Who's hogging the hard disk?

[Doug Kanter]

A friend's hard disk (4gb) has only 300 mb left on it, which makes no sense,
considering how it's used. She doesn't download music or store photos on the
machine. And, her My Documents folder is only 1.4 mb in size. Other than
spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is anyone aware of a utility
that will produce a list of folders sorted by size?

I've looked in Add/Remove Programs and check the sizes of her apps, but
nothing stands out as a pig.

 

[Charlie Tame]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/mcgill1.mspx

XP? Maybe ME too?

Charlie

 

[kurttrail]

A friend's hard disk (4gb) has only 300 mb left on it, which makes no
sense, considering how it's used. She doesn't download music or store
photos on the machine. And, her My Documents folder is only 1.4 mb in
size. Other than spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is
anyone aware of a utility that will produce a list of folders sorted
by size?
I've looked in Add/Remove Programs and check the sizes of her apps,
but nothing stands out as a pig.

Big Brother is using most of the rest. I wouldn't install XP on
anything smaller than a 10gb harddrive.

You can turn off system restore, disk indexing, and hibernation to grab
back SOME of the harddrive back from Big Brother, but the best advice is
just to get a bigger harddrive.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Doug Kanter]

Big Brother is using most of the rest. I wouldn't install XP on anything
smaller than a 10gb harddrive.

You can turn off system restore, disk indexing, and hibernation to grab
back SOME of the harddrive back from Big Brother, but the best advice is
just to get a bigger harddrive.

I agree. She had some computer shexpert come over and take a look at the
machine. Instead of selling her a larger drive, the moron installed a 10mb
secondary drive. Now....how much effort would it have been to bring along a
laptop, back up her c: drive data, and install just one big drive? And, how
much more money from 10 mb to maybe 30 mb? About eleven bucks?

 

[Cain]

I have found the du utility from http://www.sysinternals.com/ to be
invaluable when it comes to finding out what is hogging disk space.

Unzip du.zip into a directory:
Open a Command Prompt window and type "du -v c:\ > du.txt" at the prompt
Import the text file into Excel and sort through it to your hearts content.

Brgds,

 

[GHalleck]

A friend's hard disk (4gb) has only 300 mb left on it, which makes no sense,
considering how it's used. She doesn't download music or store photos on the
machine. And, her My Documents folder is only 1.4 mb in size. Other than
spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is anyone aware of a utility
that will produce a list of folders sorted by size?

I've looked in Add/Remove Programs and check the sizes of her apps, but
nothing stands out as a pig.

By today's standards, 4 GB is a very small hard drive. Other
than viruses and malware, the most suspicious user of HD space
is the Temporary Internet Files folder(s). It should be emptied
at frequent, regular intervals. One way to do it is to open IE
properties, and under Temporary Internet Files, delete cookies
and delete files (including all offline content). Next, under
the Advanced tab, check the box "Empty Temporary Internet Files
folder when browser is closed". This might clean out at least
1 GB in a neglected HD.

Next, tackle all of the file sin the TEMP folders, esp. files
with extensions ending in *.tmp. And then the *.bak files, etc.
Using the Search module under Start will help at locating these
files. HTH & GL.

 

[Leythos]

Big Brother is using most of the rest. I wouldn't install XP on
anything smaller than a 10gb harddrive.

You can turn off system restore, disk indexing, and hibernation to grab
back SOME of the harddrive back from Big Brother, but the best advice is
just to get a bigger harddrive.

Maybe you could answer the question like you complain about others no
doing - it doesn't matter what you WOULD do.

There is a simple utility that does what he wants, for free:
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

 

[Martin]

Other than
spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is anyone aware of a utility
that will produce a list of folders sorted by size?

Ztree; for those who remember XTree Gold, it's the same. Free to try.

 

[kurttrail]

Maybe you could answer the question like you complain about others no
doing - it doesn't matter what you WOULD do.

Did I say it does matter about what I would do? Please quote me.

There is a simple utility that does what he wants, for free:
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

On a four gig drive, it really is a waste of time, compared to getting a
larger drive and not need to run some utility once a week.

My advice is a long-term solution. Your advise is a short-term
work-around.

You should apply to work for FEMA, but wait until after Wilma blows
through my neighborhood.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Leythos]

On a four gig drive, it really is a waste of time, compared to getting a
larger drive and not need to run some utility once a week.

My advice is a long-term solution. Your advise is a short-term
work-around.

As usual, you didn't answer the question the OP posted. He wanted a
means to see folder sizes and you didn't help.

 

[kurttrail]

As usual, you didn't answer the question the OP posted. He wanted a
means to see folder sizes and you didn't help.

On a 4gig drive, why waste the time? A working XP install is about 2.5
gig in size anyway, without constant maintenance. Add progams, and some
personal files, and you are banging into the 4 gig of drive size over
and over again.

