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is it safe to delete these?

Anonymous
2023-03-19T01:19:43+00:00

I have an external hard drive with 1.81TB of storage on it but now it's down to 139GB so I went to check what was taking it up and found a load of files taking up almost 1.3TB of storage called "E/assembly". Inside of this are folders called "NativeImagesv...."then a load of numbers. There are 2 of these folders, Inside of which are hundreds of folders named "Microsoft...".(a load of numbers and letters) most of which from back in 2020. There are about 50-100 of these in each "NativeImages" folder. In addition, there is also folders named "System.(then different commands such as Run, Comp, Config etc.)

I really want to know if I can delete these as they are taking up over a TB of storage on my external drive. Thanks for any help.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-19T03:29:13+00:00

    Maybe sometime in the past you turned on file history and forgot about it, just a wild guess...

    IMO, it'd be safe to delete them unless Windows complains when you disconnect the drive in which case just turn off file history and proceed to clean the drive.

    Image

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-19T05:52:29+00:00

    Hi Jake

    This is Tamal trying to answer your question.

    The native image folder contains processor specific codes for faster access of resources on the PC. The folder usually resides in the c:\windows\assembly

    but in your case that is on E:, if you remember installing windows on E drive that can give a clue. The folder should not contain files more than 800-900 MB. If your PC can run fine with the external drive disconnected, then you can safely delete them. Probably the folder grew due to accumulation of data by mistake if it was used in the same computer for long as system drive and there is no explanation why it grew if it was used in different systems as portable drive only.

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