Freeing up hard drive space

[tony cooper]

No idea. But I've seen this reported in the newsgroups
before, where file space just disappears, and there
is something at the bottom of it. Take stock of the PC,
look in Add/Remove Programs to see what software
has been installed, and perhaps you'll get an idea
from that.

Moving a few files off, doing the math, rebooting, and
checking again, is to determine whether it's worth
spending the time cleaning up. If the computer
is using up disk space for no good reason, you
want to fix that first, rather than working on
the cleanup.

I also plan to empty the Recycle Bin as I go along.

Yes, it's possible for a person using the computer, to be
oblivious to it being full. So the thing could be "naturally
full", from just downloading until the computer has no more
room.

That's my daughter, I think. I think she may have some programs in
there that were downloaded in a trial version that has now expired,
but the program was never deleted.

 

[tony cooper]

Forget about installing yet another program when you are already
constrained by available disk space. If you want to clear all the junk
quickly then I'll recommend using CCleaner slim version. You can get it
from here:

<http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/slim>

This program is pretty good to clear all temporary files and what not.
Please don't use any of the Registry Optimize features because they
could potentially damage the system if not used properly.

In my notes. Thank you.

 

[tony cooper]

I thought the OP was a guy, i.e. Tony rather than Toni?

I'm Tony, the poster and the father. The owner of the computer is my
daughter.

Anyways, the OP did mention that they already had an external hard disk
to backup files to. I would assume that the external HD must be larger
than the internal anyways. A 30GB HD is pretty smallish these days.

External HD is 250GB.

 

[tony cooper]

Common file types -
http://www.fileinfo.com/filetypes/common
Importance should be the determining factor here, not size.

That's a site that I had already printed out, but thanks.

The determining factor will be type of file. For example, any .avi or
..mpg file will be moved to the external drive and my daughter can make
a determination to keep them or delete them.

 

[philo]

My daughter's PC laptop's (Compaq Presario) 30 gig C: drive is full.
She can't download images from her camera. She lives in another town,
and I'm going up there Tuesday to see if I can delete some files to
free up space.

She's already moved all of her .jpgs to an external drive, so I'll be
looking for other files. She doesn't shoot RAW.

I plan to search by file extension. (ie: .mp3) What would be common
file extensions that may be taking up space and not needed?

Is there a better way to find out what is taking up all the space?

First off, System Restore is set to 12% by default
and that's generally way too high. 3% or so is usually sufficient.

If you set System Restore down a bit that will give you more free space
and at least give you enough room to install one of the applications
mentioned

Running disk cleanup will probably help you out a bit

reducing temp Internet cache

plus, running ccleaner often is helpful
(but leave the registry cleaning option alone)

 

[choro]

First off, System Restore is set to 12% by default
and that's generally way too high. 3% or so is usually sufficient.

If you set System Restore down a bit that will give you more free space
and at least give you enough room to install one of the applications
mentioned

Running disk cleanup will probably help you out a bit

reducing temp Internet cache

plus, running ccleaner often is helpful
(but leave the registry cleaning option alone)

My advice to him would have been to change the HD on the laptop to
something somewhat larger than 30 GB.
-- choro --

 

[dadiOH]

My daughter's PC laptop's (Compaq Presario) 30 gig C: drive is full.
She can't download images from her camera. She lives in another town,
and I'm going up there Tuesday to see if I can delete some files to
free up space.

She's already moved all of her .jpgs to an external drive, so I'll be
looking for other files. She doesn't shoot RAW.

I plan to search by file extension. (ie: .mp3) What would be common
file extensions that may be taking up space and not needed?

Is there a better way to find out what is taking up all the space?

The program I like best for that sort of thing is FolderSize Shell
Extension.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Folder-Size-Shell-Extension.shtml

It adds a "Size" tab to the properties sheet for drives and folders and
gives a tree view of all folders/sub-folders ordered by size. I like it
because it immediately shows me which folder is the largest and I can then
drill down to see what in that folder is sucking bytes. Note that if you
are having it read an entire drive it can take a while to do so.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per tony cooper:

I plan to search by file extension. (ie: .mp3) What would be common
file extensions that may be taking up space and not needed?

Is there a better way to find out what is taking up all the space?

