Software Installer.

Cheers,

Bill

C:\DownloadDirector\ is created when you manually download drivers and software from IBM. A packed file for each package is downloaded there. You execute the file to unpack the downloaded software to it's appropriate directory as listed above: W2K, W9x, & WIN. From there you can run Software Installer to install the software, or you can run Setup.exe in the appropriate directory.

The three directories mentioned above have the latest version of the software you updated to. I suppose you don't really need them, since install places the appropriate files in the directories they need to run from.

Myself, I am not so eager to free up every last byte on my hard drive. I prefer keeping a copy of all the updates that I download, in case I wish to revert to an older version later. I keep all these files in the C:\DownloadDirector\ directory, along with their corresponding readme files.

Not everyone has the same directories. Even the updates that I download manually, when they extract they want to go to slightly different locations. At one point, I had three versions of the ATI drivers on my system.

So ... before you blow away (delete) directories like \ibmshare, \ibmtools, \drivers, \i386, \support, \swtools,... BACK THEM UP FIRST.

GomJabbar wrote: C:\DownloadDirector\ is created when you manually download drivers and software from IBM.

Ah.... if you just do single file downloads and dont tick the "use download director" you don't end up with a C:\DownloadDirector\ sub-directory.

Cheers,

Bill

bill bolton wrote:

GomJabbar wrote: C:\DownloadDirector\ is created when you manually download drivers and software from IBM.

Ah.... if you just do single file downloads and dont tick the "use download director" you don't end up with a C:\DownloadDirector\ sub-directory.

Cheers,

Bill

Yeah, so?

Actually I like Download Director. If you lose your connection on a large download, you don't have to start from the beginning again. For weeks at a time the only connection I have is via the EDGE cellular network, where loss of the connection is not an uncommon occurance.

Ah, I've always wondered what Download Director did. That could be quite useful, come to think of it.

DavidNZ wrote:Ah, I've always wondered what Download Director did.

Amongst other things it allows you to download multiple files in one download session, which in the days before Software Installer was sometimes useful.

One downside for me is to use it means I have to disable some corporate net security settings to get it to work (and remember to reset them afterwards), which is simply not worth the trouble when downloading one or two files.

Cheers,

Bill