Disk Full - What Can I Delete From Windows / System32 ?

[JetsetBkk]

My old PC started life as a Windows 98 laptop. It's has been upgraded all the way to the latest XP SP3, and is still chugging along nicely.

But the few programs installed on it have used up much of its massive 9.22 GB hard drive

I've been cleaning off as much of the unwanted stuff as I dare and un-installed lots of old programs that I know aren't needed, but I still have only about 650 MB free. I checked Windows/System32 and it contains all sorts of old stuff - some files dating from 1993! A lot of them are 1996, 7 and 8 so I was wondering how to tell what can be deleted and what are actually needed by the operating system and installed programs.

I thought about simply moving these old files to a sub-directory and seeing if there are any problems reported, but there must be a better way.

I could decide what is not needed by comparing the files on the old PC with those in my new PC's System32 folder.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Maverell]

If you are going to stay with a 9GB hard drive I would re format it and reinstall windows xp. Then install just the applications you want. Doing this will make sure all the crap has gone.

Remember to back up photos, documents etc first.

[NHJ]

in /windows you can delete all directories who do start by $ , those contains the backup for the previous update you did.

disable system restore and delete the backups.

check if you have a hibernate file, if so disable it and delete it.

content of windows/temp can be deleted aswell as content of windows/installer(may cause trouble to remove some programs but windows installer clean up will do it for you)

delete /documents/username/localsettings content.

after this you should have plenty of space

[Steve2UK]

Be very sure before you disable System Restore - although I know some people promote the idea, I'll never do it. If your system is running OK, for sure delete all but the last Restore Point (Drive C:, Properties, Disk CleanUp, More Options).

[JSixpack]

If you are going to stay with a 9GB hard drive I would re format it and reinstall windows xp. Then install just the applications you want. Doing this will make sure all the crap has gone.

Remember to back up photos, documents etc first.

W/ a disk that small, you should consider using TinyXP or MicroXP, both available at torrent sites or rapidshare.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Consider replacing the HDD.

I did so, replacing my 14GB HDD with an 80GB HDD. Used Acronis to 'clone' the disc. Cost around 1500 baht at the time.

[Veazer]

I would start by using WinDirStat to map out your drive and see what's using all the space.

[JetsetBkk]

Lots of interesting info here.

I've deleted the $NTUninstall folders and logs except those dated during the last couple of months.

I turned off system restore and then back on again and made a new restore point.

Hibernate was already disabled.

I'll look into TinyXP and MicroXP.

I don't think I want to fit a bigger HD. (Cheap Charlie)

WinDirStat looks interesting - I'll check that one out for sure.

Regarding de-fragging the disk: Advanced System Care's defragger got stuck at 29%, but the gurus on their web site recommended "Perfect Disk v8". So I tried that on my new PC - seemed to do a good job and am now doing it on the old PC.

My new PC - 3 years old - took 6 hours to defrag overnight, so I'm expecting the old PC to take longer. (This was after PD8 did an off-line defrag of some system files.)

Advanced System Care's defragger is now "happy" on my new PC.

[Daffy D]

What about compressing the disk ?

Right click on your drive - Properties - Check the box below the Pie of your disk capacity

[benjamat]

Hmmm "Cheap Charlie"

A 9gb drive today is really very small.

Everything you do today is so much more disc and memory hungry than just a few years ago.

I really would consider upgrading now, it is my experience that no matter how hard you try and make space by deleting you will very quickly fill all that space again. You can get a very good new drive for under 2kb. Default minimum size for drive on new systems is now 160gb+. This is because of the way xp uses space and the needs of modern software. Also the way the internet along with xp saves everything for back up and restore purposes.

What you are trying to do is really very much a waste of time.

[TATTOO1967]

Try a external HDD

[Bengt]

Best is to replace whit a bigger HD and clone the old HD to the new HD and then continue to work..

HD means hard drive NOT Harley Davidson....

[ignis]

Yes I would also say an External HDD..

