# Question:  Clogged hard drive.  Help!!!!



## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Okay, Hombre's computer is an older computer that we had built.  He only uses it for web surfing, e-mail, playing internet games, Face Book, managing his duties as chair of his HS reunin committee, and geneology.

It has an 80 gig harddrive which is small this day and age but should be plenty large for what he does with the computer.

As of this morning the harddrive was full--79+ gigs.

His my documents folder is at 9 gigs due to all the photos he has in it.

The Windows folder is at 55+ gigs which seems really high.

What do I do?


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## Oddball (Jun 13, 2012)

Emptied your temp file cache yet?


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## Warrior102 (Jun 13, 2012)

C:format


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## peach174 (Jun 13, 2012)

You have to make copies of what is stored.
Empty your cookies.
Empty stored up e-mails
Mostly it might be the games.
Get rid of games or copy them, that has not been played for a long time.
The newer games use a lot of hard drive storage.


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## edthecynic (Jun 13, 2012)

Add a second hard drive.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

peach174 said:


> You have to make copies of what is stored.
> Empty your cookies.
> Empty stored up e-mails
> Mostly it might be the games.
> ...



He has very few games on the hard drive--most that he plays are internet games.  Those that are on the hard drive take up way less than a gig of space.  (I already checked that.  )


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Oddball said:


> Emptied your temp file cache yet?



No, but would that (and/or the cookies and/or the history) take up a huge amount of gig space?  As soon as the deep virus scan I have going is complete, I will do that though.


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## Oddball (Jun 13, 2012)

Back when I had Windoze 98, I had to go into the program files to dig up the temporary internet files cache that had eaten up all my hard drive space....YMMV.


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## Skull Pilot (Jun 13, 2012)

Cloud storage.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Skull Pilot said:


> Cloud storage.



What is that.  I am about as techie as a tree stump, so keep it simple please.


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## peach174 (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Oddball said:
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> > Emptied your temp file cache yet?
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Yes


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## MikeK (Jun 13, 2012)

Google up and download a program called _CCleaner._  It's free, small, uncomplicated and amazingly effective.  And you'll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of space it will free up.

I'm a computer dummy but I had absolutely no trouble getting and using CCleaner.  It's quick and simple.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Oddball said:


> Back when I had Windoze 98, I had to go into the program files to dig up the temporary internet files cache that had eaten up all my hard drive space....YMMV.



I don't think that is it.  The program files only show a very few gigs.  It's the Windows folder that seems to be clogged.


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## bobcollum (Jun 13, 2012)

I would personally either burns a few dvds of the pics and other documents that are taking up so much space, or I'd get a little external drive to store them on. I'd actually definitely go with an external drive.


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## peach174 (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Skull Pilot said:
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It's an online data storage service, you have to pay for it.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

MikeK said:


> Google up and download a program called _CCleaner._  It's free, small, uncomplicated and amazingly effective.  And you'll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of space it will free up.
> 
> I'm a computer dummy but I had absolutely no trouble getting and using CCleaner.  It's quick and simple.



I have Systems Mechanic on that computer which is much the same kind of program.  Will run that when the deep virus scan I have going is completed.  The disk is so full, however, that it is taking forever to do anything on the computer.  Fortunately we backed up his program files a few days ago, so we won't lose anything critical if the whole thing crashes.


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## bobcollum (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> MikeK said:
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> > Google up and download a program called _CCleaner._  It's free, small, uncomplicated and amazingly effective.  And you'll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of space it will free up.
> ...



Chances are the slowness you're experiencing has everything to do with the drive being nearly maxed out. Just burn or transfer and delete 10 gigs or so and you should see a return to normal.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

bobcollum said:


> Foxfyre said:
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But the 10 gigs or so I need to delete is apparently in the Windows Folder--that alone is taking up 55 gigs of the 74 available on the C drive--and it comes with a severe warning not to mess with the files in that folder.


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## ekrem (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> But the 10 gigs or so I need to delete is apparently in the Windows Folder--that alone is taking up 55 gigs of the 74 available on the C drive--and it comes with a severe warning not to mess with the files in that folder.



