98SE to XPsp2 Leftovers

[R. D.]

Hello,

One of our machines was a 98SE box that was upgraded to XP with an 'XP Home
SP2 Upgrade' CD a few years back. Worked great and still does, except that
it uses about 15G of hard drive (has since the upgrade) even after
uninstalling un-needed software. This is on a smallish drive with three
partitions that now hit a remote network storage. I am planning on resizing
some partitions to give that system some breathing room so to speak. I was
taught way back that an OS should never take up more than 50% of it's
partition and I'd like to restore that ratio.

Q: I seem to recall that there are files that are saved during an upgrade
installation just in case you didn't like the results. What are they and can
they be deleted now? Will they provide much free space?


Thanks.

 

[LD55ZRA]

Hello,

Q: I seem to recall that there are files that are saved during an upgrade
installation just in case you didn't like the results. What are they and
can they be deleted now? Will they provide much free space?

Unlikely because Windows 98SE was too small to start with. What I am not
sure is why can't you not do a clean install of WinXP using whatever CD you
have got. With Upgrade CD you can still do a clean install if you plan it
properly. The only snag is you need to backup your own data like emails,
pictures, music and documents. Also, you will need the original CDs/Disks
for application packages with serial numbers to install them.

When you have finished installing WinXP and SP3 (I suggest download the full
file version before doing anything), you should stop Automatic Updates and
instead re-configure your Windows firewall so that "No exceptions are
allowed". Then you also need to install a free Anti-Virus program from
Microsoft called MSE with update definitions file. This method will
definitely make sure you have enough disk space on your system and the
system is completely secure within reasons. Automatic updates makes lots of
backups that are completely unnecessary unless Microsoft thinks you need
them because the updates themselves are useless to start with!

I am running WinXP professional on my old machine (20GB HD space and 512 MB
ram) which had Windows 98 SE and it is quite sufficient for my testing work.
I have two other machines with Windows Vista and Windows 7 but these are
brand new machines with ample disk space and RAM so there is no problems
with these.

hth

 

[Bernd]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------

Hello,

One of our machines was a 98SE box that was upgraded to XP with an 'XP Home
SP2 Upgrade' CD a few years back. Worked great and still does, except that
it uses about 15G of hard drive (has since the upgrade) even after
uninstalling un-needed software. This is on a smallish drive with three
partitions that now hit a remote network storage. I am planning on resizing
some partitions to give that system some breathing room so to speak. I was
taught way back that an OS should never take up more than 50% of it's
partition and I'd like to restore that ratio.

Q: I seem to recall that there are files that are saved during an upgrade
installation just in case you didn't like the results. What are they and can
they be deleted now? Will they provide much free space?


Thanks.

Look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956324

Bernd

 

[R. D.]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------



Look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956324

Bernd

Yeppers... that did it. Forgot that it was as easy to find as the disk
cleanup button. They were there indeed, and all in all I freed over 2 Gigs.
The defrag afterward was a looonnnnnngggg one though... .. .

I still may run Partition Tragic on it and move a few more gigs it's way.


Thank you.

 

[R. D.]

Unlikely because Windows 98SE was too small to start with. What I am not
sure is why can't you not do a clean install of WinXP using whatever CD
you have got. With Upgrade CD you can still do a clean install if you
plan it properly. The only snag is you need to backup your own data like
emails, pictures, music and documents. Also, you will need the original
CDs/Disks for application packages with serial numbers to install them.

When you have finished installing WinXP and SP3 (I suggest download the
full file version before doing anything), you should stop Automatic
Updates and instead re-configure your Windows firewall so that "No
exceptions are allowed". Then you also need to install a free Anti-Virus
program from Microsoft called MSE with update definitions file. This
method will definitely make sure you have enough disk space on your system
and the system is completely secure within reasons. Automatic updates
makes lots of backups that are completely unnecessary unless Microsoft
thinks you need them because the updates themselves are useless to start
with!

I am running WinXP professional on my old machine (20GB HD space and 512
MB ram) which had Windows 98 SE and it is quite sufficient for my testing
work. I have two other machines with Windows Vista and Windows 7 but these
are brand new machines with ample disk space and RAM so there is no
problems with these.

hth

Thanks for replying.

Yes... I suppose that I could blow away a perfectly fine installation
instead of doing some disk maintenance or moving a partition if need be,
but... wouldn't that be like hunting chipmunks with a bazooka? Heck... even
if a drive couldn't be made more spacious, an 80 or 120 G drive can be had
for peanuts and it would only take Acronis about an hour to image it and
distribute the new free space evenly. Reinstalling the OS after making
backups, followed by the apps and then reapplying all the personalized
settings and then the long process of reinstalling all of those plugins
before shopping your next set of photos is a long way to go, IMO, just to
free a little space.

Thanks again for your efforts.