Solved 33.5 GB CBS Folder - Is That Normal? Can Some of it be Removed?

[Efdy]

Hello. I have two desktop computers with Windows 7. On one of them, the CBS folder is about 22MB. On the other computer, the CBS folder is more than 33GB, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger like the blob. Is that normal? This is the PC with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Windows was installed in December, 2013, but the oldest CbsPersist file was created in February, 2016.

I did searches elsewhere online and at Seven Forums including the terms, huge and CBS folder. In one thread at Seven Forums from years ago, someone who has posted thousands of times wrote to the OP, "Hey, there is a known issue with a recent Windows Update (KB3022345), it causes an irrepairable corruption warning (which is a false report, the files are not corrupt in reality). If you have this update installed then do one of the following:
- Uninstall this update (it is Windows 10 preparation update) or
- Run the fix from http://thetechcookbook.com/windows-7-update-kb3022345-causing-corrupt-files/"

I thought it seemed okay to uninstall the update after reading that, so I did. The web page linked to did not open for me.

But I don't know what to think or do about this. I don't know what information might be useful to view. Before posting this, I ran MBSA without "Advanced Update Services Options" selected and again with "Scan using offline catalog only" selected. The only updates it said were missing are 2018-03 Security Quality Monthly Rollup, 2018-03 Security Only Quality Update (both of which wouldn't install last month, and I was advised here to wait for April to try again), and KB4096040 Cumulative Security Update for IE 11, which I installed after seeing that (It wasn't listed in Windows Update). I also ran sfc /scannow, which said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations", and I ran SURT, the results of which list two errors. The CheckSUR.log is attached. Avast was uninstalled before this scan. I will not be reinstalling Avast. I attached a screenshot of my CBS folder contents.

 

[samuria]

You can delete it ok but best option is rename the folder then create a new folder with original name wait a week if all is ok then delete old folder this way you have a roll back option

 

[Efdy]

Thank you for your advice. Really, after renaming the CBS folder already there, just create a new regular empty folder in the Logs folder and name it CBS, and it will fill itself back up with stuff? That's what I just did and then restarted the computer. I have no idea if the restart was necessary, but anyway that's what I just did.

My CBS folder is a blob, man. Since I posted this morning that it was 33.5GB, it grew to 34.3GB by the time I went to rename it and make a new CBS folder ten hours later this evening.

Is this all I should try to do for now, uninstall the above mentioned corrupted (or whatever) Windows update someone else mentioned years ago and replace the CBS folder with a new one?

Someone helped me fix a bunch of errors on my Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit computer that looked similar to the two errors listed in the CheckSUR.log from this computer, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, attached to my previous post in this thread. I don't even know what he did. It was like someone doing magic tricks to me. Is that sort of thing something a below average computer user should be able to figure out how to safely and effectively fix, or should I request help specifically to try to correct those two errors? Would that be something I should make a different thread about?

Thanks for reading. And thanks for the help fixing my computers. I didn't know how messed up they were and have been for years until I came to ask about the difficulty I was having installing the March rollup update thing.

 

[townsbg]

What I would do is to compress the CBSPersist files with Winrar or 7Zip. Those files compress incredibly well and will recover most of that space. Windows usually compresses those files for you. You can delete them but I would at least keep the recent ones.

 

[Efdy]

Thank you for telling me about that, townsbg. In the newly created CBS folder, was I supposed to put anything in there or does the computer make those other files itself such as FilterList, DeepClean, etc.?

 

[townsbg]

Windows should make those files automatically as needed.

 

[Efdy]

Okay. Thank you, townsbg. I appreciate it.