In which sub-folder of Windows-Folder?
And do you have just some very big files in that folder, or many thousands?
If it is small number of files what are their filenames?
Windows folder shouldn't be 55 GB big, there's definately something wrong in there.


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## ekrem (Jun 13, 2012)

Try a tool like this to locate the very big files:
SpaceSniffer, find lost disk space the easy way.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

ekrem said:


> Foxfyre said:
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> > But the 10 gigs or so I need to delete is apparently in the Windows Folder--that alone is taking up 55 gigs of the 74 available on the C drive--and it comes with a severe warning not to mess with the files in that folder.
> ...



I know.  I guess I need to check each of the several dozens of sub folders and figure out which one--hopefully just one--has the excess junk.

I was hoping some of you would have had this problem and would know exactly where to send me.


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## bobcollum (Jun 13, 2012)

ekrem said:


> Foxfyre said:
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> > But the 10 gigs or so I need to delete is apparently in the Windows Folder--that alone is taking up 55 gigs of the 74 available on the C drive--and it comes with a severe warning not to mess with the files in that folder.
> ...



That's what I'm saying, that ain't right.

Go into the folder and if you can sort it by size, what's the biggest file you have in there?


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## bobcollum (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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I'm just guessing, but it seems like maybe things have been getting placed in the Windows folder, be it files, or other folders, that don't need to be there...stuff that's yours, pics, videos, etc...

If you're going to delete anything out of there run it by us so we can help you figure out if it's a vital system file or something of that nature.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

bobcollum said:


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Okay.  I just checked the size of every file/folder in the Windows folder.  There's a ton of them but none seemed to be of excessive size that would add up to 55 gigs.  And of course I know not to delete systems files and such but there's an awful lot there I can't identify.

Currently running disc clean up and then will see what else needs checking out.  (Emptying the cache didn't help--he does that regularly.)


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
How old is the computer?  Does it have USB ports?  How many and are they being used?

For your solution I'd recommend a back up external hard drive, as long as you have a USB port to connect it to.  That way you can move all his files off the primary and free up tons of space.  He can even set it up so that of his documents, picts, etc are saved to that drive.

You can get a 500 GB Seagate hard drive on amazon for about $70 shipped or a 1 TB drive (double the storage capacity) for around $100 shipped though I doubt you need anything that big.

The cheap way to go is get a 32 GB thumb drive (AKA flash drive) for around $25 and just copy all his docs to that.  The drawback is if you run out of space on the thumb drive ya have to buy another one, then another, etc, plus they're small so they're easily misplaced.  Labeling what's on them is also a bitch because of they're size, (think micro etching).


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


> The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
> How old is the computer?  Does it have USB ports?  How many and are they being used?
> 
> For your solution I'd recommend a back up external hard drive, as long as you have a USB port to connect it to.  That way you can move all his files off the primary and free up tons of space.  He can even set it up so that of his documents, picts, etc are saved to that drive.
> ...



We have all our files backed up on an external hard drive, but when we aren't savvy enough to know which folders are systems folders the computer can't do without and which can be safely moved, it is a risky thing for us to take any off his computer.  (Currently his documents files including photos are taking up less than 2 gigs of space.  I need to know what is taking up the other 78 gigs.)

He is way less techie than I am and would have no patience trying to switch to or between external drives.  He wants to sit down at the computer and do his thing without having to worry about it.  (And no, he won't consider getting a newer computer.)   The built to specifications computer he is using is getting on up there in age--maybe 10 years old now?  But yes it has USB ports.


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## bobcollum (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Ringel05 said:
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> > The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
> ...



I still don't know how any windows os would require 70+ gb worth of system files...


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

bobcollum said:


> Foxfyre said:
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Well neither do I.  On my laptop that I am currently using, I have just under 600 gigs of hard drive space and the Windows folder takes up right at 17 gigs of space.

So something is very wrong with 55 gigs being crammed into his Windows folder.  The disc cleanup is still running but when it is done, I'll check for the files that I consider suspect and will be back.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Ringel05 said:
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> > The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
> ...



