grandperspective

[Joel Hufford]

Hi Craig,

The first thing I would check in determining if these are important files or not is to look at when the last time those files were accessed? I feel comfortable saying that any temp file that hasn’t been modified in over 12 months is safe to delete.

As a general rule, any file that sits inside a “temp” folder can be safely removed without affecting the functionality of any programs on your computer. If any temporary files that a program depends on to run aren’t found, they’ll be re-created the next time that program is launched. I think your probably right that these were created by that screen recording software. I found some jpegs from an old Powerpoint presentation in the same location on my computer.

Of course, because I’ve said that, if you delete those temporary files straight away without some sort of insurance policy, not only will Final Cut stop working, but your computer will probably catch on fire, the National Debt Ceiling won’t be raised and the Earth will almost certainly stop spinning. Because any time someone says: “Sure, you can delete that for sure and it won’t do anything bad.” It always does something bad. Always.

So, I think the best way to test the dependence of those files is to rename the containing folder to something like “OLDtemp” then restart your computer and launch Final Cut. You’ll know right away if the program needs those files to run (but it won’t). This is a great way to simulate the effects of deleting a file (or files) without making any permanent changes.

(Keep in mind that this won’t tell you if you’re removing a media resource from one of your final cut projects, but I can’t imagine you’re keeping any usable content inside of a temp folder buried inside a hidden system folder…right? )

Hope that helps!

joel
Corporate and Special Event Staging Services
http://www.pacificstaging.com

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Joel,

Thanks Joel,

I was thinking much the same but didn’t want to give congress any excuses why they couldn’t reach an agreement before the world as we know it comes to an end.

The first one was July 2010. The last one was July 22 2011 Friday at 3:30 am. No one was using the computer then. It was on. For each date there are many of these

I even ran some command line script, and I’m a terminal moron, that told me that OS X’s maintenance procedures have run recently, so that wasn’t it.

Been using FCP for a while and never faced this. I’m at 91% full and don’t want to push it. On the road and don’t have my external drives to move things to. Can’t test FC projects because the media drive is at home.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Joel Hufford]

Hey Craig,

Even if you don’t have the external drives to move a backup copy of these files to, you can rename the containing folder and see if breaking that file path has any adverse effects on Final Cut. I don’t think you’re going to have any issue, but if you do, it’s a quick fix.

Good Luck!

joel
Corporate and Special Event Staging Services
http://www.pacificstaging.com

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Joel,

I’ll give it a shot when I get back home.

I assume I can reverse the process by opening up the temp folder via grandperspective? Don’t know how else to get it open?

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.