Service Pack 2 : update started at 70.8Gb free disk space - ended at 69.1Gb

[Fabio De Robertis]

Hi again,

I noticed the SP2 installation on WinXP SP1 consumed 1.7Gb of free
space on my hard drive. It's frankly excessive! If you have less than
1.7Gb of free space the update fails. I have System Restore switched
off.

Moreover we have a spare WinXP SP1 installation (that we use very
often to test software) on a 2.1Gb partition with 700Mb of free space
and so it's impossible to install SP2 there.

I think Microsoft should let the user choose a "work" or "temp"
directory (even on another partition or another hard drive) where to
download the Service Pack, backup the previous configuration and do
all the work necessary before copying the new files to the unit where
WinXP is (typically C: ). Why obliging to handle the whole update work
in the root partition?

Thanks for the explanation.

Fabio

 

[Guest]

You could also slipstream the SP2 and perform a clean
install on your system....

 

[SlowJet]

That's because your computer is too old and the bios is
too old and the hard disk is not big enough.
It's an antique. Face facts and deal.
You can buy a new Pentium 4 base system for $400.
Sell your skate board and mountain bike.
Make choices based on your needs and income.
Deal with what is. The sooner you do, the sooner things
will be better for you.
You can't push a rope.

SJ

 

[Guest]

Hibernation and Virtual Memory could get you some space.

 

[Fabio De Robertis]

Dear SlowJet,

I've nothing to sell and my PC is a P4-3GHz HT with 1Gb of RAM
and 230Gb of S-ATA Hard Drives. I just want to point out that
1.7Gb of space required for the installation of SP2 is simply
too much. I only have a spare WinXP SP1 installed on a 2Gb NTFS
partition and it works perfectly, but I have to format it and
install it again with SP2 to have SP2 installed. You should let
the user choose the Temp or Work directoty/partition to download
and prepare and backup the Service Pack files. It'd be very useful
and easy for you.

Moreover the new progman.exe distributed with S2 doesn't work : why?

Thanks for your help!

Fabio

 

[Alex Nichol]

I noticed the SP2 installation on WinXP SP1 consumed 1.7Gb of free
space on my hard drive. It's frankly excessive! If you have less than
1.7Gb of free space the update fails. I have System Restore switched
off.

Moreover we have a spare WinXP SP1 installation (that we use very
often to test software) on a 2.1Gb partition with 700Mb of free space
and so it's impossible to install SP2 there.

I think Microsoft should let the user choose a "work" or "temp"
directory (even on another partition or another hard drive) where to
download the Service Pack, backup the previous configuration and do
all the work necessary before copying the new files to the unit where
WinXP is (typically C: ). Why obliging to handle the whole update work
in the root partition?

Put TEMP (at System - Advanced - Environmental variables) and Temp
Internet files on a second partition. Or download the full version to
that partition and run it from there. And see Installing SP2:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=45

for tidying up afterwards

 

[SlowJet]

Sorry for being so asumuous but these type of complains
are just not realistc as of 2003.

First you could put the downloaded IT 266 MB image on the
large drive.
Then you could have extracted it there also.

The maximum Sp2 space req. is 1,560 MB, not 1.7MB
That's about 1/2 gig saved, and it is obvious why it
takes that space (The files for Sp2 compresed + the files
for SP2 expanded.)

Next you could have changed the temp location to a folder
on the large disk. Having checked the temp space req., it
would have been obvious that you small partition plus the
back up of SP1 and the Auto Restore point would be
cutting it close.
Temp files are used by the install process and not part
of SP2. The install process would have no reason to use
more space than it needed. I think that is 200 MB.
At the end of the day you would have had 500 MB remaining
on your tiny test partition plus or minus a restore of 20
MB.


For you to say it is excessive is out of context with
reality, not to mention that NTFS (especial 1.3) should
not even be on a pration less than 8 GB.

So there you go, get a bigger test disk.

SJ

 

[Fabio De Robertis]

I noticed the SP2 installation on WinXP SP1 consumed 1.7Gb of free

Put TEMP (at System - Advanced - Environmental variables) and Temp
Internet files on a second partition. Or download the full version to
that partition and run it from there. And see Installing SP2:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=45

for tidying up afterwards

Thank you very much Alex, I'm downloading the "IT Professionals and
Developers" SP2 to another partition. However the installation of SP2
from Windows Update writes the SP2 files and does all the work
necessary on the OS partition in spite of any settings related to the
Environmental Variables. Unfortunately!

Thanks, Fabio

 

[Fabio De Robertis]

Hi, I succeeded in installing SP2 on the small WinXP partition
by downloading and using the IT 266Mb version of the SP2 from the
Microsoft site. I saved it in the large drive and it let me choose
any directory to store the old backup files. This way I could install
SP2 with 700Mb of free disk space (during the installation the free
disk space was as low as 50Mb). After the installation I got 130Mb
free, but I could free extra 200Mb by compressing (via NTFS) the
\Windows\ServicePackFiles\ directory. I now have 340Mb free and
SP2 installed.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

I'm still looking for an explanation why the "progman.exe" contained
in SP2 doesn't work.

Regards, Fabio

 

[LAD]

This recalls me of the story of the Arlekin dress.
A patch over the patches, over the patches, over more patches...... over to
ptacesh...

Salutations

LAD