C Drive Low Local disk space: Need help freeing space

[denayandre]

I have been able to burn CD's with my CD/DVD burner since I bought it a couple of months ago, but all of a sudden a week or 2 ago there is a message that keeps on popping up that says Low Local Disk Space.
When I click on the balloon it goes into the C drive. Looking at the drive right now it says that it's capacity is 9.54 GB. Used space says 9.41 GB and Free space says 129 MB.
I have tried cleaning the disk space routinely and deleting programmings that I don't need but nothing seems to help the space go back to normal. I fluctuates between 0-888 MB, but never seems to keep any semblance of stability.
I used to be able to burn 19 or maybe even 20 track on a CD, now I am lucky if I can get 2 or 3 tracks converted before the low disk space balloon pops up.
What do I do? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Frank4d]

Assuming you have already cleaned up .tmp and .bak files, cookies, IE history, and Temporary Internet files, there are a few other things you can try:
In IE Options > Temporary Internet files > Settings, check the amount of disk space reserved. This is a per user setting, so if you have several login accounts, check them all.
In System Restore settings, check the amount of space reserved for System Restore.
Check your pagefile size. It should be 1.5X your RAM size (depends on who you talk to).
Delete Windows Hotfix and Service Pack Install files and their uninstall files if you never plan on uninstalling them.
Delete backup of your previous OS if you never plan to restore it (if it applies).
If your hard drive is FAT32, convert it to NTFS.
Try this cool freeware utility

http://www.werkema.com/software/spacemonger.html

which graphically shows which files and folders are taking up the biggest chunks of space (works best if you turn off "Show free space" in setup).

 

[garebo]

Also empty recycle bin.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

Also uninstall any programs you dont need, check "my documents" for files you dont need. Also, any programs that you have installed, check their folders for any user files. Just as an example, audiograbber stores the files you make right inside audiograbber and morpheus does the same.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[micker377]

Are you using Norton SystemWorks?

 

[denayandre]

Thank you for writing back.
Thank you garabo for your input. I've tried going in my documents and uninstalling the things that I don't need.

Frank 4d,
Sorry I took so long to respond. I have many questions.
I don't know what .tmp and .bak files, cookies, IE history are, or how to clean them out? What is IE Options?
I don't know how to check the amount of space for system restore. I don't know what pagefile size is. I have 64 RAMS, I don't know if that is what you are asking for?
I don't know what Windows Hotfix or Service Pack files are?
I don't know how to delete the backup of your previous OS. I used to have my computer using Windows 98 and I just recently updated to Windows XP, is that what you mean?
I would like to convert my hard drive which is FAT something to NTFS, but I don't know how.
Obviously I have many problems and I don't know how to solve very many of them. I guess that is why am looking for help.
Thank you for any of the help that you can give me.
Denaya

 

[Frank4d]

Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Choose C Drive and click ok. When its done scanning, click "More Options" and "System Restore Cleanup". When that is done, click "Disk Cleaup". Check all of the boxes (unless there are some you know you don't want to check) and click OK. That should free up a large chunk of space.
You say you recently upgraded from 98 to XP so I would not expect to see a large number of service pack or hotfix install files.

 

[denayandre]

Garebo, I emptied my recycling bin. I don't know how to check my documents to see what I don't need.
Micker377, How do you check for Norton SystemWorks and see if you are using it?
Frank 4d, I did what you recommended, but it is similar to what I have done in the pask and did not free up very much space.
My C drive, right now says that I have 9.40GB used space and 134MB free space.

I still needs lots of help! Thanks!
Denaya

 

[micker377]

The main question about Norton: after you empty the "Recycle Bin", RIGHT click on the "Recycle Bin" icon and see if you have a line that says anything about "protected files". If there is, left click to delete them. If not, ignore everything I've mentioned.

 

[garebo]

Im sure you would know if you had norton antivirus running, wouldnt you?
Whatever your antivirus is, you could check for logs or backups that take up extra room.
Same with any backup program you may be running.
As for "my documents", if its not on your desktop then you will find it on your start menu. Look inside and see if there are any files you can get rid of there.

