p-nut said:
I have a 40 GB hard drive with windows xp and I am showing that I have 4.8
GB
free space. Is this true?, or is there something very wrong. I have
checked
almost every place I know, but being computer illiterate, I really don't
know
if I have done everything that I can do.
First, you are relatively experienced in few areas of computing since you
can set up newsgroup and post messages to this one. The rest will come with
time, I am sure. You should considerer yourself a computer learner as we all
are anyway.
You may save some hard disk space by removing the application programs you
think you will never use again:
Go to the Start menu
Control Panel
Add and remove programs.
Only select and remove the programs you recognize by name, the ones you know
for sure you will not use again. In doubt, leave it there.
Also, you can easily and safely get some hard disk space back by reducing
the size of your Temporary Internet files cache. In brief, this is a folder
where all fcomponents of the web pages you recently visited using Internet
Explorer are stored on your system, just in case you would go back to one of
these pages in the future. In the days when modem speeds were slow, it was a
good idea to have this cache, so these items (small pictures, mostly) could
be read from the cache, locally, and not downloaded again from the Intenet
when going back on the same web page for a second time. You can safely
reduce this cache without any adverse effect and recover some disk space by
doing the following simple procedure:
Start Internet Explorer and Select Internet Options from the Tools menu. The
Internet Options window should open in the General tab. Find Temporary
Internet files in the middle of the General tab page and click the Settings
button. To the right of the ruler is the Amount of Disk space to use. Change
the numerical value to, let's say, 15 MB, and click OK to close this page
(it may take a few seconds before it closes). Click OK again to close the
Internet Options. You will recover some space without negative performance
on your system. It may even be slightly faster if your cache was too large
to start with.
To verify the amount of space still available on your hard drive,
double-click My Computer on the desktop (if My Computer is not visible on
the desktop, select it from the Start menu), and right-click (click with the
right hand side mouse button) the Local disk (C
icon. A menu will appear,
please select Properties. After noticing the gain in hard drive space
already achieved, notice that there is a Disk Cleanup button beside the pie
chart. Press the Disk Cleanup button and ensure that there is a checkmark in
Downloaded Program files, Temporary internet Files, Recycle Bin and
Temporary files. Click OK to strt the cleanup and confirm (Yes) when asked
if you are sure you want to perform theses actions. When done, you can see
the gain in hard drive space you have just made.
Well done! I hope it helps you.
Mark Delaney, MCT