Cheapest way is a normal 3 ½ “ 40 – 500 MB from just over 1,000 baht and buy a USB External case from about 600 baht..

Better but more expensive is buy a USB External HDD

Even more expensive buy a Laptop External HDD [much smaller]

If you only need a bit more space what about a Flash Stick 2GB or more..

All the above you can use on other PC/Laptops, so on you 9GB HDD Laptop you will only need the OS [Windows]

Did you try

Advanced WindowsCare Personal 100% Freeware ?? It is FREE and clears out all the old stuff

http://www.iobit.com/

Edited October 25, 2008 by ignis

[DanaDeLuxe]

The site ignis mentioned up there is blocked on my comp, 'cause WOT (firefox add-on) considered it DANGEROUS! DO NOT OPEN IT!

Sorry for shouting, just trying to get peoples attention before they click on it!

On topic: I take my old laptop while travelling and carry the data on an 8 GB memory stick, so not too much will be lst in case it gets stolen, etc.

[ignis]

The site ignis mentioned up there is blocked on my comp, 'cause WOT (firefox add-on) considered it DANGEROUS! DO NOT OPEN IT!

Sorry for shouting, just trying to get peoples attention before they click on it!

On topic: I take my old laptop while travelling and carry the data on an 8 GB memory stick, so not too much will be lst in case it gets stolen, etc.

Must be something wrong on your PC.........

I use Vista and Firefox and NO PROBLEMS with http://www.iobit.com/

Have also tried it on I.E is fine, and on 3 other Laptops 2x XP both have Firefox and I.E, they already had it installed, the other one had Vista and downloaded it fine on that.

Myself have used it for years, updating every few months..

TYPE in the SEARCH 'Advanced WindowsCare' and click, you will come up with iobit.com, if there is a problem then it will tell you when you hover over the site in the search engine.

Maybe if your laptop is very old and your not using XP or Vista, you would need to search for the older version... eg: Advanced WindowsCare for Windows 98 ?? or what ever your using

[stoffel]

WOW a 500 GB HDD for just over 1,000 Baht?! Where to get that HDD?

Thanks for the info you'll probaly send!

[ignis]

WOW a 500 GB HDD for just over 1,000 Baht?! Where to get that HDD?

Thanks for the info you'll probaly send!

40 – 500 MB from just over 1,000 baht

as it was a old laptop then it would not have Sata drive, so 500GB would i thing be max

40GB is just over 1,000 baht

I have 4 x 250GB HDD's which cost around 3,000 baht each

also have 2x 80GB which was around 1,500 baht each..

I have had HDD's fail, so would rather have a number of smaller ones

[1900]

Advanced Windows Care is good. But the features individually are not the best you can do. For example the defrager only defrags, it doesn't compact the files. Defraging means a lot to speed. Another example is the spyware feature. If I run it it does indeed find files, but if I run S&D it will find more, and then Asquared will find even more. Same for anti virus programs, one will always find what another has missed.

[JetsetBkk]

Wow! So many responses - I've been busy doing "stuff" so shall reply to each post in turn.

OK, I've finished defragging the disk and deleting stuff on the old laptop and managed to get about 1 GB free. This is plenty enough to stop Windows complaining that there isn't enough free space for it to work properly (can't remember exactly what the message was - one of those messages that pops up on the System Tray area of the Task Bar).

Advanced System Care's defrag appeared to make it run faster, but I haven't done any bench marks.

I did a directory listing of Windows/System32 and compared it to my new laptop and there wasn't an awful lot a difference, so I've given up on the idea of deleting what isn't necessary in that folder- there's too much of a risk that I'd delete something important, e.g. video drivers, etc.

The biggest problem with the PC (over 6 years old) is the low RAM - it's got its maximum of 512 MB, so with XP running there's only about 50 MB free.

What about compressing the disk ?

