Have I overburdened our 6 Gig HD with XPsp2?

[Guest]

How big is a minimal XPsp2 OS? My wife has an old notebook which barely
passes the minimal requirements for XP and I installed XP Home on it and
after downloading SP2 (express install) it now takes up half the hard disk
(i.e. 3 Gig out of the 6 Gig hard disk). Is this too much? I had thought that
a small/express XPsp2 would only take up about 1.5 Gig. She really only needs
the notebook to write her thesis and use the web for journal articles and
email but I wanted to have more leftover space so the pc won't be too
overloaded/weighed down. Should I revert back to SP1 and look for lightweight
alternatives to SP2 features? Any help appreciated.

 

[Guest]

6 gig is not even close to being big enough, try 20 Gig That will allow room
for growth, and actually you should be thinking of something bigger like 40
Gig

Hmmmmm, xplite says it can install sp2 and still be 250Meg, check out this
link
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

 

[dobey]

How big is a minimal XPsp2 OS? My wife has an old notebook which barely
passes the minimal requirements for XP and I installed XP Home on it and
after downloading SP2 (express install) it now takes up half the hard disk
(i.e. 3 Gig out of the 6 Gig hard disk). Is this too much? I had thought
that
a small/express XPsp2 would only take up about 1.5 Gig. She really only
needs
the notebook to write her thesis and use the web for journal articles and
email but I wanted to have more leftover space so the pc won't be too
overloaded/weighed down. Should I revert back to SP1 and look for
lightweight
alternatives to SP2 features? Any help appreciated.

I expect express just means it loads a default set of features without user
intervention.

If your wife were to simply install a word proocessor and nothing else it
would probably be OK.

You really need 2 or more GB free for the swap file.

You could reduce the space reserved for system restore and the recycle bin,
and maybe go through add/remove programs - Windows Components and remove
features she doesnt want or need. The same if she uses the Office suite.
Default setup may install quite a few thing she doesn't need. If the PC is
running fine she can remove the backup files that are kept on disk in case
the user needs to uninstall one of the updates.

These are kept in the WINDOWS directory, with $ at either end of the
directory name, and of course don't forget the temp files.

 

[Guest]

If the laptop has a free USB port, you could purchase a 4GB USB-Flash Drive.

(I just bought a 4GB flash-drive for 30USD at an office supply store.)

That flash-drive can then be used entirely for saving her work and
office-documents.

In fact if you purchase a second flash-drive and have another free USB port,
you can use the flash-drive for the paging file. But purchasing another USB
just for the paging file may not be cost-effective.

Also I'm not sure if the older laptops have USB ports?

 

[smlunatick]

If the laptop has a free USB port, you could purchase a 4GB USB-Flash Drive.

(I just bought a 4GB flash-drive for 30USD at an office supply store.)

That flash-drive can then be used entirely for saving her work and
office-documents.

In fact if you purchase a second flash-drive and have another free USB port,
you can use the flash-drive for the paging file. But purchasing another USB
just for the paging file may not be cost-effective.

Also I'm not sure if the older laptops have USB ports?

For XP, USB drives, flash or hard drive, is not possible/recommened to
be used for the paging file. XP can not handle the USB drive
correctly for the paging file. On Vista has been truely developed so
that the USB drives are be using as paging file stores (known as
ReadyBoost???)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

How big is a minimal XPsp2 OS? My wife has an old notebook which barely
passes the minimal requirements for XP and I installed XP Home on it and
after downloading SP2 (express install) it now takes up half the hard disk
(i.e. 3 Gig out of the 6 Gig hard disk). Is this too much? I had thought that
a small/express XPsp2 would only take up about 1.5 Gig. She really only needs
the notebook to write her thesis and use the web for journal articles and
email but I wanted to have more leftover space so the pc won't be too
overloaded/weighed down. Should I revert back to SP1 and look for lightweight
alternatives to SP2 features? Any help appreciated.

Try using it and see. Since her needs seem very light, she may find
what she has adequate for her uses. I certainly don't recommend
removing SP2, since it will substantially decrease her level of
security.

My wife ran XP SP2 for some time on a Pentium II 400 with 256MB of RAM
and a 10GB hard drive. It was certainly no speed demon, but her needs
were light (E-mail, some light word processing, and a little web
surfing) and it met her needs. I don't think she ever filled half the
drive. I continually offered to upgrade her, but she always turned me
down, saying that what she had was fine. She has a bigger faster
machine now, but only because I upgraded and gave her my old machine.

 

[dobey]

For XP, USB drives, flash or hard drive, is not possible/recommened to
be used for the paging file. XP can not handle the USB drive
correctly for the paging file. On Vista has been truely developed so
that the USB drives are be using as paging file stores (known as
ReadyBoost???)

I expect for US$30 he could buy second hand laptop HDD which is larger, or
maybe a new one 10x the size for less than $100.