Orphaned Files?

[Jen~Ealogy]

Can anyone explain how one comes by Orphaned files?

For the past 24 hours, I was receiving messages telling me that this file or that file was corrupt and i needed to run the chkdsk utility, something which has never happened before.
As I went searching, i got a new update for Adobe which I duly downloaded. Then I got a message to upgrade to the new Adobe reader 10, which I also downloaded. I'm so pleased I did, as this has appeared to work wonders for my laptop, not only did it whizz around collecting all these orphaned files but it has helped speed up my laptop, which had become quite sluggish.

I'm not recommending it for everyone mind, but am curious about how one comes by these orphaned files, and wondered if any of the real techies out there might enlighten me.

[WendyPusey]

Have you done the chkdsk scan? This will sort out any problems on the disk.

I don't understand how Adobe Reader has found orphan files! This is just a read program for PDF files.

Orphaned files are ones that are not linked to anything, when they should be. Usually after uninstalling something.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100222130719AAllc4B

[Jen~Ealogy]

Have you done the chkdsk scan? This will sort out any problems on the disk.

I don't understand how Adobe Reader has found orphan files! This is just a read program for PDF files.

Orphaned files are ones that are not linked to anything, when they should be. Usually after uninstalling something.

To be honest Wendy and not being very technical, I'm unsure of what I did, all I know is that once the updated Adobe program was downloaded, I was still getting corrup file messages, so in frustration, I turned the laptop off completely.
When I came back to it, it began doing a clean up and collecting the orphan files. Since then the messages have stopped and laptop is running smoothly again. I did notice that it said Windows was doing this work, so maybe in my anger and frustration, I was getting confused

A few weeks ago, I did uninstall several programs, so that explains where these files have come from then.

Many thanks for explaining that Wendy.