40gb hd but now less than 300mb left.....hmmmm.......

JemJam

Now normally this wouldn't be an issue as I know how to get around this on my Dell running XP, but its my mams E Systems laptop and is running Vista which i cant stand and so have nooooo idea where to start?!

Basically its a 40gb hd but is says theres around 215mb left, cant open IE as it always results in a runtime error. Have deleted programs she never uses (theres barely anything on here in the first place) and so prog files are only around 2.3gb, all documents inc videos/pics/music add up to around 1.2gb.

Its running Norton 360 which I also am no big fan of, and am not able to update it cos theres just not enough memory to do it so there are 3 issues that need fixing on this.

Am currently defragmenting the drives and am not sure where to go after that really, am tempted to put all docs onto an external (makes no odds i know but just in case) and just delete them all from the laptop, also take the programes that are used off and reinstalling them and then system restore, buuuuuut its a bit of a potch and prob wont make a difference and basically wondered if theres anyone who knows a quicker better way of going about things?

I dont even know if i can install any kind of program to clean things up as i doubt theres enough memory to make it happen if i cant even run ie?! Could download one on my laptop and transfer it but am not even sure that'd work!!

Any help or pointers would be mucho mucho appreciated!:D Sorry for the slight ramble too lol

Jem

bookduck

you need to know what is eating up your drive space.

google Treesize - it is free, not the pro version

You can probably delete/empty the files in your recycle bin and temp internet files

poppy_f1

if system restore is on then that can eat a lot of HD space up

Shawz

It might be worth running something like ccleaner to clear off the temp files

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Taken from the website:
Cleans the following

Internet Explorer
Temporary files, history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
Firefox
Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
Google Chrome
Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
Opera
Temporary files, history, cookies.
Safari
Temporary files, history, cookies, form history.
Windows
Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
Registry cleaner
Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
Third-party applications
Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Microsoft Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more...
100% Spyware FREE
This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

GunJack

jem - once you've defragged, do a disk cleanup WITH the more options tab - old shadow copies and restore points box...in Vista this alone will get rid of many GB of stuff..but do it AFTER the defrag as Vista backs up as it's defragging, leading to LESS free space than before it started

e.g. my lappy with vista only has a security suite and 3GB of music/docs/etc. on it, and it uses around 18GB of HDD space. After light useage over a month, all the backup copies/old restore points can easily add up to 8-10 GB !!!!

JemJam

wow thanks guys, i will try things out in a bit am just cooking dinner and will be back to try stuff out in a few mins, then i'll report back, thanks again!

Jem

Browntoa

yep, ccleaner will zap all the rubbush clogging up the HDD

GunJack

CCleaner is great and I use it, but Vista is it's own worst enemy with the sheer volume of backups it keeps, and creating restore points willy-nilly. Do CCleaner first then the disk cleanup as above...you'll be pleasantly suprised how much space you'll free up, especialy if you've never done it before

generaloneill

I had norton ghost, and it had a folder with several backups of my hard drive, each one was around 6 gbs, lol.

JemJam

Riiiiiigh soooooo after defrag i came up with 2gb of free space, managed to get IE back so downloaded ccleaner (which i use on my laptop too tis super useful but forgot all about it for this!) and it cleared less than 300mb, I expected a bit more but hey ho!

So now for the last four hours have been doing the norton scans/checks - this is why i HATE norton good GOD its slow. Managed to update finally, it wouldnt go past 5280 files on the system scan so i skipped the rest it was doin my head in and will go back to it later. Did all other usual norton stuff but is been stuck on registery cleanup for well over an hour now and have done everything possible to stop the process yet it just wont !!!!!! off!! Literally it wont stop working, it's been "stopping" for the last 30 mins of it too.

I've already run the disk cleanup but not with the shadow copies and stuff cos i didn know what they were, i'll do that now (if i can get rid of bl00dy norton) and shall report back what happens. Am still yet to find out where the other 20gb has run off to and am determined to find out! I might try that Treesize prog too see what that brings up,

thanks again peeps!!

Jem

Marty_J

Something else you can try to squeeze a bit more space: right click on your recycle bin, and go to properties and adjust the amount of space reserved for it.

The default is 10%, so it'll be hogging 4 GB of your HDD.

You can do the same with System Restore in System Properties. It reserves 12% by default, which is almost 5 GB of your HDD.