free space problem

[Ramesh]

HI,

I have a 7GB partition for Drive C on XP Prof system. No matter what space
i keep creating, just disappears and i get Low on disk space message. Where
does the space go? Is there a way i could free them somewhere? My virtual
memory is not on this drive. In the Windows, there are a whole lot of
folders starting with $ at the top (seem to be windows update files) which
occupies over a Gb of space. Can i delete these folders?

Could someone help sort this space issue?

Thanks
Ramesh

 

[George Hester]

The folders that begin with a $ are Windows Update folders that contain
information of your previous settings prior to updating the system. It is
not recommended that you remove them. A Gig of space for folders of that
type is unusual but I would not say it is not necessary. You might want to
check C:\Windows\Temp and see if you have any large files in there. The Low
Diskspace prompt can be turned off if you want. The link is here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285107/en-us

Finally as for having the Virtual Memory not on the same partition as
Windows can lead to a multitude of trouble. It is not recommended althought
many do do it. Normally the only time you would not have the Virtual Memory
pagefile.sys is when you are defragmenting the partition Windows is on since
it is hard near impossible to defragment that file. What is done is you
move pagefile.sys to a different partition the same way you got it off the
root partition before; defragment the root partition; move it back. It will
be defragmented when it goes back to the root partition.

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks George for your response.

I have already deleted the temp folder in Windows. I have kept doing that.
Where else could space be lost. I dont have any data on this partition.
The bulk of space is taken by Program files and Windows folder. Some 3.8Gig
by
Windows and 2Gig by Program files. And 600MB by Documents and Settings.
Are there any hidden locations in Windows where some old files are
accumulating?

Thanks again
Ramesh

 

[George Hester]

Let's see. Hidden ... you can change to see all folders and files through
Tools | Folder Options... | View. Other locations to look for excess files
is in C:\Windows where you can see update files which d/l to your machine
from Microsoft. If you are d/l updates from Microsoft you can check in
C:\Windows for files ending enu.exe. Just enter that in Search. If found
and you are not going to install the update you can get rid of them but they
should be in a folder whose name looks to be associated with Microsoft
updates. You can also check in C:\Program Files as well. 2 GB is not
unusal for C:\Program Files depending on how many applications you install
but 3.8 GB in C:\Windows is very unusual. Don't delete C:\Windows\Temp just
empty its contents. You might want to search in C:\Windows for files bigger
than say 100MB and see what you get but if found ask here if it is OK to
delete them by letting us know the subfolder they are in. Finally the other
Temp folder to look at is in C:\Documents and Settings\%PROFILE%\Local
Settings\Temp. You can also remove any files in there. But note when you
delete files in the Temp folders you should not have any applications
running to make sure you can get tid of most of them.

 

[Rock]

HI,

I have a 7GB partition for Drive C on XP Prof system. No matter what
space i keep creating, just disappears and i get Low on disk space
message. Where does the space go? Is there a way i could free them
somewhere? My virtual memory is not on this drive. In the Windows, there
are a whole lot of folders starting with $ at the top (seem to be windows
update files) which occupies over a Gb of space. Can i delete these
folders?

Could someone help sort this space issue?

Those are uninstall folders for windows updates. Yes they can be removed
but know that if you do you can't then uninstall those updates. If things
are running fine after a month with that update you can remove them. If you
want to be safe burn them to CD. Also after the updates are removed you can
remove the reference to them in add/remove programs. Doug Knox has a
utility to automate the removal of the uninstall folders and their entries
in add/remove programs.

http://www.dougknox.com/
Win XP Utilities
Remove Hotfix Backup Files v2.1.6 - Updated 5/29/2004

Another option is increase the size of that partition.

 

[Plato]

I have a 7GB partition for Drive C on XP Prof system. No matter what space
i keep creating, just disappears and i get Low on disk space message. Where

One utility to try is winderstat, my son swears by it for finding what's
using up space on his hard drive:

http://windirstat.info/wds_current_setup.exe

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks George for your detailed response.

Folder options is already to view all files.

Do i need the files which are under Downloaded Programs and Downloaded
Installations in Windows?

I also have some 150 folders starting $NTUninstal... occupying around
800MB.

I also removed all temp files from Local settings and Windows. No files
found ending with enu.exe. No files larger than 100MB in Windows.

Would it make sense to uninstall some applications or any options in
windows? My free space currently stands at 130MB. And i am hoping to make
it as close to a GB as possible, if that s realistic.

any further inputs from you?

Thanks
Ramesh