Does he simply "back up" on the external or does he "copy" files to the external? 
In both instances the saved files/other unused programs are still on the main drive and need to be purged.  
A couple of questions, what version of Windows are you using and when he built the computer did he use ATA to connect the hard drive to the motherboard (wide, flat ribbon cable) or SATA (flat or round narrow cable)?
Oh, and do you have the Windows installation disc?


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## edthecynic (Jun 13, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


> The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
> How old is the computer?  Does it have USB ports?  How many and are they being used?
> 
> For your solution I'd recommend a back up external hard drive, as long as you have a USB port to connect it to.  That way you can move all his files off the primary and free up tons of space.  He can even set it up so that of his documents, picts, etc are saved to that drive.
> ...


While you can still get 500GB PATA HDs, a 1 TB drive will surely be SATA and I'm sure the PC is too old to have SATA. They can probably find another 80GB PATA HD on eBay for 10 bucks to add as a slave or get a 160 GB or larger HD on  eBay and clone their 80GB drive to the new one. They would have all their old files plus a ton of additional space.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

Try this, it sounds like your installation files are still sitting on your hard drive.

Download Windows Installer CleanUp Utility 2.5.0.1 Free - Remove Windows Installer configuration information on failed installs - Softpedia


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


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Um. . . .
Windows XP
He didn't build the computer - a local computer service did
Don't know what connects the hard drive to the motherboard
And I imagine we might have the Windows installation disc somewhere but no clue where

Re the back up, we just 'send' the files we don't want to lose to the external hard drive.  Is that 'back up' or 'copy'?


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

edthecynic said:


> Ringel05 said:
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> > The data intensive files are his pictures, along with all not currently being used saved documents, etc, you need to copy them to another media be it a back up hard drive, CD/DVD, thumb drive or online storage (the cloud).
> ...



You'll notice on a reread that I was referencing external drives with USB interface, not internal.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

And you guys are speaking in unknown tongues so far as I know.  

I am sending Ringel's link over to his computer though and will try that.

Thanks.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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Either way it's probably a copy which means all those docs, jpgs, pdfs, etc are all still on the main drive.
Go to documents, check to see what's there, if it's the same as what's on the external drive 
then: edit, select all, delete and you'll clear up that space.
The reason I asked about the installation disc is I'm a firm believer in doing a clean install at least once a year.  Back up all files and downloaded programs then wipe the hard drive and start new, there's nothing like a fresh install to give a computer new life.


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## edthecynic (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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The wiring for a slave drive that connects the HD to the motherboard and the power cord are already there connected to the HD you have. They always include a plug for a slave drive on the ribbon. You would just have to set one tab on the added drive to the slave position and then simply plug in the data cable and power cable (they can only be plugged in in the correct position by design) and mount it right next to the drive that is already there.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

edthecynic said:


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But wouldn't you have to switch back and forth between the two drives?  Trust me, for Mr. Foxfyre, that is not a viable option.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

To Ringel, I downloaded the clearner you recommended -- no help.  All it did was tell me we had an insufficient hard drive and insufficient space and I already knew that.  

I can't even do a defrag--which it desperately needs--on his computer due to so limited free space.


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## edthecynic (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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I'm not sure what you mean, but both drives would be available and usable at the same time. You would just save your new photos and documents to the slave drive.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> To Ringel, I downloaded the clearner you recommended -- no help.  All it did was tell me we had an insufficient hard drive and insufficient space and I already knew that.
> 
> I can't even do a defrag--which it desperately needs--on his computer due to so limited free space.



I was hoping.  Okay, if you look under My Computer it will show all your drives.  C: is the primary (the full one) the external should be labeled D:.  You can right click on D: then select properties and see how full that drive is.  You can also left click on D: and see whats on it.  If there's lots of room close out My Computer, go to My Documents (& My Pictures), select all, send to: select D: drive and hit enter.
After all those files are moved to the D: drive go back and delete ALL the files in MY Documents and Pictures.  That should give you enough room to download and run the utility i linked for you.
Also go to Downloads, see what's in there, you can delete everything in there that he doesn't need to keep.


