low disk space

[maeve]

Hi, I have approx 38 gig on my hard drive. It it separated into C drive
for windows XP Professional (4.1g capacity),
D drive for programs (5.1g capacity) E drive for my files (23.2g capacity).
D and E are OK but space on C is very low and getting lower. I don't store
anything on C drive except updates. When I turn on computer I get a message
that space is low (150mb) I restart and it goes up to over 500mb. I have
turned off auto update as SP2 won't install even though I have downloaded
it.
My question is: What would be causing the capacity to vary, and, should I
get my son to do a clean install with XP and Sp2? I am going to do this,
but my son is very busy. How can I do this myself? Thanks

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

Hi, I have approx 38 gig on my hard drive. It it separated into C
drive for windows XP Professional (4.1g capacity),
D drive for programs (5.1g capacity) E drive for my files (23.2g
capacity). D and E are OK but space on C is very low and getting
lower. I don't store anything on C drive except updates. When I
turn on computer I get a message that space is low (150mb) I restart
and it goes up to over 500mb. I have turned off auto update as SP2
won't install even though I have downloaded it.
My question is: What would be causing the capacity to vary, and,
should I get my son to do a clean install with XP and Sp2? I am
going to do this, but my son is very busy. How can I do this myself?
Thanks

Well of course it won't install! Why on *earth* have you installed Windows
on a 4.1GB partition?! SP 2 *requires* 2GB just to expand files! Creating a
slip-streamed disc won't work either. You need to expand that partition and,
you cannot do this without third-party software (e.g. Partition Magic 8).

You need to assign some space to the boot partition. You only have a 40GB
(decimal) drive. If it was me, I'd buy a larger drive for storage (80GB
should be sufficient for your needs and it probably won't cost more than
£40) and divide your current drive in half (19/19). Installing Windows took
1.5GB, Office (if you have it will install at least another 500MB in the
Windows directory). Contrary to what you believe there is a lot more than
updates being stored on C. System restore points (if you have it turned on)
for one thing, page file for another, hibernation file (if you use it) - the
hiberfil.sys will be the same size as your installed RAM (mine, for example,
is 2GB because I have 2GB of RAM).

There is plenty installing to the C partition other than Windows and
updates. This is why I recommend that users make that partition *AT LEAST*
10GB *MINIMUM* (and that really is the bare minimum).