I am using Windows XP on my computer and running very low on disc
space. I've run "Disc cleanup" and checked on any hidden internet
files but still getting a message " low on disc space".

I have 519MB left out of 40GB.

Are there ways to gain back disc space? Any free programs to use?

Learn how to cross post pls, multiposting wastes peoples time, amongst other
things

<attillathehun@mongol.com> wrote in message
news:2vmf64p5b09g6dv5o3lomnq7g9ken1djg6@4ax.com...

When using disk cleanup did you remove all but the last restore point, under
"more options".
Neil
<attillathehun@mongol.com> wrote in message
news:2vmf64p5b09g6dv5o3lomnq7g9ken1djg6@4ax.com...

Buy a new hard drive; they are cheap.

<attillathehun@mongol.com> wrote in message
news:2vmf64p5b09g6dv5o3lomnq7g9ken1djg6@4ax.com...

I am so sorry. I'm new to Usenet and didn't know about such a
technique. Some other people have given me some websites to study so I
don't make this mistake again.


On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:49:06 +0100, "DL" <address@invalid> wrote:

What do you use your PC for? do you download loads of music or films or
games?

I do none of the above and I have approx 60gb and have run for 4 years and
still only about 40% used.
If you are doing some of the above then you really need to get a bigger
hardrive, if not what is using the space?

Just my unqualified opinion.


"Jerry" <ChiefZekeNoSpam@MSN.com> wrote in message
news:%23aoE4yi2IHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

Free up some disk space . You should have at least 20% free.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Another default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary
internet files, especially if you do not store offline copies on disk.
The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files,
Settings to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days
history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us



--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





attillathehun@mongol.com wrote:

<attillathehun@mongol.com> wrote in message
news:2vmf64p5b09g6dv5o3lomnq7g9ken1djg6@4ax.com...
If you are that low on space, you almost certanly need a larger disk because
of the way you use your PC.

Where I am, 500 gig disks are under $100 now. 80 gig disks, if you can find
them, are around $50. Installation is trivial.

The only way for you to regain disk space is to delete things, such as your
data. However, that's usually the most important and valuable thing on a
PC.

I would suggest that you find someone with another XP system with plenty of
drive space, and then take your hard disk - and a new larger one - there.
Download and install the Acronis TrueImage trial, attach the two disks, and
clone your old one to the new disk, in *manual* mode. Manual mode allows
you to use the entire space on a larger hard disk.

When you're done, simply attach the new drive to your system in place of the
old one - do not attach the old drive at this time. The system will boot
and you will have much more space.

HTH
-pk

Patrick

I agree that the likely outcome in the not too distant future will be to
need for the addition of a new hard drive but there is a simpler way
forward if the computer is a desktop. Insert the new hard drive in the
the computer as a slave drive and copy folders such as My Documents and
others to the new drive. There are plenty of options if there is a
second drive. If expense is an issue this avoids buying anything other
than the new drive. For the present it is more than likely that
sufficient free space can be created until a purchase can be made. I am
assuming that the desktop has a free bay to take a second drive.

The position is more complicated if the computer is computer is a
laptop. The lack of a second bay is more common and this may well make
your proposal a better way forward. You can overcome the lack of a a
second bay by using an enclosure and having an external rather than an
internal drive. The purchase of an enclosure is unlikely to be a deal
breaker. My preference is for internal drives in that they are tidier
solutions.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Patrick Keenan wrote:

Gerry and Patrick,

My computer is a desktop computer and not a laptop. I do have an
external drive in use at the moment for movies and pictures and sound
editing. I will look into seeing if the computer can take another
internal drive. Thanks for that suggestion.

In another post to a group, I was told about an amazing program. This
program shows you in colours what programs are on the disc and how
much size they are taking up. This has really helped clean up the
disc. I had one program that I didn't even know was there as it was a
duplicate copy of something on an external drive and was taking up
4.02GB!

I highly recommend the following to anyone needing to check over their
hard drive space:

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/on...n/sequoiaview/


On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:30:36 +0100, "Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote:

Atilla

The suggestions I have made in another post, unless you have already
implemented them, will win some breathing space. The System Restore
suggestion alone could give you over 3 gb free disk space.

