Question: Clogged hard drive. Help!!!!

[Synthaholic]

Foxfyre - When this operation frees up 20 GB, I expect mad pos repping!!!!

 

[Foxfyre]

Right. He has no room to download much of anything. I have already checked the size of every file and folder in Windows and none are taking up as much as a gig, yet all together I suppose they could add up to the 55 gigs there. But he doesn't have any more games or programs installed on his computer than I do, yet my Windows is only using 17 gigs of space. So I'm thinking the problem is in there.

Is it safe to delete the KB files? There are a gazillion of those from all the updates.

As I said, you could free up 4 gigs by burning a DVD. That would let you install these programs.

But I think I may have another reason for your huge Windows install: excessive System Restore points.

In your run box (Win + R) type cleanmgr and run it.

Be patient. It may take a bit to delete all your old restore points - each one is very large.

We have never done a system restore on this computer but I did reduce the space allocated for system restore this morning. I'm running disc cleanup now and it is taking forever but has freed up about a gig and a half since I started it.

We have removed every single program that he was willing to do without. Those remaining are not taking up even a gig of space. His My Documents folder could be purged some more but it is taking up only 3 gigs of space so that is not the problem. The entire problem seems to be in the Windows folder and multiple backups could be the issue there. But I need to know how to get to the backup utility to determine that.

But again, how do I find the backup utility?

 

[Synthaholic]

Right. He has no room to download much of anything. I have already checked the size of every file and folder in Windows and none are taking up as much as a gig, yet all together I suppose they could add up to the 55 gigs there. But he doesn't have any more games or programs installed on his computer than I do, yet my Windows is only using 17 gigs of space. So I'm thinking the problem is in there.

Is it safe to delete the KB files? There are a gazillion of those from all the updates.

As I said, you could free up 4 gigs by burning a DVD. That would let you install these programs.

But I think I may have another reason for your huge Windows install: excessive System Restore points.

In your run box (Win + R) type cleanmgr and run it.

Be patient. It may take a bit to delete all your old restore points - each one is very large.

We have never done a system restore on this computer but I did reduce the space allocated for system restore this morning. I'm running disc cleanup now and it is taking forever but has freed up about a gig and a half since I started it.

We have removed every single program that he was willing to do without. Those remaining are not taking up even a gig of space. His My Documents folder could be purged some more but it is taking up only 3 gigs of space so that is not the problem. The entire problem seems to be in the Windows folder and multiple backups could be the issue there. But I need to know how to get to the backup utility to determine that.

But again, how do I find the backup utility?

Then, since you have freed up a bit of space, I refer you back to my earlier post #62. WinDirStat will show you exactly what files are taking up the most space. And you can click on any box, large or small and see what it is.

It's a fantastic visual aid for seeing what's on your hard drive. And at 626.84K, it won't take up any space at all.

 

[Synthaholic]

Which backup utility did you use?

 

[Foxfyre]

As I said, you could free up 4 gigs by burning a DVD. That would let you install these programs.

But I think I may have another reason for your huge Windows install: excessive System Restore points.

In your run box (Win + R) type cleanmgr and run it.

Be patient. It may take a bit to delete all your old restore points - each one is very large.

We have never done a system restore on this computer but I did reduce the space allocated for system restore this morning. I'm running disc cleanup now and it is taking forever but has freed up about a gig and a half since I started it.

We have removed every single program that he was willing to do without. Those remaining are not taking up even a gig of space. His My Documents folder could be purged some more but it is taking up only 3 gigs of space so that is not the problem. The entire problem seems to be in the Windows folder and multiple backups could be the issue there. But I need to know how to get to the backup utility to determine that.

But again, how do I find the backup utility?

Then, since you have freed up a bit of space, I refer you back to my earlier post #62. WinDirStat will show you exactly what files are taking up the most space. And you can click on any box, large or small and see what it is.

It's a fantastic visual aid for seeing what's on your hard drive. And at 626.84K, it won't take up any space at all.

I have already checked the file sizes in the suspect folders and there is no single file in the Windows folder that is of excessive size. I doubt your suggested progra will be any more helpful in determinating what is safe to delete or move to an external drive and what isn't--a lot of those are systems folders.

 

[Synthaholic]

We have never done a system restore on this computer but I did reduce the space allocated for system restore this morning. I'm running disc cleanup now and it is taking forever but has freed up about a gig and a half since I started it.

We have removed every single program that he was willing to do without. Those remaining are not taking up even a gig of space. His My Documents folder could be purged some more but it is taking up only 3 gigs of space so that is not the problem. The entire problem seems to be in the Windows folder and multiple backups could be the issue there. But I need to know how to get to the backup utility to determine that.

But again, how do I find the backup utility?

Then, since you have freed up a bit of space, I refer you back to my earlier post #62. WinDirStat will show you exactly what files are taking up the most space. And you can click on any box, large or small and see what it is.

It's a fantastic visual aid for seeing what's on your hard drive. And at 626.84K, it won't take up any space at all.

I have already checked the file sizes in the suspect folders and there is no single file in the Windows folder that is of excessive size. I doubt your suggested progra will be any more helpful in determinating what is safe to delete or move to an external drive and what isn't--a lot of those are systems folders.

You say you have checked file sizes in all the suspect folders, but what about all the hidden folders? Have you made them visible in order to check those?

Sorry, but I still think WinDirStat is a no-brainer for examining your hard drive space.

Also, check to make sure your PageFile is not out of control huge.

 

[bobcollum]

Well, FoxFyre, at least you're learning about this stuff, so next time you may be to handle it on your own.

That's how I did it, 12 years or so later I can handle a good amount of problems should I encounter them.