Check any programs that you have and look for any user files or data that you may have created and decide if you want the data or not.

Uninstall any programs that you can do without.

What programs do you have installed?

I run goback instead of system restore. With goback i can set the amount of disk space that goback uses. I dont know if you can do that with system restore, but if you can, you could save a bit there by making the usable disk space smaller for system restore.
Originally you spoke of burning cd's so maybe you left the original files on your computer and you can delete them?


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Frank4d]

It may just be time for a new hard drive. I have 9GB used (which includes no games or music) and 139GB free.

 

[garebo]

that, of course, would be the real solution as you are gonna run up against this again and again.
If you get a larger hard drive, consider using your original, 9.5 gig hard drive for your os and the new drive as your backup and data drive, provided that the original drive isnt slower than 5400 rpm. A complete re-install would be best, but if not you can still move some data from this drive to your new one. Perhaps even uninstall some larger progs and install them to the new drive to get you more space. Also move the swap file to the second hard drive will free up some space as well. I should have mentioned the swap file earlier!

If your computer is older you may want to check and see if you can find out what size hard drive you can use on this setup. That plus check and see if there is a newer bios and what the newer bios does, that is, if it allows for larger hard drives. Course sometimes it doesnt say.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Frank4d]

If your computer is older you may want to check and see if you can find out what size hard drive you can use on this setup. That plus check and see if there is a newer bios and what the newer bios does, that is, if it allows for larger hard drives. Course sometimes it doesnt say.

I suspect since you have a 10GB hard drive that your MOBO is old (around 5-6 years) and you will have problems upgrading to a newer hard drive without at least a BIOS update. Who makes your MOBO? And what model is it?

 

[denayandre]

Frank 4d,
My computer is a gateway computer and I purchased it in 1998. That's why it was running on Windows 98 all this time, until I recently updated it to Windows XP.
What is a MOBO and a BIOS?
Denaya

 

[garebo]

Sorry, a mobo is a slang term for a motherboard. Sometimes you see a person call a motherboard a mainboard as well, but not too often.

Your bios, is a small program that is on a chip on your motherboard and it shows up when you first start to boot up your computer. You will see the words award, amibios, phoenix, one of those 3 and that will tell you which bios you have. They also then have a number, like award 4.51 for example. Your motherboard mfgr often has bios updates for your motherboard that will allow it to use newer hardware, for example, perhaps a larger hard drive. Or a bios upgrade could simply fix some small errors in the previous bios that arent really bad errors, just minor.
So the bios basically gets your computer up and running and then turns control over to the operating system, provided all is well.
I cant remember who was making motherboards for gateway back then, a guess would be asus, but its only a guess, could be any one of a number of oem motherboard mfgrs, F.I.C. is another example.
You could look on the motherboard or on the side of the last slot, perhaps an isa slot, and sometimes the name or numbers are on a paper on the side of the last slot.
We are concerned that your motherboard (mobo) wont take todays newer hard drives. We will help you with that and you arent out of luck. Perhaps a bios upgrade might do the trick and there are other options. A pci controller card would help out there as well. Also, you could just upgrade to say, a used 20 gig hard drive and your current system would likely allow that with no bios updates or anything else.
Windows xp is very tough on hardware, on install, so if you have xp running now then your current hardware has passed and is in relatively good shape or win xp would not have loaded. So having win xp is a good thing there too.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[denayandre]

Frank 4d,
Do you think it would help to update my system from FAT to NFS? If so, how do I do that.
Denaya

 

[wolluf]

denaya,

If you've got a 10GB drive and 64MB RAM and a 7 year old PC, then XP is not going to run very well. The lack of RAM alone will totally slow it down (you should have minimum of 256MB - especially with a machine that old).

You would be better off buying a new machine - or reinstalling 98 on your old machine if you haven't the money for a new one currently.

If you want to see what's using up the space on your hard drive, try this utility:-

http://www.lpacomputers.telinco.co.uk/ddsetup.zip

Did you try the disk cleanup Frank4D suggested?