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## zzzz (Jun 13, 2012)

Try this:

Windows XP Update Remover - delete $NtUninstall Windows Update backup files. Freeware



> Whenever Windows Update runs to install security fixes and other updates to your system, it creates a folder within the Windows folder containing all the files replaced during the update. These folders have names like "$NtUninstall..." and are highlighted in blue. The contents of these folders are only ever needed if you uninstall an update. If you are not going to uninstall an update then its backup folder can be removed to save disk space. However, these folders cannot (or should not) simply be deleted, because they are referred to by links in the Registry.
> 
> Manually removing these folders and their related Registry links is possible, but not easy. This is where Windows XP Update Remover comes in. It makes clean removal of these folders easy. Just select an update from the list, read the information about it to see what it is, and then click Remove backup folder. If you want to know what an update does before deleting its backup folders then you can click on a link to Microsoft web pages that describe the update.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

zzzz said:


> Try this:
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> Windows XP Update Remover - delete $NtUninstall Windows Update backup files. Freeware
> 
> ...



It won't load till they can make some space on the hard drive.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

Found your problem and the fix.  The Best Answer to this question is what you guys need to do just follow the instructions.

My WINDOWS folder is 94.7 GB (71.3 GB on disk)... is that right? - Yahoo! Answers


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## waltky (Jun 13, 2012)

Tell him to move his pics, music, an' movies to CD's & DVD's...

... then clean out the cookies in his browser...

... then run Disk Clean-up and Disk Defragmenter in...

... Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools....

... dat oughta do the trick.


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## Douger (Jun 13, 2012)

Get a Live CD of Linux and delete the files from there. You can also use it to cut and paste all of the pRon flicks to a chump change 16 gig thumb drive.


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## Douger (Jun 13, 2012)

SystemRescueCd


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## Ringel05 (Jun 13, 2012)

I don't know how I forgot this, not having to use it anymore I guess.  It's Windows XP, XP loves to hold on to all the old temp files that a standard disc clean will not get rid of.  I'm guessing, as old as the system is, that there are probably 8.00 to 10,000 temp files stored.  
Go to Start, Search then type in %TEMP% and hit enter.  Start deleting by clicking on the first file then useing Shift - left click on the bottome file of that page, right click on the highlighted files and select delete.  Keep repeating the process until all the files that are not in use are deleted.  If you try to select all then delete the system will lock up, too many files to delete at once.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 13, 2012)

Will try that Ringel.  Thanks.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Will try that Ringel.  Thanks.



I know it'll work but he's going to be there for an hour or two getting rid of those files.  What will happen when a file that's in use is in the highlighted area to be deleted the computer will tell you it can't be deleted because it's in use.  Pay attention to what file it says it is because he'll have to highlight around it/them so it can get a little frustrating.


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## waltky (Jun 14, 2012)

Purt sure Disk Cleanup in XP has a temporary file option...

... it'll delete the temp files that aren't in use...

... takes a few minutes, then do the defrag...

... have to do it as an administrator, though.


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## midcan5 (Jun 14, 2012)

Someone may have noted this already.  Go to start, all programs, Accessories - system tools - disk clean up, as a start, remove unneeded. Next go to Amazon and purchase a one terabyte drive. An Iomega's drive is a good choice.  [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Prestige-Desktop-Drive-35180/dp/B004L9M4C8/ref=dp_ob_title_ce[/ame]

.


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## Sallow (Jun 14, 2012)

You're going to probably have to manually clean up the files yourself. It's not that hard. Make sure they are backed up on an external drive. Then you can do: 

Click Windows widget. In the "Search Files and Programs" space, type "*.jpg". Delete those files. Then do "*.png" and delete those files. Type in "*.mp3" delete those files. 

You have to get rid of the files on the hard drive taking up the space..it's as simple as that. Media files are the biggest. When you are done..run disk defrag to clean it up.

