Help-out of disk space!

[andicap]

Yesterday I found myself down to about 50 megs of storage -- surprised it had gotten that low but hey, i only have 20 gig on this PC.

I erased a bunch of stuff and got up to 1.4 gig.
Today I found only 28 meg!!

There was a bunch of ACR*.tmp files dated 5/26, which apparently you can't permanently erase.

I got rid of all the temp files I could, everything I didn't need and am about to transfer a bunch of stuff to an external hard drive.

I have found most .exe files are on my hard drive in at least three if not more locations often like this for IE

C:\windows
C:\windows\system32\dllcache
c:\windows\softwaredistribution\download\very long number....

so what the heck is going on????

[michiken]

Do you remember if you ever did a Window's Upgrade say from ME to 2000? There is a default option that backs up the entire previous operating system. I think that some of these folders may be what you are looking at.

More info on dllcache here (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=dllcache&btnG=Search)

[michiken]

Hard Disk Cleanup (http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/article/cleanPC.htm)


Defrag when Done with Cleanup:



Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.
Select the drive and click Analyze to verify if your disk needs defragmenting.
Click Defragment if it is required.

[DJofSD]

Before you defrag, clean up.

Follow the same path for the defrag urility but select disk clean up. Click on more options then the clean up button.

Afterwards, right click the trash bin and permanently delete everything found there.

Then is a good time to defrag.

[gillenr]

If you're using Outlook Express, "compact all folders".

[kenwoodallpromos]

Check your add/delete programs file for stuff you did not put in there.
"Click me" is a big spammer I find once in a while.

[andicap]

I did have an upgrade from Win ME to Win Xp PRO, but it's a renegade version and my plan was to back up everything I needed on an external hard drive, format it and install a virgin, regulation XP Home.

I've done the disk cleanup, compacted the OE folders but the dllcache might be a major issue and the fragmented drive too.

thanks!

[Bubbles]

If that doesn't work, and you've got some cash to spare, check out an external hard drive and ship some stuff over there. Obviously not those litte, 256-meg ones, but the larger ones might be able to do the trick for you.

[tahoesid]

Empty out recycle bin also. Empty Internet Explorer temp files

[Dave Schwartz]

External drives: I use them all the time for laptops. Figure around $90 for a 160-200gb drive and another $40 for the USB enclosure.

Just plug it in, have Windows format it and away you go.


Dave

[Bala]

XP has a useful built in utility to cleanup your hard drive.

start>run type "cleanmgr"

check/uncheck the appropriate boxes and enter

[Mike at A+]

I recently bought the Maxtor One Touch 300 Gb external drive. Best money I ever spent. I keep all my photos, MP3's and tons of other stuff. For old PP files, a CD is usually enough for a year's worth. Also a DVD burner is a great investment. An internal is dirt cheap and an external will run you about 50 bucks on sale. Space --- the final frontier!

[Tom]

Get Crap Ceaner and run it regularly. I run it at least every week, if not several times.

[OTM Al]

One thing no one has mentioned is window's XP wonderous way of gobbling up hard drive space with its restore point snapshots. Go to Disk Cleanup in your Accessories > System Tools folder from the task bar. When the thing finally lets you know the situation, click on the More Options tab and then clean up system restore to the last restore point. You should recover a lot of lost territory

[DJofSD]

OTM Al, actually, I did.

The frequency of system restore points and how long they live (kept around) are settings that can be tweaked in the registry.

[Hosshead]

What is a good backup software (USB 2.0/Firewire) to external HD ? (XP-Home)
Already have the seperate HD and USB/Firewire Enclosure.

Was looking at Acronis True Image(9.0), but read (from many users) that after backing-up, it usually says everything is fine.
That is, until you actually have to use it, - then get one ERROR MESSAGE after another.
Has anybody used Acronis ?

Have a little older computer, and had to convert from USB 1.1 to USB 2.0/Firewire, using a PCI card,
as my motherboard only had USB 1.1.
Found out on the Norton Ghost WebSite, that Norton Ghost (except 2003 dos version) doesn't work with PCs that have been "converted" to USB 2.0 via a PCI card. (as mine has)
Norton says that to use Norton Ghost and USB2.0 it has to have 2.0 on the motherboard.

[DJofSD]

Despite being very down on Symantec, I will say that I've used NSG a couple of times to replace/upgrade my C: drive without any problems.

[JustRalph]

Norton says that to use Norton Ghost and USB2.0 it has to have 2.0 on the motherboard.

If you are going to run your restore back from an external USB device (hard drive or CD) don't count on any external usb device working. I don't care what Symantec says........ a few years back they started touting that it could work that way. In the lab for 3 weeks my guys (technicians who worked for me in a call center) tried to get it to work. Unless they have improved their stuff a bunch, I wouldn't rely on it at all. Cut your backup images to CD rom and restore from there. Only reliable way to do it.......in my opine. Then you can load it from an internal CD drive. I have done it several hundred times at work and at home using Ghost. But never from an external USB drive that worked right...........hell, half the time the drivers wouldn't even load in realmode. And when they did, they didn't work right...............just my opine.