Long term, the strategies mentioned by others...

For immediate relief, you might have some luck with deleting the
Windows Update backup directories.

C:\Windows\$NtUninstalls\$NbUninstallB*$

 

[Nil]

I don't see how I could possibly *be* "condescending" - the person
to which I was referring to (as an example of one who could not
afford to just replace hardware) was myself....

That's not the condescending part. It's the part where you try to
dismiss the perfectly valid recommendation to replace the disk.

The disk is likely to fill up again, and to not replace it is to just
put off the inevitable. If that's OK with the OP, so be it, but he
ought to be aware of it.

I thought that was sufficiently implied by quoting my own
computer's statistics!

Your statistics were listed in among your signature. I don't consider
that to be part of the message, and I didn't bother to read it the
first time. It doesn't seem particularly relevant to me anyway.

 

[Nil]

My plan to clear some space on the hard drive is just a stop-gap
step until she can afford a new laptop. It'll allow her to
download images, cull the non-keepers, work on them in Elements
9.0, and then transfer them to her external drive. She won't have
to haul out the external drive every time she downloads.

Well, OK. It probably won't be long before she starts to run out of
space again, especially if she installs anything (including OS patches
and updates.) If she'll get a new machine soon she will probably be
able to make do until then, I guess.

I see laptop hard disks in the 300 - 500 GB range for around $50. Even
if it doesn't seem worthwhile for this particular laptop, you could use
it as a spare for the new one, maybe keep a known-good image of the new
one on it, in case the disk in the new computer goes bad.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Replacing a hard-drive is, for some people, not an option, no matter how
"inexpensive" you may think they are at the moment. Some of us just do not
have any spare cash to spend whatsoever...

You are certainly right. Nevertheless, in my view, it's the best
choice, and it's what should be done *if possible*.

The OP's question was what measures she might adopt to free-up some space -
so that is the question that, IMHO, should be the one that is answered...

My answer addressed the underlying, unspoken question: how to get more
free space available. And my answer was the best way to do it. If that
way isn't possible for the OP, then he is certainly free to follow
someone else's recommendation rather than mine.

 

[philo]

My advice to him would have been to change the HD on the laptop to
something somewhat larger than 30 GB.
-- choro --

Mine too

but somewhere in the thread he said he was not willing to put any money
into the thing.

Though small, a 30 gig drive ...if kept cleaned up...
should do the job

 

[choro]

Mine too

but somewhere in the thread he said he was not willing to put any money
into the thing.

Though small, a 30 gig drive ...if kept cleaned up...
should do the job

For heaven's sake, HDs don't cost much these days. Isn't his time worth
anything? And why are we also wasting time over something as trivial as
this?
-- choro --

 

[micky]

No idea. But I've seen this reported in the newsgroups
before, where file space just disappears, and there
is something at the bottom of it. Take stock of the PC,
look in Add/Remove Programs to see what software
has been installed, and perhaps you'll get

Well, I wanted a couple Norton Utilities and installed part of what
was offerred on the CD and somehow got Norton Protected Recycle Bin.

I had no idea how this varied from the other recycle bin, but when I
had a space problem, I finally learned even when I fully deleted
something. didn't send it to the Recycle bin, Norton was still saving
it. That had gone on for 3 years! I turned it off for every drive.

I doubt if Terry's daugher has .iso files, but moving mine to another
drive was a good way to make space.

 

[tony cooper]

For heaven's sake, HDs don't cost much these days. Isn't his time worth
anything? And why are we also wasting time over something as trivial as
this?

Actually, no, my time isn't worth much at all. I'm retired, this is
my daughter's computer, and it's an interesting challenge to me to try
to solve the problem. I'll drive the two hours up to where she lives,
spend some time futzing around with the computer, have dinner with my
daughter and her husband, and drive back home. Not a waste of time to
me.

I offered to buy my daughter a new laptop, she said she'd rather work
with the old one now and buy a new one herself when she's ready. All
she uses it for is downloading images from her camera and working on
them in Photoshop Elements. She doesn't even have internet access.

As far as y'all wasting your time, most that reply to questions like
mine are people who do it for the same reason I'm wasting my time
fixing up the old one: the challenge of figuring out solutions.

