E: Drive on Low Space?!

[StaceyFever]

I've deleted about everything imaginable on my E: Drive but all to no avail. I keep getting messages stating that my E: Drive is full. I'm new to this and need A LOT of help. If anyone can help, it'd be very much appreciated.

 

[StaceyFever]

Also, I've done Disk CleanUp on a daily basis and as soon as it is complete, the disk is somehow low on space again. I don't know what I should list here to help you, nor do I know where to find all the stuff. -_-

 

[pmonett]

What is the size of the drive/partition ?

Pascal

 

[Kakkarotto]

Run a defrag could free up some space or if its FAT system you could convert it to NTFS which allows compressions of data.

 

[StaceyFever]

The size of the drive is 4.28 GB. I already ran Defrag. Also, I have a WINDOWS file on my E: Drive and another WINDOWS file on my C: Drive. Is this normal??

 

[garebo]

Have a look at what is inside the windows file on your E drive.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[pmonett]

You probably need to empty the Windows/Temp folder.
You could also check the contents of your Document Settings/yourname/Local Settings/Temp (and History) folder. Windows seems to find a great number of things to stuff there, and apparently they never get deleted.

Pascal.

 

[Freestone]

Try emptying the Recycle Bin.

And, by the way, Defrag will never recover space. It rearranges files so they are stored contiguously on a drive, but does nothing to recover space.

 

[mainegeek]

StaceyFever,
What size is C: and how much free space do you have on it.

Maybe copy the stuff you want to save from E: to C: and then just re-format E:.

 

[StaceyFever]

I have 26.3 GB on my C: Drive.

 

[StaceyFever]

I've tried moving my Documents and WINDOWS folder to C: Drive but when I go back to delete the original folders, it says I cannot delete it because it is needed for Windows to run properly.

 

[StaceyFever]

By the way, when I look into my WINDOWS folder, what folders shouldn't be there??? There's tons of files in there but I don't know which ones to keep and which ones to delete. Some won't let me delete them because they are in use although I have no need for the file.

 

[pmonett]

It is quite dangerous to go in the Windows folder and start deleting things. Of course you don't need most of them, but Gates has decided that Windows needs them, so your opinion does not matter. Remove the files, and either Windows will break, or the Recovery machine will kick in and force you to replace them.
The best way to try and diminish the number of useless files is to use the Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. Also, search the Web for pages on how to remove Netmeeting, and you'll get a few tips on removing Outlook Express and a few other things you might not need but cannot uninstall by default.
Also, get a good defragger, like O&O Defrag. Defragging will not make your files smaller, but it can recover space lost due to unnecessary clusters being occupied. The default Windows defrag is still unable to correctly defrag a disk.

Pascal.

 

[garebo]

I suggested at the start here that you tell us what is in the windows folder on your E drive. The reason is that all your windows files should be on your C drive. So i wonder just what is in that windows file on your E drive. Is it full of the same folders as the windows file on your C drive? Makes me wonder if windows was installed on your E drive as well as your C drive?

someone suggested you move all the files from your E drive to your C drive and thats not a bad idea unless you have installed some programs on the E drive instead of on the C drive.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Freestone]

I don't want the thread to stray, nonetheless a file, whether fragemented or not, will still occupy the same number of allocation units on the media it exists on. See the term slack space. A defragmeter cannot recover drive space, only put the pieces together contiguously, or as contiguous as it can get them. It may also reorder files on the drive. But at the end of the day, the drive will still have the same amount of space occupied.

 

[pmonett]

Sorry to disagree, Freestone, but I think that a fragmented file can occupy more allocation units than when it is contiguous. Otherwise, how to explain that a 20GB partition fragmented at 46% has more space available after the defrag then before ? The bigger the drive and the more it is frgmented, the more space is lost and can be recovered. This can be tried at home - if you have the stamina to let your drive fragment to that point. Check the empty space available before the defrag and after, and I'm sure there will be more.
Of course, with the size of today's drives, it is probably more application performance than drive space that stands to gain from defragmenting.

Pascal.

 

[Freestone]

Pascal,

What software did you use to defragment the drive that gave 46% more space? Was this drive formatted NTFS and using COMPRESSION? I want to understand how it's possible for a file that takes X allocation units when scattered about a drive can take less than X when these allocations units are laid end-to-end.

 

[pmonett]

Freestone,

Maybe I could have written my previous post more carefully. I never said that I obtained 46% more space, I said that the drive was fragmented at 46%.
As for the rest, this result was during the glorious FAT32 era. I have stopped using drive compression since around 1992, when a STACKER partition went wrong and I lost around 15MB of data (a lot, in those days).
As for the gritty technical details, I don't know how it can happen, but I do know that I have frequently found several percent more free space after a defrag then there was before.
Could someone knowledgeable bring a good reference to conclude ?

Pascal.

 

[Freestone]

I misread the 46%, my apologies, Pascal. Your post was clear enough, my bifocals (or something) weren't #-).