[Dave Schwartz]

Ralph,

Recently we had a hard disk that was failing. We used the 2003 version (I think) of Ghost to recover every single sector on the hard drive on another machine! (It ran in DOS!) He told me the newer ones do not work.

The tech told me that he has never had a hard drive that the older versions of ghost would not recover completely! He said that it may take some serious time - one machine he worked on took almost 5 days to recover the whole thing; that it actually reads byte-by-byte if necessary.

I realize that is not exactly what you were talking about but I saw it with my own eyes. I lost nothing and had to re-install nothing. And have never had another problem.

Dave

[PaceAdvantage]

Has anyone tried Casper XP? http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/
I've used it a couple of times to back up my hard drives and it was flawless. Didn't even have to run it in DOS mode.....

And, I don't even have XP....I'm still using W2K....lol

[JustRalph]

Ralph,

Recently we had a hard disk that was failing. We used the 2003 version (I think) of Ghost to recover every single sector on the hard drive on another machine! (It ran in DOS!) He told me the newer ones do not work.

The tech told me that he has never had a hard drive that the older versions of ghost would not recover completely! He said that it may take some serious time - one machine he worked on took almost 5 days to recover the whole thing; that it actually reads byte-by-byte if necessary.

I realize that is not exactly what you were talking about but I saw it with my own eyes. I lost nothing and had to re-install nothing. And have never had another problem.

Dave

It does run in DOS or pcdos. But you didn't try to restore or copy to a USB device in "DOS " if I read you right. Symantec has low level drivers available for USB devices that are supposed to allow you to do this in DOS or PCDOS but they just don't work. That was my point. And when they do, they are hit and miss at best. Most of the time they fail in the middle of a restore or backup.

I love Ghost. I just don't recommend anybody try to use it with External USB devices. Especially if you are going to rely on it to restore a critical backup.

http://search.symantec.com/custom/update/query.html?qt=usb+cd+drive&charset=utf-8&la=en&filter=sup&qp=language%3Aen&nh=10&hitsceil=100&st=1&context=gbh&x=9&y=6

[Hosshead]

Has anyone tried Casper XP? http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/
I've used it a couple of times to back up my hard drives and it was flawless. Didn't even have to run it in DOS mode.....

And, I don't even have XP....I'm still using W2K....lol
PA, Did you use USB/Firewire to an external HD ?
Did you try to restore anything after backing it up ?

[PaceAdvantage]

PA, Did you use USB/Firewire to an external HD ?
Did you try to restore anything after backing it up ?

Well, I'm a bit different. My backup consists of actually purchasing an identical hard drive and simply copying one drive to another. I did install the backup drive to check things out, and all appeared normal....

All the drives I use are internal....

[JustRalph]

Well, I'm a bit different. My backup consists of actually purchasing an identical hard drive and simply copying one drive to another. I did install the backup drive to check things out, and all appeared normal....

All the drives I use are internal....

the best way to do it.

[PaceAdvantage]

the best way to do it.

With the prices of hard drives these days, it really doesn't make sense to me to do it any other way....

[Red Knave]

Has anyone tried Casper XP? Yup, for backup and upgrading drives. My notebook is now on it's 4th HD, every one bigger and/or faster than the last and each one created by Casper using a USB External connection.
Fast and flawless for me as well.

[Dave]

Yesterday I found myself down to about 50 megs of storage -- surprised it had gotten that low but hey, i only have 20 gig on this PC.

I erased a bunch of stuff and got up to 1.4 gig.
Today I found only 28 meg!!




did you get that drive cleaned up?
28 meg is really not a good idea to run on.........
run scandisk and make sure files haven't been corrupted --- sometimes your disk space doesn't get correctly reported.

and try to clean up around 2 gig, if you can.
this might help:

sequoia view (http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/Main_Frame/Info.html)

go to: view - colors, and enable color scheme.
also, view - options , I prefer the squarified version, but mess around in here.

[mikejlb]

I erased a bunch of stuff and got up to 1.4 gig.
Today I found only 28 meg!!

so what the heck is going on????

That seems like a lot of space to loose in only one day. If this continues it might be wise to look for someone using your computer. Make sure you set hidden files so you can see them. If you have a fast connection then someone might be homesteading a couple gigs for trading or somebody might be using it for other reasons. You might try tagging 1/2 the folders and check the size, then do the same with the two halves that you checked, and keep breaking it down until you find a folder that is using an unusual amount of space.

A friend in this area recently called to get dsl and verizon said dsl isn't available any longer but they gave him a fiber optics connection and it's supposed to be super fast. If you don't have a fast connection then it's not likely that a trader would mess with you. I'm anxious to test my friends fiber optics connection and if it's as fast as I think then it would be a nice place to move things around and use your bandwidth. I would think that guys that use other people's bandwidth would prefer a school or business server (t1 or faster type connection) over a home computer although this new cheap fiber optics thing might be making home computers targets. I am just saying that it might be wise to monitor your space pretty close for awhile.