Right click on your drive - Properties - Check the box below the Pie of your disk capacity

Yes, I thought about that but I'm sure that would slow down the machine even more, so I didn't think it was even worth trying. Besides, 1 GB is OK - it's only used by the g/f for browsing the Internet with Firefox and accessing Hotmail, so that's enough free space.

[Goyave]

Wow! So many responses - I've been busy doing "stuff" so shall reply to each post in turn.

OK, I've finished defragging the disk and deleting stuff on the old laptop and managed to get about 1 GB free. This is plenty enough to stop Windows complaining that there isn't enough free space for it to work properly (can't remember exactly what the message was - one of those messages that pops up on the System Tray area of the Task Bar).

Advanced System Care's defrag appeared to make it run faster, but I haven't done any bench marks.

I did a directory listing of Windows/System32 and compared it to my new laptop and there wasn't an awful lot a difference, so I've given up on the idea of deleting what isn't necessary in that folder- there's too much of a risk that I'd delete something important, e.g. video drivers, etc.

The biggest problem with the PC (over 6 years old) is the low RAM - it's got its maximum of 512 MB, so with XP running there's only about 50 MB free.

What about compressing the disk ?

Right click on your drive - Properties - Check the box below the Pie of your disk capacity

Yes, I thought about that but I'm sure that would slow down the machine even more, so I didn't think it was even worth trying. Besides, 1 GB is OK - it's only used by the g/f for browsing the Internet with Firefox and accessing Hotmail, so that's enough free space.

You can try CCleaner (it's a freeware program) in order to finalize your cleaning. It may discover other stuff that can be deleted. Can optimize your registry too.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Edited October 26, 2008 by Goyave

[JetsetBkk]

Hmmm "Cheap Charlie"

A 9gb drive today is really very small.

Everything you do today is so much more disc and memory hungry than just a few years ago.

I really would consider upgrading now, it is my experience that no matter how hard you try and make space by deleting you will very quickly fill all that space again. You can get a very good new drive for under 2kb. Default minimum size for drive on new systems is now 160gb+. This is because of the way xp uses space and the needs of modern software. Also the way the internet along with xp saves everything for back up and restore purposes.

What you are trying to do is really very much a waste of time.

I agree 9 GB (probably 10 before formatting) is small, but the PC is over 6 years old and only used to access the Internet. All I wanted to do was free up enough disk space so Windows didn't complain.

All the stuff that Advanced System Care has done - plus the advice given in this thread - appears to have worked and made it run OK.

Cheap Charlie? Hmm - maybe it's just that I'd rather spend the money on the new PC. The old one will die soon, I'm sure.

[JetsetBkk]

Try a external HDD

Best is to replace whit a bigger HD and clone the old HD to the new HD and then continue to work..

HD means hard drive NOT Harley Davidson....

In fact, when this PC was my main PC (about 4 years ago) I did have an external USB drive attached and the internal drive wasn't used or storing any data. But then XP got bigger and bigger, the RAM in the PC didn't, and overall the machine got too slow for running anything other than one application at a time.

[JetsetBkk]

The site ignis mentioned up there is blocked on my comp, 'cause WOT (firefox add-on) considered it DANGEROUS! DO NOT OPEN IT!

Sorry for shouting, just trying to get peoples attention before they click on it!

On topic: I take my old laptop while travelling and carry the data on an 8 GB memory stick, so not too much will be lst in case it gets stolen, etc.

Must be something wrong on your PC.........

I use Vista and Firefox and NO PROBLEMS with http://www.iobit.com/

Have also tried it on I.E is fine, and on 3 other Laptops 2x XP both have Firefox and I.E, they already had it installed, the other one had Vista and downloaded it fine on that.

Myself have used it for years, updating every few months..

TYPE in the SEARCH 'Advanced WindowsCare' and click, you will come up with iobit.com, if there is a problem then it will tell you when you hover over the site in the search engine.