Common File Extensions


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

Hombre spent hours deleting files last night.  Emptied the recycle bin.  And still doesn't have enough space on his hard drive to do a defrag.


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## Sallow (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Hombre spent hours deleting files last night.  Emptied the recycle bin.  And still doesn't have enough space on his hard drive to do a defrag.



The only other thing I can think of..is that one of your system logs might be taking up the space. You'll have to view it first to make sure it's not reporting something you may need to take care of..

How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Hombre spent hours deleting files last night.  Emptied the recycle bin.  And still doesn't have enough space on his hard drive to do a defrag.



Now that's weird, that should have cleared up tons of space, it's always worked in the past.  Try Sallow's solution, if that doesn't work then find or purchase an XP installation disc back up all his important files and pictures, format C: and start new.  Or take it to a certified repair center or you could get a new puter.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

I'm actually pushing him to get the new puter now.  80 gigis is just too small a hard drive these days.  And I don't really want to put a lot of money into a 10-yr-old PC.  My PC was a bit newer than his and the mother board cratered last January.   I haven't replaced it and just use my laptop.


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## bobcollum (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> I'm actually pushing him to get the new puter now.  80 gigis is just too small a hard drive these days.  And I don't really want to put a lot of money into a 10-yr-old PC.  My PC was a bit newer than his and the mother board cratered last January.   I haven't replaced it and just use my laptop.



You could just get a new, bigger drive, but seeing as how the thing is 10 years old it's probably better to go new. Even the cheapest you could find will probably be a marked improvement.

Good luck.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> I'm actually pushing him to get the new puter now.  80 gigis is just too small a hard drive these days.  And I don't really want to put a lot of money into a 10-yr-old PC.  My PC was a bit newer than his and the mother board cratered last January.   I haven't replaced it and just use my laptop.



For what he's doing he could get new computer, monitor, mouse and keyboard for under $400 or a fairly good computer with good graphics for the same price if he doesn't need a new monitor, keyboard or mouse.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


> Foxfyre said:
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> > I'm actually pushing him to get the new puter now.  80 gigis is just too small a hard drive these days.  And I don't really want to put a lot of money into a 10-yr-old PC.  My PC was a bit newer than his and the mother board cratered last January.   I haven't replaced it and just use my laptop.
> ...



Yes.  Even my new HP pavilion notebook with 17" screen and all the bells and whistles was less than $500 on sale.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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BTW, tell him sorry about the long hours of removing temp files.  I could have sworn that would have fixed it.  
That just gave me a thought, does he do back ups every once in a while?  If so have him check where the back up destination folder is going.  If he's backing up his computer onto the C: drive that would explain it, essentially replicating his C: drive over and over on the same drive.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


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I have thought about that too, but have no clue how to determine if that is the case.


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## Synthaholic (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Skull Pilot said:
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Pay no attention to the other posts in this thread and just listen to me:

Download and install CCleaner (rated 'Spectacular').  Analyze/Run the cleaner.  If you don't want it to delete your stored passwords and sessions, uncheck those two for your particular browser.  

Go to the registry section.  Analyze, then delete the bad entries it finds.  Backup the current registry, as it offers to do in a popup, when you click 'Fix'.

Download and install Advanced System Care (rated 'Spectacular').  Run it's various tools to get your system running at peak.


Download and install WinDirStat (rated 'Spectacular').  This will be the best help in determining what is taking up so much space.  After running it, it will produce a clickable graphic like this, which visually shows you all of your files, and their size:







Clicking any box will show you what that file is, in the directory above. The bigger the box, the larger the file.  In this example, that orange file is huge.  This will also help you find out that, for example, the game you have installed, or the home architect program you have installed, is taking up 20 Gigs, etc.  It helps you make an informed decision as to whether you want to keep that on your computer, or remove it.

Good luck!


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## Synthaholic (Jun 14, 2012)

bobcollum said:


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It wouldn't be system files, it would be installed programs.  A program like a greeting card maker will install gigs and gigs worth of sample artwork for you to choose when making your designs.

Those type of programs are very storage-intensive.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Synthaholic said:


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Download and install........ on a full hard drive..........