And, I appreciate the help.

 

[Mayayana]

| >For heaven's sake, HDs don't cost much these days. Isn't his time worth
| >anything? And why are we also wasting time over something as trivial as
| >this?
|
| Actually, no, my time isn't worth much at all. I'm retired, this is
| my daughter's computer, and it's an interesting challenge to me to try
| to solve the problem.

Also, the popular solution (especially in the US) of
"buy something" is not always so simple, especially
when it comes to computers. You buy the new hard disk,
but then how do you transfer from the old disk? You'll
need to buy a disk caddy and plug it in via USB, assuming
she has a USB port. But then you probably also want
a disk imaging program to copy over the old C drive.
You could just reinstall....if she has a Restore CD, and
if she has all the CDs for all her software. If not then
I guess you'll need to buy Win7, since you just removed
her restore partition -- if there ever was one -- along with
the old disk. ...But then, Win7 is so bloated it won't run
on an old notebook. Microsoft always makes sure their
hardware partners will be able to cash in on each superfluous
release of Windows. Win7 needs more power than the
notebook probably has just to sit there....and it will take
up an astonishing 1/3 of the old disk before you even start
using it. You might be able to buy a WinXP CD, but it would
probably cost more than Win7....

Have you thought of just cutting your losses and building
her a darkroom?

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per tony cooper:

I'll drive the two hours up to where she lives,

Does she have a broadband connection?

If so, next time you go up there, download and install TeamViewer
6 on her PC - and on yours.

That will enable you to connect to her PC without driving up
there if/when you get some ideas on what to do.

 

[vista bill]

Yousuf Khan said...

You should also encourage your daughter to start saving her files to the
external drive from now on. I know a lot of people find using another
drive, other than "C:" to be confusing, so they just end up saving
everything to the first drive, so you'll have to drill it into her that
saving to another drive is not that difficult.

 

[choro]

Actually, no, my time isn't worth much at all. I'm retired, this is
my daughter's computer, and it's an interesting challenge to me to try
to solve the problem. I'll drive the two hours up to where she lives,
spend some time futzing around with the computer, have dinner with my
daughter and her husband, and drive back home. Not a waste of time to
me.

I offered to buy my daughter a new laptop, she said she'd rather work
with the old one now and buy a new one herself when she's ready. All
she uses it for is downloading images from her camera and working on
them in Photoshop Elements. She doesn't even have internet access.

As far as y'all wasting your time, most that reply to questions like
mine are people who do it for the same reason I'm wasting my time
fixing up the old one: the challenge of figuring out solutions.

And, I appreciate the help.

In that case, I take my words back. Do what Yousouf Khan advised you to
do: get an external hard disk.

Incidentally I find Yousouf Khan's advice to be always very useful and
practical. He is certainly an asset for this group.
-- choro --

 

[choro]

|>For heaven's sake, HDs don't cost much these days. Isn't his time worth
|>anything? And why are we also wasting time over something as trivial as
|>this?
|
| Actually, no, my time isn't worth much at all. I'm retired, this is
| my daughter's computer, and it's an interesting challenge to me to try
| to solve the problem.

Also, the popular solution (especially in the US) of
"buy something" is not always so simple, especially
when it comes to computers. You buy the new hard disk,
but then how do you transfer from the old disk? You'll
need to buy a disk caddy and plug it in via USB, assuming
she has a USB port. But then you probably also want
a disk imaging program to copy over the old C drive.
You could just reinstall....if she has a Restore CD, and
if she has all the CDs for all her software. If not then
I guess you'll need to buy Win7, since you just removed
her restore partition -- if there ever was one -- along with
the old disk. ...But then, Win7 is so bloated it won't run
on an old notebook. Microsoft always makes sure their
hardware partners will be able to cash in on each superfluous
release of Windows. Win7 needs more power than the
notebook probably has just to sit there....and it will take
up an astonishing 1/3 of the old disk before you even start
using it. You might be able to buy a WinXP CD, but it would
probably cost more than Win7....

Have you thought of just cutting your losses and building
her a darkroom?

Don't make things out to be more complicated than they are. And as for
the darkroom, I guess he would have to add an extension to the house
first. If she wants a darkroom permanently set up that is!
-- choro --