Maybe if your laptop is very old and your not using XP or Vista, you would need to search for the older version... eg: Advanced WindowsCare for Windows 98 ?? or what ever your using

I agree with ignis here - nothing wrong with Advanced System Care, although I will be posting something more about that later regarding the FREE and PRO versions.

I too have the WOT extension in Firefox, but didn't notice anything reported. WOT is relatively new, so I think they need to get their parameters sorted before calling a site "bad".

[JetsetBkk]

My comments on Advanced System Care, both the Free and Pro versions, here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/-t218172.htm...t&p=2295985

[1900]

Try a external HDD

Best is to replace whit a bigger HD and clone the old HD to the new HD and then continue to work..

HD means hard drive NOT Harley Davidson....

In fact, when this PC was my main PC (about 4 years ago) I did have an external USB drive attached and the internal drive wasn't used or storing any data. But then XP got bigger and bigger, the RAM in the PC didn't, and overall the machine got too slow for running anything other than one application at a time.

CCleaner is tricky in the sense it can remove too much, like all your saved Internet passwords. You have to be selective on what you want removed.

There is an easier way to remove all those $s in your windows folder. Win XP Installer Cleanup gets rid of all those and any traces of failed Windows installs. I think I got it from www.majorgeeks.com. There is another for DX's too, those old files stay in your Windows folder until death do you part. There is yet another for out-dated JAVA files. I ran the JAVA and the DX cleaners and got 105MB of space back.

[JetsetBkk]

CCleaner is tricky in the sense it can remove too much, like all your saved Internet passwords. You have to be selective on what you want removed.

There is an easier way to remove all those $s in your windows folder. Win XP Installer Cleanup gets rid of all those and any traces of failed Windows installs. I think I got it from www.majorgeeks.com. There is another for DX's too, those old files stay in your Windows folder until death do you part. There is yet another for out-dated JAVA files. I ran the JAVA and the DX cleaners and got 105MB of space back.

I've always been wary of CCleaner. Can't remember what bad experience I had with it, but it must've been pretty bad.

There are loads of such cleaners at MajorGeeks - thanks for the tip: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?id=12&sort=25

I may clean the disk using one of the tools listed, but only if I can find a way of making an image of the drive first. I haven't thought much about it, but I do have Acronis True Image 11 on a CD. So I would have to attach an external USB drive and do it that way, or maybe store the image across my home network onto my new PC's USB drive. Maybe, if I get time...

[ariesram74]

just get a new hard drive

[Goyave]

CCleaner is tricky in the sense it can remove too much, like all your saved Internet passwords. You have to be selective on what you want removed.

...

Yes. You need to know what you are doing when using this tool but it's not that difficult to keep your "saved passwords" (= your authentication cookies in this case: just deselect "cookies" and you should be OK). Anyway it is NOT a good policy (IMHO) to be dependent on having them stored on a specific computer (disk crash can happen and you may have to reenter them again later, or you probably need to remember your passwords if you want to access certain websites from another computer, etc.) and remote cookie stealing may happen too... Never have had a problem with CCleaner so far, but sure, as most tools, you must know and understand what you are doing.

[JetsetBkk]

... it's not that difficult to keep your "saved passwords" (= your authentication cookies in this case: just deselect "cookies" and you should be OK). Anyway it is NOT a good policy (IMHO) to be dependent on having them stored on a specific computer (disk crash can happen and you may have to reenter them again later...

I keep all my passwords in a program called "PasswordSafe". It currently holds over 300.

[h90]

The site ignis mentioned up there is blocked on my comp, 'cause WOT (firefox add-on) considered it DANGEROUS! DO NOT OPEN IT!

Sorry for shouting, just trying to get peoples attention before they click on it!

On topic: I take my old laptop while travelling and carry the data on an 8 GB memory stick, so not too much will be lst in case it gets stolen, etc.

To add: there are now very cheap 8 GB MicroSD (which are usually faster) with an USB adaptor which is small and complete hides the MicroSD. That does not cost much anymore and you can hand it on your keys so you have it always with you. Soon there should be 16 GB version.