Cleaning out my C drive?

[Guest]

My poor computer has been through some pretty hard times since it's birth. It
orginally started with Window 98 2nd Edition, it belonged to my kids then.
Then added and subtracted so much stuff that it was beyond a mess. They gave
it to me and somehow I managed to clear it up for a while. Then I made the
mistake of deleting old programs and files along with files that I needed.
Then a "friend" helped with his 2 cents installing Windows ?? I forget the
name of that one. Anyway, it didn't work worth a hill of beans. So then, the
boyfriend took it to someone who installed Window XP Pro. My orginal C drive
with everything I had in it is still there but most of it doesn't work - like
my Microsoft Office 2000 - it's there but doesn't work because amost of it is
gone. But all of tis stuff is taking up space on my hard drive to the point
of iI only have 11% left, not even enough to run the deframgmenter correctly.
So my biggest issue now is, how do I safely remove the remains of all the old
programs, files and folders without damaging anything else? I cannot use the
Add/Remove Programs, none of the stuff is in there. Nor does any of them have
an uninstall to use either. How will I know what is safe to send to the
recycle bin and not being shared by another program? I'm smart enough to know
I don't want to go through that again! Thank You for your time and your
expertise!! You have no idea how much I appreciate you help!!!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You need to give serious consideration to
performing a "clean install" of Windows XP.
Make sure to backup your important files before
proceeding. Also, make sure "boyfriend" did not
install a bogus version of Windows XP Professional.

Is your version of Windows XP genuine?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/ww/windows/default.mspx

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Performing a Clean Install of Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/honeycutt_02october07.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| My poor computer has been through some pretty hard times since it's birth. It
| orginally started with Window 98 2nd Edition, it belonged to my kids then.
| Then added and subtracted so much stuff that it was beyond a mess. They gave
| it to me and somehow I managed to clear it up for a while. Then I made the
| mistake of deleting old programs and files along with files that I needed.
| Then a "friend" helped with his 2 cents installing Windows ?? I forget the
| name of that one. Anyway, it didn't work worth a hill of beans. So then, the
| boyfriend took it to someone who installed Window XP Pro. My orginal C drive
| with everything I had in it is still there but most of it doesn't work - like
| my Microsoft Office 2000 - it's there but doesn't work because amost of it is
| gone. But all of tis stuff is taking up space on my hard drive to the point
| of iI only have 11% left, not even enough to run the deframgmenter correctly.
| So my biggest issue now is, how do I safely remove the remains of all the old
| programs, files and folders without damaging anything else? I cannot use the
| Add/Remove Programs, none of the stuff is in there. Nor does any of them have
| an uninstall to use either. How will I know what is safe to send to the
| recycle bin and not being shared by another program? I'm smart enough to know
| I don't want to go through that again! Thank You for your time and your
| expertise!! You have no idea how much I appreciate you help!!!
| --
| Gotta Luv Yaz!

 

[PattyL]

First, I agree with Carey that a clean install would be the best idea here
but IF the person who installed WinXP Pro renamed the old Windows and old
Program Files folders which seems likely in light of your low disk space,
then your system isn't using these folders anyway and they can be deleted.
You should then have enough space to reinstall Office and orhter programs as
well as enough space to defragment.

Look for folders named OldWin, OldProg, WinOld, or some variation or any
other folder that you think you might not need or want. Do not mess with
\Documents and Settings. To be sure that you are not using these folders
before deleting, rename them by putting an X (or some other letter) at the
beginning of the file - such as Oldwin to Xoldwin. Don't do more than one
folder at a time. Once you have renamed a folder, exit and restart your
system and run the programs that you have installed that currently work. If
they still work, then you are probably okay to delete this folder. Rename
will not come up as an option in Explorer for the \Windows or \Program Files
folders that are currently in use when you right-click on the folder so that
should keep you fairly safe if you don't mess with subfolders of either of
these. If you find that your Program Files folder is the same folder that
was used before the install, you can either reinstall the applications that
show up when you view the sub folders of Program Files that are not actually
installed or you can delete these folders. Again, I suggest using rename
first and testing to see if anything broke when you renamed the folder.

PattyL