Documents and Settings Location

[John R]

Using XP Home Edition and Tree Size Free I have determined that size of the
folder Documents and Settings (DandS) on drive C: is 2,711MB and on E: drive
the DandS folder size is only 380 MB. A factor of about 7 to 1. Drive E: is
much larger than drive C:. Is there a way to make DandS on E: the default
and clean out DandS on C:?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Using XP Home Edition and Tree Size Free I have determined that
size of the folder Documents and Settings (DandS) on drive C: is
2,711MB and on E: drive the DandS folder size is only 380 MB. A
factor of about 7 to 1. Drive E: is much larger than drive C:. Is
there a way to make DandS on E: the default and clean out DandS on
C:?

Everything in C:\Documents and Settings\DandS <-- you put there.
You can easily move the My Documents folder elsewhere - and most likely -
that is the majority of the space being taken up.

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147

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

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..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
archived.

Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accommodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for cars. ;-)

 

[DL]

What size is your E drive?
D&S on E is far too small to be the current system folder, maybe you have a
restoration Image on E?

The D&S on C is your current system, 'clear it out' and you will have a none
functioning system

You have I assume run the usual maintenance utilities, Diskcleanup being one

 

[John R]

The E: Drive is 40GB with 90% free space. What must stay in the C: drive D&S
folder to have a functioning system? There could be a lot of files in there
that could be moved (from C: to E safely.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

The E: Drive is 40GB with 90% free space. What must stay in the C: drive
D&S folder to have a functioning system? There could be a lot of files in
there that could be moved (from C: to E safely.
...

Your "My Documents" folder is under Documents and Settings.
Do you have, for instance, a collection of pictures that could be
moved, with noone except your image-handling software caring?
OTOH, a couple of GBy isn't that big for a folder that has
My Documents as a subfolder. MY D & S is 12.4 GBy with
7.2 GB in M D. Leading to the thought that maybe you need
a lot bigger drive?

 

[DL]

In that case why have you got a D&S on E, are you sure its not part of a
restoration/image folder.
Win does not place a second D&S folder on any other drive.
Is this D&S folder part of a group of folders? if so what are the others

Is this a laptop or desktop, is it a mainstream brand?
Does it actually have two physical disks or merely two partitions?
Do you have restore disks, if not what is method of restoring it is
suggested in their paperwork?

Untill you have addressed all these matters you should refrain from trying
to explore the inner workings of Vista via explorer or any third party
utility