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## Trajan (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> Okay, Hombre's computer is an older computer that we had built.  He only uses it for web surfing, e-mail, playing internet games, Face Book, managing his duties as chair of his HS reunin committee, and geneology.
> 
> It has an 80 gig harddrive which is small this day and age but should be plenty large for what he does with the computer.
> 
> ...







Western Digital My Passport 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - WDBKXH5000ABK-NESN (Black) 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Portable-Drive/dp/B006Y5UV4U/ref=sr_1_sc_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1339717245&sr=1-3-spell&keywords=solid+sate+external+hardrives]Amazon.com: Western Digital My Passport 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - WDBKXH5000ABK-NESN (Black): Electronics[/ame]


uber simple, just plug it in, and go. all you will ever ever need. I have 2 250 GB ext HD's, one for work one for personal stuff, you can run games from it too etc etc etc ....


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## Synthaholic (Jun 14, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


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You can always make a little room by burning a DVD.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

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.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Synthaholic said:


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Apparently ya haven't read through the thread, it's not clearing up enough space, there's another problem at play here.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

Trajan said:


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> > Okay, Hombre's computer is an older computer that we had built.  He only uses it for web surfing, e-mail, playing internet games, Face Book, managing his duties as chair of his HS reunin committee, and geneology.
> ...



Have thought about that but I think he would be frustrated switching between the drives.  Thisi is not a technie guy.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> 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.



How to Delete KB Files From a Hard Drive | eHow.com


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## Trajan (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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its select, drag and drop hon. select start, select explore and away you go.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 14, 2012)

Trajan said:


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I know that.   You know that.   I have stuff stored on an external drive that I go get from time to time so for me its no big deal.  You have to understand how difficult (and scary)something like that is for him though.


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## Trajan (Jun 14, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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I hear you, I would suggest some gentle tutorials


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## Ringel05 (Jun 14, 2012)

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Open the backup utility and it should tell you what the default destination drive is.  If the destination starts with a C: then that's the problem, if it starts with a D: (or any other drive that's not C then we'll have to look elsewhere.


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## PeteEU (Jun 15, 2012)

How To Delete Temporary Files in Windows XP

Do this and you delete your temp folder content. I bet that should help.


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## Ringel05 (Jun 15, 2012)

PeteEU said:


> How To Delete Temporary Files in Windows XP
> 
> Do this and you delete your temp folder content. I bet that should help.



Your a bit late to the game, they tried that yesterday, didn't free up much space.  I'm beginning to think he's been putting his backups on the C: drive not the external D: drive.  C probably came up as the default and he went with it, I've seen it happen before, almost did it myself the first time I did a backup.


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## Douger (Jun 15, 2012)

Synthaholic said:


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OK. Boot up, go to Add/Remove programs ( or however the idiots at M$refer to them this week) and start removing the unneeded shit.
THEN figure out where the repeat backups are stored.


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## Douger (Jun 15, 2012)

OK. Microshaft uses a .bkf extension for those files.
Go kill some of them. They appear to be dated as in Backup 03-06-09.bkf backed up onzxxzxxx.
Go wipe some out. The earliest, obviously.
Search for files ( whole computer) .bkf
Keep in mind I havent been on Winbloze in years so I don't know what sort of mess they have as a search tool.


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## Foxfyre (Jun 15, 2012)

Ringel05 said:


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Okay I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do I open up the backup utility?  I mean where do I find that?


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## Synthaholic (Jun 15, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


> 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.


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## Synthaholic (Jun 15, 2012)

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


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## Foxfyre (Jun 15, 2012)

Synthaholic said:


> Foxfyre said:
> 
> 
> > 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.
> ...



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?


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## Synthaholic (Jun 15, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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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.


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## Synthaholic (Jun 15, 2012)

Which backup utility did you use?


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## Foxfyre (Jun 15, 2012)

Synthaholic said:


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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.


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## Synthaholic (Jun 15, 2012)

Foxfyre said:


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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.


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## bobcollum (Jun 15, 2012)

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.


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