need to free up HD space to run disk defrag....having trouble

[Guest]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk degragmenter
requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented. i removed almost all
the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office and big paint programs, etc.
but it is not freeing up space. I had disk cleanup delete temp. files and
compress old files and still not enough space. I have only 4 % free space!
what do I need to do to get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB HD.

 

[Curt Christianson]

If your disk is still that full, you didn't move much. *Something* is
taking up all that space--audio/video files perhaps? Time to move or delete
some of those too.

--
HTH,
Curt

Windows Support Center
http://aumha.org/

 

[Seahawk60B]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk degragmenter
requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented. i removed almost all
the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office and big paint programs, etc.
but it is not freeing up space. I had disk cleanup delete temp. files and
compress old files and still not enough space. I have only 4 % free space!
what do I need to do to get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB HD.

What do you have on the drive? I've never seen programs alone eat up
that kind of space - Do you have a lot of videos or mp3's?
If so, I would begin by moving your data off instead of the programs -
unless your merely referring to installation files as opposed to the
actual installed programs. Do a search of your hard drive for files
larger than 50MB or 100MB to see if there are any large culprits.

 

[Guest]

leave the 250 gig hooked up an run defrage on both

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk
degragmenter requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented.
i removed almost all the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office
and big paint programs, etc. but it is not freeing up space. I had
disk cleanup delete temp. files and compress old files and still not
enough space. I have only 4 % free space! what do I need to do to
get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB
HD.

My view is that if you are that close to the drive being full, anything you
do will at best be a stopgap measure. You need to bite the bullet and buy a
bigger drive. Fortunately they are very inexpensive now.

 

[Poprivet]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk
degragmenter requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented.
i removed almost all the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office
and big paint programs, etc. but it is not freeing up space. I had
disk cleanup delete temp. files and compress old files and still not
enough space. I have only 4 % free space! what do I need to do to
get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB
HD.

Restart the computer so all the counters will be refreshed.

Pop`

 

[Paul Randall]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk
degragmenter
requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented. i removed almost
all
the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office and big paint programs,
etc.
but it is not freeing up space. I had disk cleanup delete temp. files and
compress old files and still not enough space. I have only 4 % free
space!
what do I need to do to get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB HD.

Did you Move or Copy the files to the USB drive? Search your C: drive for
some of the files you put on the USB. What is the total file size of all
the stuff you put on the USB drive (Select the folders, right click and
choose properties). The move should have freed up that much space on C:.

-Paul Randall

 

[Rock]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk
degragmenter
requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented. i removed almost
all
the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office and big paint programs,
etc.
but it is not freeing up space. I had disk cleanup delete temp. files and
compress old files and still not enough space. I have only 4 % free
space!
what do I need to do to get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB HD.

Your post is unclear. Are you saying you have moved programs and deleted
data but that space is not showing as available? Or are you saying you need
ideas on what else to remove to free up space?

Either way we can't see your drive, only you can see the drive and what's
taking up the space. Download one of the free utilities that show how much
space folders are taking. Google for them. Here is one example.
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml


Do you have Norton protected recycle bin? Norton Go Back? System restore
points are allocated up to 12% of the drive which is too much, it's good
only to go back a week or two at most so 1GB is more than enough space for
it.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

my c: drive is 74 gig. i have only 4 % available space. disk degragmenter
requires 15 % free space. my drive is very fragmented. i removed almost all
the big programs on my c: drive, such as Office and big paint programs, etc.
but it is not freeing up space. I had disk cleanup delete temp. files and
compress old files and still not enough space. I have only 4 % free space!
what do I need to do to get to 15 % free space?
i moved the big programs to an external Western Digital 250 gig USB HD.

Only you know whether or not you have any use, and therefore need,
for any of those applications. If you've never used them in the past,
don't use them now, and don't expect to use them in the future, then you
can uninstall them. If you change your mind later, you can always
reinstall them from the same CDs from which you initially installed them.

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page your friend has ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools >
Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java >
Temporary Internet Files > Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default,
this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard
drives, this is tremendously wasteful. It can be set to a lower limit
by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties,
and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more
reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.


--

Bruce Chambers

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