Fresh install of XP Pro using lots of space

[Guest]

Hi,

I just tried to post and it failed for some reason, oh well my luck at the
moment.

I did a fresh install with XP Pro. I downloaded and installed all windows
updates before and after SP 2 (I have an older version of XP). The last
download was 46 updates and I had some system restarts/error messages, but
all seems stable for the moment. The only other items installed are some
Nvidia drivers for chipset, sound, video, and firewall, and I just installed
Office XP complete. So far I have used 28 GB of HD space. How is this
possible? I haven't even reloaded all my docs, music, and pictures yet. This
doesn't seem "normal". Can anyone shed some light on this?

I should include I recently upgraded my system and had tried a RAID
installation and failed miserably between hardware/software/driver conflicts
and WU downlaods, I had tried that twice. So this last time I installed on
just one HD and the other will be back up until I get the itch to play for
days again. Each time I used the Seagate utility to erase the info on the
drives (I did not fill the drives with zeros) and then during Windows setup
formatted the drive(s) long version NTFS. Is it possible that I installed
next to another XP installation?

My system newly upgraded (in case it matters) Abit KN8 SLI MB, 2048 Ultra PC
3200 DDR Ram, 2 GeForce 6600 Graphics cards, Ultra X-finity 600w PSU, 2
Seagate SATA 160 GB HDs.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Guest]

Toss the seagate software,the only utility you should/might use is the MS-
DOS utility to chk the drive(s) for problems.If you want to use the SATA
drives
in a RAID configuration,simply install both,on start up,set the BIOS for
RAID,
once you close out BIOS,configure the 2 drives in RAID (a seperate menu opens
for this),also,have the xp cd installed,and set as 1st boot device,after
configura-
tion,press F6 for the drivers,after install xp.Have no other hds connected
till
xp is up and running.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I read and followed instructions on how to
install RAID in BIOS and with drivers during XP install. I did the RAID
install twice succesfully and would get XP up and running... the first time I
made some errors in the order of loading software, WU downloads, and adding
my 2nd video card (I believe) and would end up with stop error after stop
error. To save time I just wiped everything and started over. The second time
I somehow loosened one of the SATA cables after install. NV media sheild
rebuilt the array but I then had the same type of situation with stop errors
as I was downloading updates and installing additional software (not sure if
the two are connected in some way or not). I looked around for ways to
troubleshoot but most of it is beyond me at this point and looked like it
would take a lot of time to "find" the problem, so, I gave up. I found one MS
KB article refering to a problem with software RAID and the error message I
was getting (IRQ_not_less_or_equal). The article did not discuss the software
I was using but I was thinking since (on my system) both the RAID application
and the SLI are software driven that might be leading to some of my problems.
What do you mean chuck the Seagate software? I am not sure I understand, I
only used the DOS utilities to set up the HDs before installing XP?

My question still remains, on my single HD install how could I have used 28
GB of space with just the OS and few drivers and programs installed? On my
other machine (which is a laptop) I have almost all the same info plus a
bunch of pictures and music and I am using only 18 GB of the C drive. If I
somehow installed next to another XP install on the HD how would I go about
removing that info from the system? Can I format in Computer Management? Just
looking for answers on retrieveing about 10-15 GB of space.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Guest]

Update:

After searching and searching and continueing to have problems with
error/restarts I found the suggestion to not install the Nforce Firewall by
Nvidia... yeah... the software that came on the CD with my new ABIT
motherboard. I un-installed that firewall software and that seems to have
solved my error/restart IRQ_not_less_or_equal issue.

What a huge waste of time over the past week... if I had just not installed
that the very first install would have been fine. UGH! thousands down the
tube because of a lame piece of software! Lovely.

I still have the issue with the amount of space being used on the drive if
anyone has a suggestion but at this point I may start over since it seems the
core problem seems to have been uncovered... here we go again

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Update:

After searching and searching and continueing to have problems with
error/restarts I found the suggestion to not install the Nforce
Firewall by Nvidia... yeah... the software that came on the CD with
my new ABIT motherboard. I un-installed that firewall software and
that seems to have solved my error/restart IRQ_not_less_or_equal
issue.

What a huge waste of time over the past week... if I had just not
installed that the very first install would have been fine. UGH!
thousands down the tube because of a lame piece of software! Lovely.

I still have the issue with the amount of space being used on the
drive if anyone has a suggestion but at this point I may start over
since it seems the core problem seems to have been uncovered...
here we go again

Find out what might be using the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[Guest]

Wow, thanks for all the info.

I don't use hybernation on any of my machines, I have never had good luck
with it. I leave the System Restore at the default level... it is set to 12%.
I regularly use disk clean up in Windows. I typically have all system files
visible. The system was fresh and I had not even loaded all the programs that
I normally use when I noticed how much space was being taken.

I kind of wish I would have waited but I did not. I went ahead and
reformatted and re-installed windows for the 5th time in a week. I set up
RAID 0 (like I originally wanted to) and installed XP Pro with all the
updates and did not have one problem worth mentioning until the GPU
driver/software and that was minimal... just a "Windows did not start
correctly" and then it restarted and was fine. Not one stop error. What a
huge relief. To think all those hours were "wasted" because of that Nvidia
Network Access Manager. Well I got here and now I know how to set up RAID,
BIOS, and XP Pro (blindfolded), and recovery console, etc... And I know I
must do more research before installing new items. Although there were some
people who claimed that Nvidia firewall was good, so how could I have really
known without experiencing it myself.

The disk space discovery tools look great and I will probably not need them
but you never know. It is always a benefit to have proper tools. I am at the
same place during installation as I was last night and I am only at 8 GB
used... that is much more what I expect to see so I was quite suprised at the
amount that was used on the previous install. I am quite sure I somehow
neglected to delete the Windows install from the HDs (I had RAID 1 mirror
setup prior) as I was tired and frustrated so most likely installed right
next to the other installation.

I really appreciate you taking the time to share the information. Thanks
again.