All over the Internet you can find instructions on how to clear the file cache on your SharePoint box. It seems to be the same set of steps copy and pasted, without much understanding or explanation. For instance they almost always contain the following:
"Make sure that the Cache.ini file in the GUID folder now contains its previous value. For example, make sure that the value of the Cache.ini file is not 1"
This sentence makes no sense. Not being 1 is totally different from containing its previous value. And yet everyone seems to agree on this step.
Another thing everyone seems to agree on is "DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE", always in all caps. And the recommendation is always given that this file should be "backed up". But this file just contains a number. Why not just say "Copy the number out in case something goes wrong"? Is there some process that points to the actual inode of the file rather than the file's path? This is a cache, so surely it can be cleared safely and rebuilt from scratch? Why would you ever need to "back up" a cache?
Furthermore, I don't understand why any caching system would need a file that just contains some number. What does it represent? Is it a timestamp of the last time the cache was updated? Is it just a count of objects, incremented every time an object is added to the cache? Is it random? What does a value of "1" represent?
So my main question is, what can actually go wrong by deleting the cache.ini file? Is it serious or can it be recovered from? Why would you ever use the backup you created of the cache.ini file?