Summaries and follow-ups:
*** My Original Questions ***
I am using WinXP on an 8 GB drive C partition (NTFS). This
installation is now taking about 6 GB. How is that possible?
Hibernation is off.
System restore is off.
C:\Windows\Temp is virtually empty.
There's about 350 MB in Recycler.
Temporary Internet Files are on another partition.
Pagefile.sys and data files are all on other partitions.
The other question: is there a freeware utility that will tell me how
many MB each folder on C contains? With such a tool, I could track
down the culprit.
*** What I've Figured Out about the Size Issue ***
I reformatted C as FAT32, and reinstalled WinXP and other programs on
that. The total installation, with all software installed previously
and some more besides, took only about 4 GB. I still have no idea why
the previous NTFS installation swelled as it did.
Following suggestions on some Windows XP tips & tweaks websites, I
have moved two folders from C to D, and have instructed the registry
to look to D for those folders. These folders contained about 450 MB
of materials that evidently are not needed for the operation of WinXP.
Those two folders were DLLCache (originally located, as I recall, in
C:\Windows) and DriverCache (which I think was in
C:\Windows\System32). This significantly reduced the size of C. The
system seems to be running fine after the change.
*** Jeff Qiu's Response (Excerpts) ***
Based on your file list, it seems you have keep the installation files of
the XP on that partition.
There is not a build-in tool to show the size of each folder. You may right
click each folder to check.
*** Question about Jeff Qiu's Response ***
Am I correct in understanding that installation files bear an .ISU
extension, and are no longer needed after installation? If so, I have
only about ten of those on my computer, containing zero bytes.
I am not certain how Jeff came to this conclusion, or whether there is
someplace else I should look for deletable installation files.
*** Suggestion from Anonymous ***
[To locate space-taking files, at the DOS prompt, type] DIR /s > list.txt
I have used this. You can import TXT files into Excel and sort to see
where the big files are. Unfortunately, this is really cumbersome
compared to Size Manager.
PowerDesk98 Utilities contained a tool called Size Manager that would
display bar graphs for each drive (or, if you wished, for each folder
or subfolder on a drive), showing the total amount of material in each
folder.
*** Suggestion from Ramesh; Reply ***
You could try this utility, DiskDATA:
http://www.digallery.com/diskdata/
[Unfortunately, they want $45 for that. That's a lot for a simple
utility.]
*** Suggestion from Gerry Cornell ***
Use Windows Explorer! You don't need to import a third party
utility!!! ...
Make a list of the largest files and post the details here.
*** Questions about the File List ***
I posted these questions in response to Gerry's suggestion. I still
am not certain of the answers:
1. I use Windows Explorer with the Folder List visible. I
right-click on C: in the Folder list and choose Properties. It shows
a pie chart and says 6.4 billion bytes (5.96 GB) are used. But if,
instead, I select everything in the right pane of Windows Explorer and
choose Properties, it says only 5.6 billion bytes (5.21 GB) (size on
disk = 5.5 billion bytes (5.07 GB)). Why the discrepancy?
2. The latter method in Windows Explorer says 36,483 files. The
spreadsheet says 42,605. How come?
I did post a file list as suggested, but did not receive any specific
suggestions about files that I might remove.