Putting programmes on an external drive may not be a good move. The
Registry references where programmes are located. If you disconnect and
reconnect the external drive there is no guarantee that it will pick up
the same drive letter on reconnection. You can then have incorrect paths
in the Registry and this will lead to you having to uninstall and
reinstall the programme to restore the correct paths.

If you are reliant on System Restore you should take care to ensure that
the only partition being monitored is the Windows partition ( normally
C ) as monitoring other drives is usually unnecessary. If programmes are
located on another internal drive / partition I would monitor that
partition but in no circumstances should you monitor a removable
external drive. It often leads to a situation where restore points
become unusable when they are needed.

Please let us know how much free disk space you have after making your
changes. There are usualy a few more possibilities for increasing free
disk space if they are needed.

It would be helpful to know whether you have installed the Windows XP
SP3 update yet as this has disk space implications.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
attillathehun@mongol.com wrote:

Dear Gerry,

I did read your other post and did follow most of the directions. I'm
still reading through the part about compressed the uninstall files;
however I did reduce the amount of the recycle bin, the system restore
etc that you so kindly recommended doing.

Once I did that my hard drive space actually decreased which I thought
was strange. I restarted the computer and it still had decreased.

IAnother member suggested using "SequoiaView" and to my disbelief, I
had some copies of sound files that were on my external hard drive. So
I've claimed back 4GB with a couple more to go once I copy them to
disc.

I don't rely on the Windows System Restore as I use a Roxio program.

I have not installed the Windows XP3 update. Should I?

Many thanks for helping reclaim back my disc space. It's a fairly old
computer with 40GB of hard drive, but it does all the sound and photo
editing etc that I need to do along with all it's other function. I
store sound and photo files to external drives. I haven't ever had a
problem to disconnect them and to reconnect them showing the same
drive letter.

Attilla


On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:28:26 +0100, "Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote:

Attilla

Can you please put a name to your Roxio program? The first place I would
look to see whether it has backed up copies of what you have removed.

Is it Roxio BackOnTrack?
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/ba.../overview.html

There is a better freeware alternative to Disk CleanUp.

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


attillathehun@mongol.com wrote:

Gerry,

The name of the program that I use is GoBack v. 3.1 by Roxio. Though
it's an older version it does the job. It only keeps a track of about
one week's work. All the files total 13MB.

I have already used CCleaner on the disc and it cleaned out a few
files. I would estimate about 40 files were cleared.

Anything else to try?

Attilla




On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:42:52 +0100, "Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote:

I have come accross GoBack before. I thought it was Norton not Roxio but
I see from the link below Roxio is a previous owner?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoBack

Are you using any Norton utilities as they hide files ,which is not
always obvious. The same could apply to GoBack?

You should install the SP3 update but one of the requirements is fair
fair amount of free disk space as it needs a working area quite a bit
more than it will eventually occupy. You say your computer is fairly
old. When was it new?

The suggestions I made should not have resulted in a reduction in free
disk space. Quite the reverse. There would seem to be a factor not being
taken into account.

Select Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings and
verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked
and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You may need
to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that
the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked.

These changes still will not enable the System Volume Information folder
to be seen. I am not sure what affect installing GoBack has on the
contents of the System Volume Information folder. It is not only Restore
points kept in the folder. Did you run this option using Disk CleanUp?

Select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point.

What are you using to measure free disk space? Most methods rely on the
information provided by Windows Explorer. It is likely that SequoiaView
does. This means that the figures do not always accurately reflect the
amount of used space and free disk space. You can find discrepancies
when you try adding the two which do not but should equal the size of
the drive. File compression is not correctly dealt with. Windows
Explorer takes the file size of a compressed file, whereas the size on
the disk will be lower. For the files I suggested you compress you could
have discrepancy of say 500 mb. This is not a precise figure; just a
guessestimate.

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and click on Save
As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents Folder and post a
copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it is more
informative. This will clarify where you are regarding free disk space.
The most fragmented list can also reveal large unknown hidden files.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~








attillathehun@mongol.com wrote: