PC almost full up........help

Dunkyboy_2

My 4 year old PC has informed me, after i defragmented it, that there is only 15% disc space left and that this is'nt really enough (for reasons that i don't understand).
SO i went on add/remove and took off loads of old stuff, kids games and such like untill there was nothing else i can remove, and did another defrag and was then informed that i now had 18% space left
I have used disc clean-up, deleted short cuts, removed all unwanted emails etc, in fact i've been through everything i can think of, but it still shows only 19% left, but theres bu**er all left on the computer compared to when i started
i have done crap cleaner, and still no joy,( the pc now goes like a rocket:j ),
the reason i want more space on the disc is that when i use Photoshop CS2 it won't run properly as it says the scratch discs are full and i have to make more space, thus the problem.
Is there anything else/ or some secret place where i can look in where i can free up some room, any other ideas.
The PC had 35Gigathings to start with of which 6 now remain free, and has 512 ram memory if that helps any...any ideas please........

T4i

Get this, you only need to use it on a temp basis so when your finished just uninstall it.

http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/treesize_personal.shtml

Install it, scan your drives and it will tell you what folders/files are taking the most room up.

Report back...

sra

Windirstat is fantatastic and free

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sra

sra wrote:

Windirstat is fantatastic and free

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You get a representation like this.

You can see where my space goes - The blue blocks on the left are songs in my Itunes library

While the yellow block at the top right is an old film I forgot to delete

The Grey block in the middle is free space

mikemoate

I know on my machine it's not the programmes and such like that eat up the drive but things like mp3's, video files and, if you have a writer, old copied image files.

I usually put the file ext. in to windows search and identify the files from there. You can organise by date and get rid of stuff you haven't been bothered with in a while, or copy them to a disc if you don't want rid completely.

russellgreeno

get a bigger hard drive is the best option really. Copy all your stuff to it, then reformat the old one and use it for backuping files.

15lsp

upgrade the ram. creative suite needs over 300mb free space just to install. I had problems myself installing on a friends mac mini with 256mb ram! It wouldnt install so I upgraded to 1gb and then it ran like a dream. Go to www.crucial.com they sell ram but also offer advice on the best ways to upgrade.

MercilessKiller

russellgreeno wrote:

get a bigger hard drive is the best option really. Copy all your stuff to it, then reformat the old one and use it for backuping files.

Hehe.. why would one get a bigger hard drive to just use as a backup while formatting the other one? :P

Personally I would recommend backing all important files to either CD/DVD (if you have a writable drive), another pc (if you are connected to a network) or even online! There are a lot of online backup software packages available at cheap rates for all those important documents you need.

Once backed up, insert a valid windows disk and completely format your hard drive, reinstall windows and then stick your important data back on.

Its a right performance I admit, and you lose programs you'll never get back without the discs, but at the end of the day, your pc will run SUPER fast, and have loads of memory.

Im afraid formatting is the only real way to get rid of that data that you dont want. Deleting files off your hard drive still leaves data behind (i.e deleted files can still be re-constructed). Formatting is the best way to compress this data and maximise your hard drive space.

albertross_2

6 GB is loads of space, your problem is Photoshop, not lack of HD space, try going through this:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/316693.html

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/320005.html

If you want to find out where all the space has gone, use search all files and folder, advanced, files larger than 9999kb, and sort the results in size order by clicking on the column header.

Dunkyboy_2

Update..

OK. i have run WinDirStat, and i'm not sure how it helps me....but i think the big hitters are thus

HDD (C:) 30.4 GB what ever that tells me ??
Documents Settings 17.5 GB
Windows 3.4 GB
System Volume info 2.8 GB
What can i do with this info, the HDD seems to have the lions share of GBs ?

Dunkyboy_2

opps, don't know how that smilie got in there ..sorry..