hard drive clean-up

[Guest]

I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my hard drive
that I don't use.
How do I determine that I don't use a thing?
Why can't I delete/remove/erase things like "MSN Gaming Zone" and "Movie
Maker", etc.? When I try to delete these items, I'm told that "...it can't be
deleted because it's being used by another program, etc." This when
everything appears to be closed. Also neither one of these shows up as a
program (in "add/remove programs" in Control panel) so that I can remove
them.

I run CCleaner and Disc Cleanup often. Can't defrag because I don't have
enough space left on the hard drive, which is one reason why I'm trying to
free up space.

Help would be appreciated.
##

 

[Leonard Grey]

MSN Gaming Zone and Windows Movie Maker are part of the Windows
operating system, so they can't be removed.

To remove programs you no longer want, go to Control Panel > Add or
Remove Programs.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my hard drive
that I don't use.

Although I understand that you want to do that, in my view, that's an
*extremely* dangerous attitude to take.

How do I determine that I don't use a thing?

In many cases, with great difficulty. What makes it even more
difficult is that your computer skills are clearly not great, or else
you wouldn't be asking the question.

There are certainly some things that are safe to delete. If you don't
use a program, for example, you can remove it from Add/Remove
Programs. It's safe to delete all .tmp files. Most cookies are safe to
delete.

But other things are not so clear, and if your intent is to be really
thorough in doing this, you will almost certainly land yourself in big
trouble.

Why can't I delete/remove/erase things like "MSN Gaming Zone" and "Movie
Maker", etc.? When I try to delete these items, I'm told that "...it can't be
deleted because it's being used by another program, etc." This when
everything appears to be closed. Also neither one of these shows up as a
program (in "add/remove programs" in Control panel) so that I can remove
them.

Things that are part of Windows can't be deleted, whether you use them
or not.

I run CCleaner and Disc Cleanup often.

Disk Cleanup is fine. CCleaner is fine for some of its functions, but
I caution you *not* to use its Registry Cleaning capabilities; that's
a very good way to get yourself into trouble.

Can't defrag because I don't have
enough space left on the hard drive, which is one reason why I'm trying to
free up space.

If you have that little free space, the real issue is that your drive
is too small. You can save some space by deleting files you don't
need, by dedicating less space to System Restore, and by reducing the
size of the page file. But anything you do will be at best a stopgap
measure. You almost certainly need to bite the bullet and buy a larger
drive. Fortunately hard drives are very inexpensive right now.

 

[Daave]

If you have that little free space, the real issue is that your drive
is too small. You can save some space by deleting files you don't
need, by dedicating less space to System Restore, and by reducing the
size of the page file. But anything you do will be at best a stopgap
measure. You almost certainly need to bite the bullet and buy a larger
drive. Fortunately hard drives are very inexpensive right now.

OP might also want to disable hibernation (if it's enabled. that is):

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-5630184.html
"Delete Hiberfil.sys in Windows XP before defragmenting"

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

OP might also want to disable hibernation (if it's enabled. that is):

Yes, another way to save a little space. But I stress again that these
are all stopgap measures.

 

[Gerry]

Biipsy

How large is your hard drive and how much free disk space?

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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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