WINNT is hungry!! HELP!!

[jj]

Hi,

I've got an old system that I need to hang onto for the moment because of
hardware restraints & it just meets the criteria for a W2K installation...
but it only has a 2 gigabyte hard disk (and they don't even make the upgrade
hard disk any more).

When I install Windows 2000 on it, it's great, cuz it only takes up about
500 megs, and works fine, but when I add SP4, it bumps up the disk space
requirement to just about a gigabyte - and with lots of uninstall
directories, despite the fact that I tell SP4 not to have an uninstall
method.

Is there any list somewhere of the files and directories that are absolutely
needed in a WINNT directory? Or a list of the absolute minimum required? Can
I junk some stuff that I'm not using? Which ones? Can I get rid of those
**** uninstall directories? Is there any other way I could reduce the space
required?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JJ

 

[philo]

Hi,

I've got an old system that I need to hang onto for the moment because of
hardware restraints & it just meets the criteria for a W2K installation...
but it only has a 2 gigabyte hard disk (and they don't even make the upgrade
hard disk any more).

When I install Windows 2000 on it, it's great, cuz it only takes up about
500 megs, and works fine, but when I add SP4, it bumps up the disk space
requirement to just about a gigabyte - and with lots of uninstall
directories, despite the fact that I tell SP4 not to have an uninstall
method.

Is there any list somewhere of the files and directories that are absolutely
needed in a WINNT directory? Or a list of the absolute minimum required? Can
I junk some stuff that I'm not using? Which ones? Can I get rid of those
**** uninstall directories? Is there any other way I could reduce the space
required?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JJ

assuming you have NTFS you can use drive compression

btw: i'm not sure why you cannot at a larger drive to the machine

 

[jj]

hi

thanks for the thought, but I already do use drive compression! but that
doesn't really answer the question.... if it weren't so bloody large, I
wouldn't need it.

oh, and there are lots of reasons why a new, bigger drive would be a bad
idea... for one thing, the whole thing is going to be replaced next year, so
don't want to spend good money after bad.

surely someone else in the world must have had this problem before??!!

-JJ

 

[Dan Seur]

Many many people have had the problem :-(

1. You do realize you can always move a new larger disk drive to the new
machine? Barring your unstated special circumstances, that's a pretty
good idea. (A local PC repair shop will often have a box of used drives
in a back room. Very cheap.)

2. You can generally remove all files in any \temp directory.

3. You can remove "uninstall" files, if you don't mind living
dangerously. For example, if you elected with SP4 to create its
uninstall file, that will be a large file; it contains all the original
files SP4 replaced...

4. You can clear various caches, like browser caches. Cookie files are
probably not worth pursuing; cookies are v. small and often contain
things like your website IDs/passwords, etc. that you don't want to lose.

5. You can uninstall any apps you don't really need...

6. You can hunt down and clear many log files that may have grown large
and which you'll never need...

....and so on. On that next machine, by the way, make the W2k partition
at least 4GB, better if 5-6GB, and create other partitions for apps and
data.

Trying to figure what W2k services/modules/functions are really required
will probably take you until next year. I don't think that is a fruitful
path to follow, but hey - that's just an opinion.

 

[Dan Seur]

I should have also mentioned running chkdsk, and defragging.

 

[Paul]

Download Tuneup Utilites 2004 from download.com. Tuneup
will remove many files you don't need. It might just make
enough space for you to run defrag. Plus it can defrag
your registry

 

[jj]

okay, I probably should have said from the outset - I've got a bit of
experience with this stuff...

just happen to have an MCSE (3.1, 3.51, 4, and 2000) (and an MSCD and a few
other certs too)

so, thanks for all the suggestions for doing the basic stuff, but been
there, done that.

I've seen windows 2000 run off a cdrom before, so I know it can be cut down
to less than a gigabyte,
just need to know how.

any suggestions, including places to look for info, would be appreciated.

-JJ