HDD nearly full

J

JM

Am using XP Home Edition. 30 GB HDD almost full 23.5 GB is windows files. Is
it normal for windows updates to grow windows this large or is there a fault.
Can I reduce the size of windows without formatting HDD and reloading Win.dows
 
A

Andrew E.

Windows XP with all the services & SP 1,2, & 3 installed should only take
up 3-6 GB at the very most.Try going to run,type:cmd In cmd type:DiskPart
In DiskPart,type:list disk type:list volume See if more than one partition
exist with xp on it.If DiskPart checks out ok,then youve probably reinstalled
xp a few times in windows explorer,xp added OS files w/o deleteing the old.
 
G

GreenieLeBrun

JM said:
Am using XP Home Edition. 30 GB HDD almost full 23.5 GB is windows
files. Is it normal for windows updates to grow windows this large or
is there a fault. Can I reduce the size of windows without formatting
HDD and reloading Win.dows

Have you run the Disk Cleanup utility found under Programs, Accessories,
System Tools?

Also within the Windows directory you will probably find a number of files
with names like $NtUninstallKB885884$, these are the update uninstaller
files and can be deleted if you do not think you will want to uninstall
these updates. DO NOT delete $hf_mig$.
 
G

Gerry

JM

you can create more free space in C by
carrying any of the measures suggested below.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

A default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary internet
files, especially if you do not store offline copies on disk. The
default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to offline
copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select
Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to
make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history is
held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us


Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

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

Ken Blake, MVP

Am using XP Home Edition. 30 GB HDD almost full 23.5 GB is windows files. Is
it normal for windows updates to grow windows this large or is there a fault.
Can I reduce the size of windows without formatting HDD and reloading Win.dows


You've gotten answers to your question from others already, but I
wanted to add another suggestion.

A 30GB drive is tiny these days, and is smaller than anything for sale
on the current market. Anything you do to save space will save it only
temporarily, and you will likely very soon find yourself back in the
situation of running short of space. The real solution to your problem
is to buy a new drive, either as a second drive or as a replacement
for what you have.

Fortunately these are very cheap right now. You can buy a 100GB drive
for under $50 US.
 
J

JM

Thank's Gerry for all your suggestions. I cleaned up every section I knew
about which is about 60% of what you have indicated and am working through
the remainder including some of the other suggestions. The windows tree still
occupies 74.4% of the files on the HDD. I looked at the control panel
uninstal program utility and see what looks like a normal amount of windows
update files but when I scan using a disk analysis tool the real magnitude of
windows becomes apparent. I'm assuming windows is not deleting the old file
when updating and thus growing windows to the size it is now. I would be glad
if you have a specific fix for that.
 
J

JM

Andrew, I have one healthy partition NTFS. You mention the possibility of
having installed xp in windows explorer a few times? Could you please expand
on that. My suspicion is that when updating it adds the file and doesn't
delete the old but I don't know how to fix that. I have looked in control
panel uninstal programs and the number of windows update files listed looks
normal but when I use a disk analysis tool I find the offending windows files
which are now 74.4% of all files on the HDD.
 
G

Gerry

JM

Is your computer a laptop or a desktop? How old is the computer?

The system does not retain files. I puts them into a condition that the
system can use to go back to a previous state if an update is
problematic. The next paragraph is my suggested alternative to deleting
the files needed to uninstall a Windows Update.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of your
C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder
typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text
of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you
can compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save
Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained by
deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is only
an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report . Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and click on Save
As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents Folder and post a
copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it is more
informative.

--



Hope this helps.

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

Touch Base

Am using XP Home Edition. 30 GB HDD almost full 23.5 GB is windows files. Is
it normal for windows updates to grow windows this large or is there a
fault.
Can I reduce the size of windows without formatting HDD and reloading
Win.dows


======================================================
To help us better see what is happening to your hard drive space try this
program

TreeSize Free 2.2.1
Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough. TreeSize tells
you
where precious space has gone to. TreeSize can be started from the context
menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including
its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you
will
see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can
already
see results while TreeSize is working. The space, which is wasted by the
file
system can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report.

http://www.download.com/TreeSize-Free/3000-2248_4-10139400.html


--
Regards,
Touch Base
Report back on the results, good or bad so others may benefit

"There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy
to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know
how to use my telephone."
(Bjarne Stroustrup)
 

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