Freeing up space on C partition

[Paul]

I'm trying to free up space on my C partition--I have about 25% left (8.5
gigs free out of 30). My Windows folder is taking up some 13 gigs, but none
of the folders seem that large--System 32 and Explorer both have about 2
gigs. I have checked the folder options to display hidden system files, but
still can't see anything. I have run Disk Cleanup a few times, as well as
defragged. What can I do to see if any "hidden" files are taking up space,
or to reduce the size? It seems like the folders in the C drive are not that
large--Program Files is about 2 gigs also.

 

[Bill Daggett]

I'm trying to free up space on my C partition--I have about 25% left (8.5
gigs free out of 30). My Windows folder is taking up some 13 gigs, but none
of the folders seem that large--System 32 and Explorer both have about 2
gigs. I have checked the folder options to display hidden system files, but
still can't see anything. I have run Disk Cleanup a few times, as well as
defragged. What can I do to see if any "hidden" files are taking up space,
or to reduce the size? It seems like the folders in the C drive are not that
large--Program Files is about 2 gigs also.

How large is the hard drive that the partition is on? Can you
increase the size of the partition?

 

[Paul]

The other partition has 10-20 gigs of empty space but its my documents
partition and I'd hate to just shrink that---if there is a problem or some
hidden file taking up lots of space I'd rather detect and delete it than
shrink my docs partition. Besides, this whole exercise is being done, to
run the Windows Easy Transfer wizard (to back up my Office 2007 settings,
since they threw out the 2003 save my settings wizard), which is telling me
I need to free up 9 gigs of space, to transfer 67 megs of data.

 

[Jdr]

Paul,
Considering present requirements of Windows OS (XP & Vista)
having partition of 10-20 GB is rather insufficient. Think of 100-200 GB
rather. Hard drives these days are cheap and worth to invest . That would
improve significantly your PC's performance.

 

[Victek]

I'm trying to free up space on my C partition--I have about 25% left (8.5

gigs free out of 30). My Windows folder is taking up some 13 gigs, but
none of the folders seem that large--System 32 and Explorer both have
about 2 gigs. I have checked the folder options to display hidden system
files, but still can't see anything. I have run Disk Cleanup a few times,
as well as defragged. What can I do to see if any "hidden" files are
taking up space, or to reduce the size? It seems like the folders in the C
drive are not that large--Program Files is about 2 gigs also.

..
When you ran Disk Cleanup did you delete the System Restore points and
Shadow Copies? Also, there are a couple of programs that will make it easy
for you to see how the space is being used. Have a look at SequoiaView and
WinDirStat - both are freeware and can be downloaded from Snapfiles.com.

 

[Paul]

I didn't say I had 10-20 gigs on a partition--I said that was the amount of
free space I had on the other partition (the documents partition).

 

[Paul]

Thanks, Victek. Vista Home Basic (the version I'm using) doesn't have shadow
copies; and I did have system restore points deleted (all except the last
one). I have already d/l winstatdir but I'm not too sure how to use it.
I'll see if I can go over to their site and get some more info.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I'm trying to free up space on my C partition--I have about 25% left (8.5
gigs free out of 30). My Windows folder is taking up some 13 gigs, but
none of the folders seem that large--System 32 and Explorer both have
about 2 gigs. I have checked the folder options to display hidden system
files, but still can't see anything. I have run Disk Cleanup a few times,
as well as defragged. What can I do to see if any "hidden" files are
taking up space, or to reduce the size? It seems like the folders in the C
drive are not that large--Program Files is about 2 gigs also.

25% free space is ok. Why are you worrying about it?

 

[Paul]

As I said in my second message, I needed the space to use the Windows Easy
Transfer wizard. It told me I needed several gigs more of free space than I
had at the time. At this point, since I no longer need to use the WET to
save/copy my Office 2007 settings, it a bit moot but still if I have lots of
unneeded files I was hoping to dispense with them...

 

[Jdr]

Still it 10-20 GB free space is - these days, rather insufficient for
good performance of PC.

 

[Paul]

To the contrary--10-20 gigs of free space on a documents partition is
plenty. It has 40% free space. To break it down for you, 10 gigs free space
on a 28 gig document partition isn't going to slow down my computer. Many
hard drives are larger today--yes I realize that. Its just that this isn't
going to be the cause of a problem here.

 

[Robert Miles]

Something that should help a little, if you're using the Windows Mail
program: In the main window of that program, click on Deleted
Items, then the Edit button in one of the top menu bars, then Empty
'Deleted Items' Folder. Also, if you have a Recycle Bin icon,
double click on it, then click on Empty the Recycle Bin in the new
window this produces.

No promises this will free enough space, but it should at least free
some.

Robert Miles

As I said in my second message, I needed the space to use the Windows Easy
Transfer wizard. It told me I needed several gigs more of free space than
I had at the time. At this point, since I no longer need to use the WET to
save/copy my Office 2007 settings, it a bit moot but still if I have lots
of unneeded files I was hoping to dispense with them...