diff --git a/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java b/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
index 56292465b..9fb6becf3 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ public final class httpdProxyHandler extends httpdAbstractHandler implements htt
             File cacheFile = cacheManager.getCachePath(url);
             String urlHash = plasmaURL.urlHash(url);
             httpHeader cachedResponseHeader = cacheManager.getCachedResponse(urlHash);
-            boolean cacheExists = ((cacheFile.exists()) && (cacheFile.isFile()) && (cachedResponseHeader != null));
+            boolean cacheExists = ((cacheFile.isFile()) && (cachedResponseHeader != null));
             
             // why are files unzipped upon arrival? why not zip all files in cache?
             // This follows from the following premises
@@ -519,10 +519,11 @@ public final class httpdProxyHandler extends httpdAbstractHandler implements htt
 
             // the cache does either not exist or is (supposed to be) stale
             long sizeBeforeDelete = -1;
-            if ((cacheFile.exists()) && (cacheFile.isFile()) && (cachedResponseHeader != null)) {
+            if ((cacheFile.isFile()) && (cachedResponseHeader != null)) {
                 // delete the cache
                 sizeBeforeDelete = cacheFile.length();
-                cacheManager.deleteFile(url);
+                cacheFile.delete();
+                //cacheManager.deleteFile(url); // Hermes
                 conProp.setProperty(httpd.CONNECTION_PROP_PROXY_RESPOND_CODE,"TCP_REFRESH_MISS");
             }            
 
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
index 49a4248c0..ebfd775d9 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaCrawlWorker.java
@@ -353,9 +353,9 @@ public final class plasmaCrawlWorker extends Thread {
                         remote.close();
                         log.logInfo("REJECTED WRONG MIME/EXT TYPE " + res.responseHeader.mime() + " for URL " + url.toString());
                     } else {
-                        if (cacheFile.isFile()) {
-                            cacheManager.deleteFile(url);
-                        }
+                        //if (cacheFile.isFile()) { // Hermes
+                        //    cacheManager.deleteFile(url);
+                        //}                        
                         // we write the new cache entry to file system directly
                         cacheFile.getParentFile().mkdirs();
                         FileOutputStream fos = null;
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaHTCache.java b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaHTCache.java
index 10221bafb..44911f00f 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaHTCache.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/plasma/plasmaHTCache.java
@@ -157,6 +157,38 @@ public final class plasmaHTCache {
         responseHeaderDB.set(urlHash, responseHeader);
     }
 
+    public boolean writeFile(URL url, byte[] array) {
+        if (array == null) return false;
+        File file = getCachePath(url);
+        try {
+            deleteFile(file);
+            file.getParentFile().mkdirs();
+            serverFileUtils.write(array, file);
+        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
+            // this is the case of a "(Not a directory)" error, which should be prohibited
+            // by the shallStoreCache() property. However, sometimes the error still occurs
+            // In this case do nothing.
+            log.logSevere("File storage failed (not a directory): " + e.getMessage());
+            return false;
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.logSevere("File storage failed (IO error): " + e.getMessage());
+            return false;
+        }
+        writeFileAnnouncement(file);
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    public void writeFileAnnouncement(File file) {
+        synchronized (cacheAge) {
+            if (file.exists()) {
+                currCacheSize += file.length();
+                cacheAge.put(ageString(file.lastModified(), file), file);
+                cleanup();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+/*    
     private boolean deleteFile(File file) {
         if (file.exists()) {
             long size = file.length();
@@ -183,7 +215,7 @@ public final class plasmaHTCache {
              return false;
          }
     }
-
+    
     private boolean deleteURLfromCache (URL url, String msg) {
         if (deleteFileandDirs(getCachePath(url), msg)) {
             try {
@@ -197,43 +229,7 @@ public final class plasmaHTCache {
        } else {
            return false;
        }
-    }
-
-    public boolean deleteFile(URL url) {
-        return deleteURLfromCache(url, "FROM");
-    }
-
-    public boolean writeFile(URL url, byte[] array) {
-        if (array == null) return false;
-        File file = getCachePath(url);
-        try {
-            deleteFile(file);
-            file.getParentFile().mkdirs();
-            serverFileUtils.write(array, file);
-        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
-            // this is the case of a "(Not a directory)" error, which should be prohibited
-            // by the shallStoreCache() property. However, sometimes the error still occurs
-            // In this case do nothing.
-            log.logSevere("File storage failed (not a directory): " + e.getMessage());
-            return false;
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-            log.logSevere("File storage failed (IO error): " + e.getMessage());
-            return false;
-        }
-        writeFileAnnouncement(file);
-        return true;
-    }
-
-    public void writeFileAnnouncement(File file) {
-        synchronized (cacheAge) {
-            if (file.exists()) {
-                currCacheSize += file.length();
-                cacheAge.put(ageString(file.lastModified(), file), file);
-                cleanup();
-            }
-        }
-    }
-
+    }    
     private void cleanupDoIt(long newCacheSize) {
         File f;
         while ((currCacheSize >= newCacheSize) && (cacheAge.size() > 0)) {
@@ -254,11 +250,52 @@ public final class plasmaHTCache {
             }
         }
     }
+*/
 
+    private boolean deleteFile(File file) {
+        long size = file.length();
+        if (file.exists()) {
+            currCacheSize -= size;
+            return file.delete();
+        } else {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public boolean deleteFile(URL url) {
+        return deleteFile(getCachePath(url));
+    }
+
+    private void cleanupCache(long newCacheSize) {
+        File object;
+        long size;
+        while (currCacheSize > maxCacheSize && cacheAge.size() > 0) {
+            object = (File) cacheAge.remove(cacheAge.firstKey());
+            if (object != null) {
+                size = object.length();
+                if (object.isFile() && object.delete()) {
+                    currCacheSize -= size; 
+                    log.logInfo("DELETED OLD CACHE: " + object.toString());
+                    object = object.getParentFile();
+                    if (object.isDirectory() && object.list().length == 0) {
+                        if (object.delete()) {
+                            try {
+                                log.logInfo("DELETED EMPTY DIRECTORY: " + object.toString());
+                                responseHeaderDB.remove(plasmaURL.urlHash(getURL(cachePath , object)));
+                            } catch (IOException e) {
+                                log.logWarning("HTCACHE: IOExeption removing response header from DB: " + e.getMessage());
+                            }
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+   
     private void cleanup() {
-        // clean up cache to have 3% (enough) space for next entries
+        // clean up cache to have 4% (enough) space for next entries
         if ((currCacheSize >= maxCacheSize) && (cacheAge.size() > 0)) {
-            if (maxCacheSize > 0) cleanupDoIt(maxCacheSize - ((maxCacheSize / 100) * 3));
+            if (maxCacheSize > 0) cleanupCache(maxCacheSize - ((maxCacheSize / 100) * 4));
         }
     }