No Hard drive space left!

[Guest]

After upgrading to Win Xp pro from Win 98 on a old spec PC (128mb ram, 6.3gb
Hard disk) I am left with less 300mb on the hard drive. Seeing as Xp only
requires 1.5gb that implies that something is going wrong somewhere? someone
please help!

 

[R. McCarty]

An XP upgrade is going to add content above the 1.5 Gigabytes of
the core install.

(1.) A fairly large Pagefile.Sys
(2.) An XP Uninstall backup for returning back to 98.
(3.) A Hibernate file *, but not always
(4.) ServicePackFiles ( If your XP disk wasn't at SP2)
(5.) A fully populated DllCache Folder (~400-500 Megabytes)

Many of these items can be adjusted. You neglected to mention the free
space prior to the XP upgrade.

If the PC was an OEM, it's likely that under the Windows folder is a
sub-folder Options\Cabs where the 98 installer components are found.
Also, if you created user accounts for several people at initial boot up,
then XP "Cloned" the 98 Profile into each one. ( Which duplicates all
My Documents, Music etc - present in the 98 profile)

 

[Guest]

Thats sounds like the problem. Initial space before install was approx 5gb by
the way.Could you explain a bitr more about what I need to do to sort it?
Thanks

 

[R. McCarty]

Do you have the ability to Image your System partition ?, like burning
a set of DVD-R/CD-R disks. Before undertaking these steps, I'd
prefer you have your upgrade protected.

First, I would set System Restore to a smaller allocation. System
Restore is really intended for short-term recovery, say over 2-3 days.
Since you're working in a modest size partition, I would set it to 250
Megabytes. Right Click My Computer, Left Click Properties. From
the Details box, click System Restore (TAB), settings button and
change the reservation value.

Next, I would burn the Uninstaller module back to Win98 to a CD-R
and remove it from the C: drive.

If you don't use Hibernate, Use Power Options applet in Control
Panel to disable that function. (Reboot)

Right Click Recycle Bin and move it's reserved space slider to a more
modest value, say 2-3% of total drive space.

It's not mandatory to keep \DllCache populated at all times. You can
purge it's contents. Click Start, Run, (type) Command [Press Enter].
From the command prompt (Type) Sfc /Cachesize = 300 [Press Enter]
From the command prompt (Type) Sfc /Purgecache

Using 128-Megabytes of memory is very low for XP. If you can afford
a memory upgrade, get a single 128-Megabyte memory module and
upgrade (~$40). Depending on your normal work habits you might be
able to reduce the minimum value of the Pagefile to something in the
256-384 Megabyte range.

Go to Add/Remove programs in Control Panel and uninstall any apps
you do not need or use.

Clean out the Temp variable folders and the old C:\Windows\Temp.
Use Search and find and delete all files with a .tmp extension. Also
search for files prefixed with the Tilde symbol ~. These are working
or temp modules that have probably collected on your PC. (Carefully).
Also search for any .Chk and .Dmp files and remove from the system.
Finally do a search for any .Bak and .Old files and remove.

There are many other items to contend with - but this is a short-list
of things to work on.

 

[Guest]

That has freed up over a gb but now nothing appears on the toolbar and the
search program doesnt work.

Do you have the ability to Image your System partition ?, like burning
a set of DVD-R/CD-R disks. Before undertaking these steps, I'd
prefer you have your upgrade protected.

First, I would set System Restore to a smaller allocation. System
Restore is really intended for short-term recovery, say over 2-3 days.
Since you're working in a modest size partition, I would set it to 250
Megabytes. Right Click My Computer, Left Click Properties. From
the Details box, click System Restore (TAB), settings button and
change the reservation value.

Next, I would burn the Uninstaller module back to Win98 to a CD-R
and remove it from the C: drive.

If you don't use Hibernate, Use Power Options applet in Control
Panel to disable that function. (Reboot)

Right Click Recycle Bin and move it's reserved space slider to a more
modest value, say 2-3% of total drive space.

It's not mandatory to keep \DllCache populated at all times. You can
purge it's contents. Click Start, Run, (type) Command [Press Enter].
From the command prompt (Type) Sfc /Cachesize = 300 [Press Enter]
From the command prompt (Type) Sfc /Purgecache

Using 128-Megabytes of memory is very low for XP. If you can afford
a memory upgrade, get a single 128-Megabyte memory module and
upgrade (~$40). Depending on your normal work habits you might be
able to reduce the minimum value of the Pagefile to something in the
256-384 Megabyte range.

Go to Add/Remove programs in Control Panel and uninstall any apps
you do not need or use.

Clean out the Temp variable folders and the old C:\Windows\Temp.
Use Search and find and delete all files with a .tmp extension. Also
search for files prefixed with the Tilde symbol ~. These are working
or temp modules that have probably collected on your PC. (Carefully).
Also search for any .Chk and .Dmp files and remove from the system.
Finally do a search for any .Bak and .Old files and remove.

There are many other items to contend with - but this is a short-list
of things to work on.

Thats sounds like the problem. Initial space before install was approx 5gb
by
the way.Could you explain a bitr more about what I need to do to sort it?
Thanks