Hard drive continues to run out of free space...

[Robert Bodling]

I am continually getting out of free space on my system and the worst part
is that my main hard drive (c is mainly only used for the operating
machine... and I've deleted the temp files and any other file I know not
needed, but I keep getting the message telling me that I am running low on
drive space and that system restorer needs more than 200megs to run and I
only have (at times...) only 42 megs available, how do I eliminate enough
space without deleting the wrong stuff from my system?

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I am continually getting out of free space on my system and the worst part
is that my main hard drive (c is mainly only used for the operating
machine... and I've deleted the temp files and any other file I know not
needed, but I keep getting the message telling me that I am running low on
drive space and that system restorer needs more than 200megs to run and I
only have (at times...) only 42 megs available, how do I eliminate enough
space without deleting the wrong stuff from my system?

You buy a larger disk and clone the old disk to the new.

 

[JS]

Get rid of all but the most recent system restore points, also reduce the
amount of space system restore uses (default is 12%) to a lower value.
Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore/System Restore
Settings, highlight the drive letter that contains Windows and click on the
'Settings' button, now move the slider to the left to reduce the disk space
system restore is allowed to use.

Also take a look at CCleaner as a tool to remove Internet history info,
cookies, temp files, auto complete and other junk. In the 'Windows' tab
listing check the item types you want deleted.
Also available is customization, see Options/Custom to add any
other/additional folders you want files deleted from.
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can also remove the folders that have names like
C:\Windows\$NtUnistallKBXXXXXX$
These folders and associated files are created each time you updated Windows
and are safe to remove, however once deleted you will no longer be able to
un-install a patch or update that was associated with the deleted
folder/files.
I would keep the most recent set (last two months just in case) and delete
the older updates.
As a safety net I burned these folders to a CD before deleting them.

One folder you should not delete is: $hf_mig$

Also See Doug Knox's page on this issue:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

JS

 

[z1z1z1]

I am continually getting out of free space on my system and the worst
part is that my main hard drive (c is mainly only used for the
operating machine... and I've deleted the temp files and any other
file I know not needed, but I keep getting the message telling me that
I am running low on drive space and that system restorer needs more
than 200megs to run and I only have (at times...) only 42 megs
available, how do I eliminate enough space without deleting the wrong
stuff from my system?

If you haven't already, you can move the pagefile to another drive (you
may want to leave a few 10's of MB on C: so it can save crash dumps,
etc).

If you don't use hibernation, turn it off (control panel/power settings).

You can move TEMP to another drive (set the environment variables TEMP
and TMP to point to the new place).

Reduce the System Restore size, and clean out all but the last one.

If your drive C: is much smaller than about 10GB, you probably will have
trouble keeping free space unless you move at least some of your big
applications to another drive (uninstall and reinstall on another drive).

 

[Guest]

you may also have a corupt File Allocation Table that is marking free space
as used.
if the F.A.T is corrupt then boot the install cd... select Repair at the
first screen and run FIXMBR at the command prompt.
p.s. sorry for uncle grumpy's useless post - no help is often just that...
NO HELP!

 

[Robert Bodling]

If you haven't already, you can move the pagefile to another drive (you
may want to leave a few 10's of MB on C: so it can save crash dumps,
etc).

If you don't use hibernation, turn it off (control panel/power settings).

You can move TEMP to another drive (set the environment variables TEMP
and TMP to point to the new place).

Reduce the System Restore size, and clean out all but the last one.

I've reduced the System Restore size to 6%

If your drive C: is much smaller than about 10GB, you probably will have
trouble keeping free space unless you move at least some of your big
applications to another drive (uninstall and reinstall on another drive).

I usually reserve the install folders to drive D: when the option is available.
And the C: drive is a mere 15GB.

 

[Robert Bodling]

you may also have a corupt File Allocation Table that is marking free
space
as used.
if the F.A.T is corrupt then boot the install cd... select Repair at the
first screen and run FIXMBR at the command prompt.
p.s. sorry for uncle grumpy's useless post - no help is often just that...
NO HELP!

Thanks, I'll give that a shot and see...