| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 6:28:02 AM | I keep getting very low on disk space even though I do a disk cleanup but doesn't seem to help. I have even tried to go to add/removal programs and it won't let me uninstall certain things that says used rarely because i don't have enough disk space. What the heck am I suppose to do? Don't know how to reformat. I even bought an external hardrive but now won't recognize it for some reason and can't add it again because it says I am too low on disk space. Would adding more memory help or what should I do? Don't really want to pay out alot of money to have someone reformat it for me because the computer is old. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am getting very frustrated everytime I try to use this thing. | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 6:40:25 AM | None of that makes sense.
Sadly, disk cleanup misses a LOT of stuff. You need to start in My Documents or Desktop and clean out the crap you don't need. All your downloaded files you don't use...photos you might have backed up elsewhere.
Diskcleanup only cleans up SOME of the temporary files on your system, it doesn't get all of them or do a good job.
If you can get enough disk-space to install Auslogics BoostSpeed: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/boost-speed/download
It features a rather good disk-cleanup that will get a lot of the junk the windows disk-cleanup missed.
But rather than rely on disk-cleanup. You need to go through the drive yourself. Removing documents you don't need....you can remove a program you really don't need by outright deleting it, even though it's not a very eloquent solution, it'll resolve the disk problem, although if you screw up you might delete the wrong thing and render Windows useless.
Quite honestly, new computers are only a couple hundred bucks these days, if your system is that old it might be time to consider getting a new one. | |
|
- don
|
Joined: 4/23/2009
Msg: 3 | |
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 7:52:49 AM | If you can't clear off enough disk space you can try these:
>ATF Cleaner:
(you can run this from a flash drive so you don't take up more disk space)
http://www.atribune.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=25
>CCleaner:(portable)
(get the portable build and install it to a flash drive & run it from the flash drive)
http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds
>Defraggler (portable)
(get the portable build and install it to a flash drive & run it from the flash drive)
http://www.defraggler.com/download/builds
***These allow you to use the programs without installing them to your hard drive (saves disk space)***
This is what I would do:
Make sure you uninstall any extra programs that you don't use & restart your PC after removing them before running CCleaner
1)Install the apps to a flash drive (the install path should be the drive letter of the flash drive...so, not your C:\\)
2)Uninstall any extra programs that you don't use on a regular basis (you will see a column in the list of programs that tells you how often the program is used)
3)Restart your PC (do a full shutdown & restart...not suspend/hibernate)
4) Run CCleaner
***IF You Need Disk Space to Add/Remove Programs, try ATF Cleaner 1st, if you need more free disk space try CCleaner....AND deleting stuff you don't need will certainly help too.****
_________________________________
A portable apps suite can be found here:
http://portableapps.com/
--Kinda nice to bring your home folder with you (Docs, Pictures, Videos, Apps, Calendar, Email,....) & launch it from a flash drive on any computer | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 7:57:38 AM |
I keep getting very low on disk space even though I do a disk cleanup but doesn't seem to help. I have even tried to go to add/removal programs and it won't let me uninstall certain things that says used rarely because i don't have enough disk space.
Can't really give you much advice unless you tell people what operating system you are using.
Are you using Windows XP or Vista ?
. | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 1:09:31 PM | | right click and do a properties on your C/Users file if it it huge , which i expect it is,just keep going down thru the sub files and find out where it is bloated,you may have a bunch of temp files from burning programs laying around that can be deleted, you need 15% of disk space for you to be able to defrag, so start looking to create that,same thing in some of your programs folders,burning programs asking you if you would like to save your session? try plugging in your external drive with it powered up before you start your computer next time to see if that helps,adding ram wont help you create space, and you will have to create that 15% free hard drive space to defrag or your computer will just slow down to nothing one day | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/18/2009 11:16:19 PM | In XP, you can go to the Start menu, click on run, then type in...
temp
or
%temp%
and then hit enter. You'll get some folders you can clear out.
Try doing both of those and clearing out those folders.
Then you can right click on your garbage bin icon and choose properties.
Then lower the amount of space that is reserved for its use.
That might give you enough memory to get your external drive set up, so that you can start moving files over to it. Afterward you can change your garbage bin's reserved space back to its original setting. | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/19/2009 12:08:17 AM | One option is to buy a new larger hard drive and use the software that comes with it to copy an image of your old hard drive to the new hard drive. The software will give you the option to resize the image to use the full capacity of the new hard drive. Once you've created the image, just swap out the hard drives and you're done. If you know how to use a screwdriver, you can do this yourself.
You need to make sure the new hard drive uses the same connectors as the old hard drive. Most likely the old hard drive has an EIDE or PATA interface while the newer drives have an SATA interface. Open up the case and take a look at how the hard drives are connected to the motherboard.
Here is a picture of what the PATA connector looks like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment
And the newer SATA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA
It's possible the new external hard drive uses the same connectors as your old hard drive. In that case, you can just use it instead of buying another hard drive. You will need to open up the case of your external hard drive to find out though. | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/19/2009 5:53:30 AM | | In clean up have you emptied your internet history , cookies and downloaded files. Use you browser tools to delete after viewing. Most .tmp files are supposed to delete when action is finished. So search for tmp on C drive and include system and hidden folders. Select about 20 at a time by selecting top file and going down 20 and shift and click. Right click and shift and delete: this actually deletes the files. (But windows will not allow some.) Keep going until you can not just delete them. If you have MSOffice installed check your files for auto saves; the name will be weird and delete them. Lastly search for files over 5000kb. old downloads and shift delete them. By then you should have room to run defraq. If not Smart Defrag is freeware and will work when Windows will not. | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/19/2009 11:17:48 AM | If the computer is several years old I'm guessing the HDD is no more than 20-40GB? And probably runs at 4200 rpm or slower.
I would suggest buying a brand new HDD, you can get upwards of 500GB and 7200rpm for as little as $60. You'll be amazed at how much faster, quieter, and smoother your computer will run. It's the best upgrade for your computer after increasing the memory. Takes all of maybe 10 minutes too, very simple. Look at amazon.com or newegg.com for buying the replacement HDD.
Just back up all your docs on an external HDD or flash drive, and start over fresh. This is assuming that you still have the original Recovery CDs that the computer came with. If not, you can use this to duplicate the contents of the old HDD very easily onto the new HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817155602 | |
|
| Help! Low disk space
Posted: 8/19/2009 11:38:49 AM | maybe the OP should burn spare photos and documents to DVD and then dump the old documents, but the idea of getting a bigger hard drive is better
if not sure about re-installing, just format the new drive and move all documents and photos to the new drive, put the swap partition on the new drive and uninstall the current office program and re-install to the new data drive :) | |
|
Home
login 
