# How to clean up an installation **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 4, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clean-up-an-installation/4035 "2011-03-04T18:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chris\_thatcher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/chris_thatcher/32/3265_2.png) [@chris\_thatcher](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chris_thatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clean-up-an-installation/4035/1 "2011-03-04T18:53:08Z")
Hi I started playing with ElasticSearch this week and was having a great time. I was eventually throwing tons of records at it and I got the Too Many Files Open error (which I understand how to resolve). But because I'm kind of new to the technology I mucked around a little too much and tried removing my installation and starting from a clean installation, but ElasticSearch still seems to have knowledge of the previous installation (I don't know how but it's probably related to it's autorecovery abilities). How can I just 'start over' from scratch with a clean installation? Thanks, Thatcher -- Christopher Thatcher ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clean-up-an-installation/4035/2 "2011-03-05T00:50:39Z")
Delete the data directory which by default exists within the installation directory under `data` directory. On Friday, March 4, 2011 at 8:53 PM, chris thatcher wrote: > Hi I started playing with Elasticsearch this week and was having a great time. I was eventually throwing tons of records at it and I got the Too Many Files Open error (which I understand how to resolve). But because I'm kind of new to the technology I mucked around a little too much and tried removing my installation and starting from a clean installation, but Elasticsearch still seems to have knowledge of the previous installation (I don't know how but it's probably related to it's autorecovery abilities). > > How can I just 'start over' from scratch with a clean installation? > > Thanks, > Thatcher > > -- > Christopher Thatcher ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clean-up-an-installation/4035/3 "2017-07-06T04:10:51Z")