XP-Pro's expanding HD demands

[HenriK]

Computer: Dell 650, 3.06 gHz CPUs
OS: XP-Pro, SP3, fully updated
Graphics card: EVGA e-GForce 7600 GS
Graphics driver: NVIDIA v.181.22 (per EVGA)
Display: Samsung 943BX

With all of the updates and fixes Microsoft keeps churning out, XP-Pro
keeps demanding more and more HD space.

Are there old files or sub-directories (folders) that XP-Pro just leaves
on one's HD that aren't really useful any more that can be deleted?

Suggestions on what can go or references that discuss this problem would
be most welcome. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Tim Meddick]

The problem is that all the "Uninstall" folders (hidden folders within the 'Windows'
directory that start with $NtUninstallKB...), combined, only take up : 663 MB (on my
system) and that's only 408 MB "Size on disk", as all these folders are compressed by
default.

Even on a relatively small sized hard-drive (such as I have - 37GB) 408 Mega-bytes is
a drop in the proverbial ocean.

Also, the penalty for deleting these folders is that - should you find out that
there's a compatibility issue with a certain update and hardware / software that you
are using - you would then have no way to uninstall any of the applied patches
anymore...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Mark Adams]

Computer: Dell 650, 3.06 gHz CPUs
OS: XP-Pro, SP3, fully updated
Graphics card: EVGA e-GForce 7600 GS
Graphics driver: NVIDIA v.181.22 (per EVGA)
Display: Samsung 943BX

With all of the updates and fixes Microsoft keeps churning out, XP-Pro
keeps demanding more and more HD space.

Are there old files or sub-directories (folders) that XP-Pro just leaves
on one's HD that aren't really useful any more that can be deleted?

Suggestions on what can go or references that discuss this problem would
be most welcome. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Since you haven't really said what the problem is, I will suggest CCleaner.
It deletes temporary files, cookies, browser history, etc. Works well,
sometimes finding 1GB or more of junk if you haven't run Disk Cleanup
recently.

If you are running out of disk space; buy a bigger hard drive. They are
pretty cheap these days.

On the other hand, if you have 20GB of data on a 1TB drive and you continue
to use disk space; is that really a problem? You didn't really say what was
wrong.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

For starters, see http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

 

[Rick Z]

Computer: Dell 650, 3.06 gHz CPUs

OS: XP-Pro, SP3, fully updated
Graphics card: EVGA e-GForce 7600 GS
Graphics driver: NVIDIA v.181.22 (per EVGA)
Display: Samsung 943BX

With all of the updates and fixes Microsoft keeps churning out, XP-Pro keeps demanding more and
more HD space.

Are there old files or sub-directories (folders) that XP-Pro just leaves on one's HD that aren't
really useful any more that can be deleted?

Suggestions on what can go or references that discuss this problem would be most welcome. Thanks
in advance for any assistance.

Buy a second hard drive. Are you utterly penniless? They are so cheap you'd have to be starving
for it financially bother you in the slightest. 300gb Sata drives go for about $40 used, often
less. Isn't that affordable? Then sell off your tiny hard drive once the data is moved over. So
maybe $30 expenditure? So its less than a month of internet. If you want to start really saving
money, dump your internet connection with your ISP and piggyback off your neighbors wirelessly. Or
share your network connection with a few people (wirelessly or wired) and then it will be free.
Watch out for hog users though. Best to have monitoring software. But over a few years it can be
very lucrative.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Computer: Dell 650, 3.06 gHz CPUs
OS: XP-Pro, SP3, fully updated
Graphics card: EVGA e-GForce 7600 GS
Graphics driver: NVIDIA v.181.22 (per EVGA)
Display: Samsung 943BX

With all of the updates and fixes Microsoft keeps churning out,
XP-Pro keeps demanding more and more HD space.

Are there old files or sub-directories (folders) that XP-Pro just
leaves on one's HD that aren't really useful any more that can be
deleted?
Suggestions on what can go or references that discuss this problem
would be most welcome. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

You likely could free up a lot of space by moving *your* stuff
elsewhere. ;-)

But...

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.

 

[Jon]

There is also the downloads for these updates in C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download, which you
can safely delete.

The amount of space in the $NtUninstallKB... folders can be higher, depending on how may service
packs you've been through.


The problem is that all the "Uninstall" folders (hidden folders within the 'Windows'
directory that start with $NtUninstallKB...), combined, only take up : 663 MB (on my
system) and that's only 408 MB "Size on disk", as all these folders are compressed by
default.

Even on a relatively small sized hard-drive (such as I have - 37GB) 408 Mega-bytes is
a drop in the proverbial ocean.

Also, the penalty for deleting these folders is that - should you find out that
there's a compatibility issue with a certain update and hardware / software that you
are using - you would then have no way to uninstall any of the applied patches
anymore...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Tim Meddick]

I have SP3 installed and also 91 updates and security patches.

