hard drives showing as full

[pwat]

My son has re-installed windows xp sp2 after having a problem with his
computer.
However the hard drive has set itself up in 2 partitions and both drives
indicate they are full to capacity.
If you place the machine in safe mode it shows you that this is not the case.
As a consequence of this the computer has now becxome unusable as it claims
that it can not save any info even in temp stores.
Does anybody have any suggestions

 

[Don Phillipson]

My son has re-installed windows xp sp2 after having a problem with his
computer.
However the hard drive has set itself up in 2 partitions and both drives
indicate they are full to capacity.
If you place the machine in safe mode it shows you that this is not the case.
As a consequence of this the computer has now becxome unusable as it claims
that it can not save any info even in temp stores.
Does anybody have any suggestions

Try this:
1. Boot into Safe Mode and run your virus checker.
Do not proceed until you are sure the PC is free of
malware.
2. Delete anyfiles known to be junk, temp
files, unneeded backups, Temporary Internnet Files.
This may free enough drivespace (say 10 per cent
of total capacity, preferably 20 per cent) to begin
other repairs.
3. Look in particular for folders or files duplicated on
C: and D: If you find any, confirm that their contents are
truly identical. Then you can delete one or the other.

When you are virus-free and have confirmed 10 per cent
vacant drive space, run WinXP disk checker. You should
then be able to load 32-bit WinXP and make other repairs
(depending what variety of OS you have.)

 

[Malke]

My son has re-installed windows xp sp2 after having a problem with his
computer.
However the hard drive has set itself up in 2 partitions and both drives
indicate they are full to capacity.
If you place the machine in safe mode it shows you that this is not the
case.
As a consequence of this the computer has now becxome unusable as it
claims that it can not save any info even in temp stores.
Does anybody have any suggestions

The hard drive didn't "set itself up" all by itself. Your son made a mistake
and inadvertently installed a second Windows in the same partition. See:

"I have two installations of XP on the same partition" -
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#20

Malke

 

[Andrew E.]

Simply install xp cd,boot pc to xp cd,press r For recovery,select 1 for C:
press enter for password,typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the unwanted
partition,create one,press ESC key.Type:EXIT To leave,or type:
FORMAT D: /FS:NTFS D: being the new partition,exit when thru.