Stripping XPProSP2 down to basics for small HD...

[mattshepherd]

I'm running XP Pro on an old Omnibook XE2 -- 233 processor, 96 MB RAM.
Takes a minute to boot, but works like a charm afterwards!

Problem: with only a 4 GB HD to start with, I'm running out of room.
Not much of a problem originally, but SP2 and various other updates
have caused bloat... I'm running out of disc space pretty fast.

I've deleted all but my most recent restore point, which has bought me
time, turned Hibernation off, and unloaded the Media Player. Temp files
are all deleted.

What ELSE can I dump to free up more disc space? I'm using OpenOffice
instead of MS Office, which saves a LOAD of space, but I've pretty much
run out of things I can "obviously" delete.

So I'm looking for super-secret stuff like .dlls and .cabs that the
system never uses, and so on. Is there a treasure trove of stuff I
don't need that I can ditch somewhere buried in Windows?

 

[Dick Cardy]

I'm running XP Pro on an old Omnibook XE2 -- 233 processor, 96 MB RAM.
Takes a minute to boot, but works like a charm afterwards!

Problem: with only a 4 GB HD to start with, I'm running out of room.
Not much of a problem originally, but SP2 and various other updates
have caused bloat... I'm running out of disc space pretty fast.

I've deleted all but my most recent restore point, which has bought me
time, turned Hibernation off, and unloaded the Media Player. Temp files
are all deleted.

What ELSE can I dump to free up more disc space? I'm using OpenOffice
instead of MS Office, which saves a LOAD of space, but I've pretty much
run out of things I can "obviously" delete.

So I'm looking for super-secret stuff like .dlls and .cabs that the
system never uses, and so on. Is there a treasure trove of stuff I
don't need that I can ditch somewhere buried in Windows?

Have you checked Windows components to see if there is any you can remove?

Dick

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm running XP Pro on an old Omnibook XE2 -- 233 processor, 96 MB RAM.
Takes a minute to boot, but works like a charm afterwards!

Problem: with only a 4 GB HD to start with, I'm running out of room.
Not much of a problem originally, but SP2 and various other updates
have caused bloat... I'm running out of disc space pretty fast.

I've deleted all but my most recent restore point, which has bought me
time, turned Hibernation off, and unloaded the Media Player. Temp
files are all deleted.

What ELSE can I dump to free up more disc space? I'm using OpenOffice
instead of MS Office, which saves a LOAD of space, but I've pretty
much run out of things I can "obviously" delete.

So I'm looking for super-secret stuff like .dlls and .cabs that the
system never uses, and so on. Is there a treasure trove of stuff I
don't need that I can ditch somewhere buried in Windows?

Take a look at nLite. It can create a stripped down install CD.

http://www.nliteos.com/

Kerry

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Matt;
When people ask what is the smallest space needed for Windows XP, 4 - 6 GB
is the common bottom end.
And that is just for Windows XP, updates and patches.
No programs such as the necessary antivirus or even Open Office etc.

You need a larger hard drive, they are easily less than $100, you should
find one.

 

[Dave Hart]

I'm running XP Pro on an old Omnibook XE2 -- 233 processor, 96 MB RAM.
Takes a minute to boot, but works like a charm afterwards!

Problem: with only a 4 GB HD to start with, I'm running out of room.
Not much of a problem originally, but SP2 and various other updates
have caused bloat... I'm running out of disc space pretty fast.

I've deleted all but my most recent restore point, which has bought me
time, turned Hibernation off, and unloaded the Media Player. Temp files
are all deleted.

What ELSE can I dump to free up more disc space? I'm using OpenOffice
instead of MS Office, which saves a LOAD of space, but I've pretty much
run out of things I can "obviously" delete.

So I'm looking for super-secret stuff like .dlls and .cabs that the
system never uses, and so on. Is there a treasure trove of stuff I
don't need that I can ditch somewhere buried in Windows?

Matt

Windows XP updates create uninstall folders on your hard disk.
They have names like $NtUninstallKBnnnnnn$
If you're absolutely certain you won't want to uninstall the updates,
then you can delete these folders.
You can download a small utility which will do this and remove
the entries from Add/Remove Programs.
Google for "xp remove hotfix backup"

Dave Hart