I don't think that, on any system, it would come to anything much higher than the
figure of 408 Mb (lower compressed value) that I quoted for my own system.

The size of the other folder you mentioned (on my own system) was 91Mb.

These values really are the proverbial "drop in the ocean" - just one video file you
have decided that you now hate, if deleted, could account for all of the space the
update uninstall folders take up.

I would again, be cautious of deleting anything in the other folder you specified,
unless the user is completely sure that he is not going to want to UNINSTALL any of
the updates for any reason, in the future.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Jon]

Quite a lot of people have more than one service packs installed. Some people have old laptops with
only 10Gbyte drives. I can usually find a few Gbytes when they want more space - hibernation file
which they don't use, SP uninstalls, download files, recycle bin, temp internet files, multiple
system restore points..., and sometimes lots of other big files that they didn't realise they had.
They ask me to find some space. I can do this in perhaps 20mins with my deletions. If I got a new
hard drive for them, I would have to buy it and claim the money back from them, fit it, copy an
image over, etc. Then there's a time lag between me ordering the hard disk and getting it, and
another visit to fit it.

Not everyone is into big user files. Some people just surf the web and check emails on the web. They
would be far to nervous to fit a new hard drive, and would probably mess it up, so they would get me
to do it.

In my case, knowing how to get back some space seems so much simpler for some people who don't have
big space requirements, and it saves me more time that I spend on my free consultancy service that
people I know expect from me!

I've never had the need to uninstall an update, yet, and I have around 15 people on my IT free
support list. If I did, then too bad, I would have to re-install Windows, programmes and data, using
up some of that extra time I saved by not buying and fitting hard drives for people.



I have SP3 installed and also 91 updates and security patches.

I don't think that, on any system, it would come to anything much higher than the
figure of 408 Mb (lower compressed value) that I quoted for my own system.

The size of the other folder you mentioned (on my own system) was 91Mb.

These values really are the proverbial "drop in the ocean" - just one video file you
have decided that you now hate, if deleted, could account for all of the space the
update uninstall folders take up.

I would again, be cautious of deleting anything in the other folder you specified,
unless the user is completely sure that he is not going to want to UNINSTALL any of
the updates for any reason, in the future.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Jon,
Despite your willingness to argue to the absolute end, I don't think what you
have just posted applies to the OP in this case...

I would advise anyone with a hard-drive of over 37Gb to keep their $NtUninstallKB...,
folders intact and look for space conservation elsewhere.

Such as launching the disk Cleanup Manager (type: cleanmgr.exe into the "Run" box) or
rooting out one or two unwanted video files...


You could also download the [free] program from the link below : "WinDirStat" , that
gives you a rather nice graphical display of how space is distributed in files over
your hard-drive...

You can download WinDirStat by clicking on the link below :
http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/windirstat/windirstat1_1_2_setup.exe

....or you can read more info on WinDirStat at :
http://windirstat.info

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Twayne]

Wow, you take the point of diminishing returns to the max, don't you?
Drives are so cheap these days there's no excuse for having to be that
serious about finding space. Get a large enough drive and suddenly that
amount of space becomes negligible.

Just my 2 ¢

 

[HeyBub]

Computer: Dell 650, 3.06 gHz CPUs
OS: XP-Pro, SP3, fully updated
Graphics card: EVGA e-GForce 7600 GS
Graphics driver: NVIDIA v.181.22 (per EVGA)
Display: Samsung 943BX

With all of the updates and fixes Microsoft keeps churning out, XP-Pro
keeps demanding more and more HD space.

Are there old files or sub-directories (folders) that XP-Pro just
leaves on one's HD that aren't really useful any more that can be
deleted?
Suggestions on what can go or references that discuss this problem
would be most welcome. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Microsoft has a hot-fix for the problem of excessive disk usage.

In sum, you remove the cushions from your couch, gather up the small change,
and buy a terabyte drive.

 

[Jon]

Sorry, yes, I did go a bit off topic with reference to the OP's case. Thanks for the link - looks
interesting.

Jon

Jon,
Despite your willingness to argue to the absolute end, I don't think what you
have just posted applies to the OP in this case...

I would advise anyone with a hard-drive of over 37Gb to keep their $NtUninstallKB...,
folders intact and look for space conservation elsewhere.

Such as launching the disk Cleanup Manager (type: cleanmgr.exe into the "Run" box) or
rooting out one or two unwanted video files...


You could also download the [free] program from the link below : "WinDirStat" , that
gives you a rather nice graphical display of how space is distributed in files over
your hard-drive...

You can download WinDirStat by clicking on the link below :
http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/windirstat/windirstat1_1_2_setup.exe

....or you can read more info on WinDirStat at :
http://windirstat.info

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Jon]

Try reading my email again about the time taken when changing disks.

Wow, you take the point of diminishing returns to the max, don't you?
Drives are so cheap these days there's no excuse for having to be that
serious about finding space. Get a large enough drive and suddenly that
amount of space becomes negligible.

Just my 2 ¢