JohnD wrote:
> A couple three months ago I was forced to reformat my internal hard
> drive as the only way to get rid of a virus or spyware or
> something. I chose to partition the drive into a cmall C:
> partition (24 gigs) and use it for Windows and program files only.
> The other partition I would use for data type files. (90 gigs). I
> quickly found that the C: drive wasn't big enough, so I set up a
> Programs folder on the F: partition and installed the additional
> programs I needed there.
>
> (I don't understand how the numbers add up because I thought I had
> a 120 gig drive, not a 114 gig drive, but anyway.....)
>
> So this worked fine until about a week ago when I got a message
> that I was running out of space on the C: drive and on checking I
> found there was actually no space left.
>
> So, I uninstalled some programs and re-installed them on the F:
> partition and deleted some files and ended up with 11.X gigs free.
>
> Since then I haven't installed anything new, I haven't been to any
> web sites - simply captured some video and rendered some DVD's, all
> of which happens on my external drives, but today I got the same
> message and again found the C: partition full.
>
> I managed to free up about 40 MB and then got distracted and when I
> came back that 40 MB had disappeared again and there is once again
> no space on my C: drive.
>
> I am running Zonealarm and Windows Firewall and up to the time I
> freed up the 11 gigs I was running Malwarebytes. I suspect that
> this was one of the programs I intended to move to the F:
> partition, but I must have forgotten because it is no longer
> installed. This in itself is strange because I run Malwarebytes on
> all my machines every Sunday evening. So I tried to install it,
> intending to put it in the F:\Programs folder, but it insists on
> being installed on the C: drive, where there isn't any room.
>
> All the above leads to the first question I can think of right now:
> The C: partition properties screen offers the option to compress
> the files to make more room. Is this a safe thing to do so I can
> install (and run) Malwarebytes?
>
> My second question is: I find a number of programs installed in my
> C:\programs folder that I don't use and don't want - like
> Netmeeting and MSN gaming Zone, Windows Media Components, Windows
> Media Player. But I don't find them in "Add or Remove Programs".
> Is there a way to either get rid of them or move them to the
> F:\Programs folder?
>
> Thanks for any help
First - drive size...
Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- ~9.31 GB
20GB --- ~18.63 GB
30GB --- ~27.94 GB
40GB --- ~37.25 GB
60GB --- ~55.88 GB
80GB --- ~74.51 GB
100GB --- ~93.13 GB
120GB --- ~111.76 GB
160GB --- ~149.01 GB
180GB --- ~167.64 GB
200GB --- ~186.26 GB
250GB --- ~232.83 GB
320GB --- ~298.02 GB
400GB --- ~372.53 GB
500GB --- ~465.66 GB
750GB --- ~698.49 GB
1TB --- ~931.32GB
Details:
Two different mathematical systems are used to define how much information
can be stored on the hard disk drive of your computer: binary or base-2
mathematics and base-10 mathematics.
- In the binary or base-2 system used by the operating system, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes.
- In the base-10 system used by hard disk drive manufacturers, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes (rather than the 1,073,741,824 bytes,
as listed above).
This discrepancy in reporting drive sizes (base-2 vs. base-10) may lead you
to believe that you have a hard disk drive of less than expected capacity if
you compare the figure reported by the operating system with the figure
reported by your documentation, although the actual hard drive size is
identical.
Next, freeing up space...
Uninstall ZoneAlarm - likely your issue will fade to nothingness.
Then...
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.
In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
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