It's not like you answering an OP that is complaing about NAV, and you
answering that Symantec Corp AV works fine for you, when you damn well
know that NAV is a totally different product from Symantec Corp AV.

If you want to compare irrevelent replies, you got me beat anyday.

Why the f*#k do you even bother posting replies to my posts? You do
realize that you always get the sh*tty end of the stick, don't ya? You
never get the better of me, the best outcome you can possibly get in
mixing it up with me is to give up, and run away. An intelligent person
would have learn not to mix it up with me by now, but then again, if you
were intelligent, you wouldn't hold most of the idiotic
Pro-Corportion/Anti-Human opinions that you have.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Rock]

A friend's hard disk (4gb) has only 300 mb left on it, which makes no sense,
considering how it's used. She doesn't download music or store photos on the
machine. And, her My Documents folder is only 1.4 mb in size. Other than
spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is anyone aware of a utility
that will produce a list of folders sorted by size?

I've looked in Add/Remove Programs and check the sizes of her apps, but
nothing stands out as a pig.

Mark Dormer has a small .dll plugin to list the folder size in the
Windows Explorer / My Computer view.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/foldersize.htm

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Check also the Windows Update uninstall files ($NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$) hidden
compressed folders in the %windir%, likely they are tying up considerable
space.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Leythos]

On a 4gig drive, why waste the time? A working XP install is about 2.5
gig in size anyway, without constant maintenance. Add progams, and some
personal files, and you are banging into the 4 gig of drive size over
and over again.

For browsing the web a 4gb drive is just fine of that's all they really
do. Limiting the cache and not downloading a much of email, doing normal
clean-up, or having a scheduled script to do the clean-up would also do.

The point was that you didn't answer his question, you just blurted out
more of your typical BS rhetoric.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Doug

The second hard disk will give her the capability to make things work
better but a 10 mb drive is small in terms of drives currently
available.

Move things for the C drive to the D drive.

Try Disk CleanUp to remove Temporary Internet Files and the System
Restore option in the More Options tab of Disk CleanUp.

To move programmes use Add / Remove Programs in Start, Control Panel,
Add / Remove Programs to uninstall programmes. Create a Programs
Directory on your other drive and reinstall there.

Some other notes you may find useful.

Create a My Documents folder on the other drive and copy ( not move )
the contents of My Documents to your new folder. Then delete the files
in your My Documents folder ( if you encounter problems deleting use
Shift + Delete to bypass the Recycle Bin ). Leave the My Documents
folder on the C drive. You will also need to
change Default File locations in the Microsoft Office programmes you
use. For Word go to Tools, Options, File Locations, highlight Documents,
click on Modify and change file path. For Excel go to Tools, Options,
General and change default file path.

For Temporary Internet Files select Start, Control Panel, Internet
Options, Temporary Internet Files. Settings, Move Folder.

To move the Outlook Express Store Folder select in Outlook Express
Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder, Change.

http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideoe/files/store.htm


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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suggested solution worked for you.

 

[kurttrail]

For browsing the web a 4gb drive is just fine of that's all they
really do. Limiting the cache and not downloading a much of email,
doing normal clean-up, or having a scheduled script to do the
clean-up would also do.

The point was that you didn't answer his question, you just blurted
out more of your typical BS rhetoric.

No, I just answered the question in the subject. Again, the long term
answer is that a 4 gig drive just ain't big enough for XP.

And the OP himself agrees with that opinion. And even today, in another
thread, a MVP I highly respect, Malke, was advising that even a 10 gig
harddrive is really too small to be optimal for running XP. You, I
don't respect at all.

The utility is but a temporary measure. A real solution is to get a
bigger harddrive, unless you are try to hook the computer owner into
being one of your regular suckers, and get them to pay you to clean up
the harddrive over and over again. And I would bet that is how you run
your business. Get a customer hooked on temporary fixes, instead of
supplying a long-term solution. That is exactly something a scumbag
like you would do!

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Leythos]

And the OP himself agrees with that opinion. And even today, in another
thread, a MVP I highly respect, Malke, was advising that even a 10 gig
harddrive is really too small to be optimal for running XP. You, I
don't respect at all.

But the OP already knew it was to small for "optimal" use. The OP wanted
to know how to determine the size of folders so he could see where the
use was.

 

[Doc]

Other than spending the next 3 nights browsing folders, is

anyone aware of a utility that will produce a list of folders
sorted by size?

Try View Folder Size Pro.
http://www.moveax.com/
This is utility that shows folder size on Win2k/XP as well as on WinXP
x64 and higher. Fast and customizable.

 

[kurttrail]

But the OP already knew it was to small for "optimal" use. The OP
wanted to know how to determine the size of folders so he could see
where the use was.

Didn't know the OP already knew that until AFTER I post my opinion.
Fool!

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Leythos]

Didn't know the OP already knew that until AFTER I post my opinion.
Fool!

And that doesn't change the fact that you didn't answer his question.