C:Drive is full

[Everett Joline]

I'm running into many problems due to my C: drive being full,
even after I do a clean-up. I do have plenty of space available
however on the E: drive.

I've already moved some large files to E: and some programs
by uninstall/install however I'm afraid to move the operating system
stuff in the WINNT and WINXP-2K folders since that might
confuse the registry.

What is the best way for me to proceed at this point (other than
just junking this six year old Dell computer)?

Thanks,
E-Jo

 

[John John]

....I'm afraid to move the operating system
stuff in the WINNT and WINXP-2K folders

Could you tell us what that means? Specifically: "the WINNT and
WINXP-2K folders"? Do you have 2 operating systems installed on the
same partition? What is the "WINXP-2K folder"?

John

 

[Everett Joline]

No I just have one OS installed. I guess WINXP-2K is just a directory
name used by NVIDIA to hold supporting stuff for the graphics.

WINNT is the directry name MS uses for the operating system files
and the associated uninstall files.

Sorry, John John, for the confusion.
E-Jo

 

[John John]

Ok. In any case, the little bit of space that you can reclaim by
moving/deleting stuff in the winnt folder won't really make much
difference to alleviate your problems. You can move/delete the folders
that are named $NTUninstallxxxxxxx$, these contain uninstall information
for hotfixes and updates/patches. You can also move the i386 folder at
C:\WINNT\Driver Cache\. But in the grand scheme of things that won't
amount to all that much, you might save about 100 to 200MB by moving
these items, a stop gap measure at best.

As I see it you have 2 alternatives.

1- Use non destructive partitioning software like Partition Magic or
BootItNG and increase the size of the C: partition. Note that this is
not without dangers, it's best to have a reliable backup of your data
before you try this. It usually goes well and is relatively easy to do,
but one wrong move, or being so unlucky has to have a power outage
during the repartitioning, and there goes the data on the drive!

2- Providing that there is an available drive bay in the computer, buy
a new hard drive and install Windows or clone the current installation
to the drive and use the old drive for storage only.

John

 

[Everett Joline]

Thanks much John John!
Your suggestions as to the files I could move seems to have worked.
I now have 446MB free space on the C: drive which should last me
till I spring for a new computer (after Vista comes out).
E-Jo

 

[John John]

You're welcome.

John

Thanks much John John!
Your suggestions as to the files I could move seems to have worked.
I now have 446MB free space on the C: drive which should last me
till I spring for a new computer (after Vista comes out).
E-Jo

 

[Sid Knee]

Thanks much John John!
Your suggestions as to the files I could move seems to have worked.
I now have 446MB free space on the C: drive which should last me
till I spring for a new computer (after Vista comes out).

You didn't say where your paging file is located and how big it is. If
it's on your c-drive you could reclaim that space by moving it to
another drive/partition.

It may be slightly less efficient but I sense that might be a secondary
consideration.

 

[1001110]

No I just have one OS installed. I guess WINXP-2K is just a directory
name used by NVIDIA to hold supporting stuff for the graphics.

You can move or even delete this folder. It is only important for
installing the drivers and acts like a temporary folder. If you need
this folders again, you can run the forceware .exe file again and
cancel the installation. This will just extract all driver stuff.

 

[Everett Joline]

Hmm.. I'm not sure what the paging file is Sid??
E-Jo

 

[Sid Knee]

Hmm.. I'm not sure what the paging file is Sid??
E-Jo

When Windows is multi-tasking, or running a complex program like
Photoshop etc, the computer memory may get filled up. At that point
windows will transfer some of the data (that it's not currently using)
contained in that memory, to a special file on the HD and retrieve it
from there as it needs it. This file is called the paging file and is
usually relatively large.

You can allocate the paging file to any partition but be default windows
puts it on c:\ which is why i asked in the light of your problem.

You can check the size of the paging file and where it's located by
opening <System properties> <Advanced> <Performance Options> then select
<change> under Virtual Memory.

If you aren't familiar with <System Properties>, perhaps the simplest
way to get there is to hold down the "Windows" key and press the "pause"
key at the same time.

 

[Everett Joline]

OK, thanks Sid for your detailed instructions.

I checked it out and found that the paging file was on the D: drive,
so I guess that was not contributing to my problem.

E-Jo

 

[Sid Knee]

OK, thanks Sid for your detailed instructions.

I checked it out and found that the paging file was on the D: drive,
so I guess that was not contributing to my problem.

Ah, OK. Worth a look though. Thanks for the feedback.