What is filling up my hard drive?

[ph3iron]

I know its old - 2Gb. Win 98. But when I look at the obvious programs they are 200Kb or less.
I must be missing something.
Thanks - p

 

[mattjurado]

1. "But when I look at the obvious programs they are 200Kb or less" I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.

2. You tell us what's filling up your hard drive, giving us info such as folder or file names, and we might be able to help identify their importance.

3. Did this all of a sudden happen?

4. Have you emptied temp folder, temp internet files folder, cookies, history, etc???

We'll need a lot more info than what you gave, none of us here are psychic.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[ph3iron]

Thanks Matt- I'm learning - now I see it's the windows folder itself which consumes the biggest space - 703MB - 11000 files, 298 folders.
Program files occupies 403Mb 3K folders, 8K files.
The win folders go all the way from Java, System 32 etc.
Is there any way to find out which are essential?
Thanks - p

 

[torturedmind]

hello ph3iron,

you should not mess with the windows folder, even for pros its not advisable. if you do, you'll end up with a lot of headaches. if you want to remove unwanted windows features, try removing them from the control panel by doing so:

press <START> - <SETTINGS> - <CONTROL PANEL> - <ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS> - <WINDOWS SETUP> tab, and from there, unclick all unwanted features.

you may also want to remove other installed programs/applications that you dont use. a piece of advice: if you do remove other features and installed programs, some files you have may not be opened or will not function properly. backup necessary data first before doing anything on that pc.

hope this helps. peace!

kilroy
philippines

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."

 

[ph3iron]

Thanks very much Mr K - will do. I see now (maybe) that the system was upgraded from win 95 to 98 - I guess 95 might have taken up less space. At some point I'm going to have to break down and buy a new one - pete

 

[wolluf]

2GB is not very much space - even for 98 installation (o/s takes up 200-300MB typically - yes, more than 95. You may also have an uninstall file to allow regression to 95 if specified during upgrade (probably 50MB+) - which can be deleted if you're definitely not regressing), once you've got a few heavyweight apps (like office) installed.

If you follow the advice above (remove temp files, unwanted apps etc) you'll recover a fair amount of space, but you do need regualr housekeeping with that size drive.

 

[tiver]

Going from 95 to 98 there was an option to keep your old settings so the pc might still have dos and 95 on it. When you go into control panel and add remove programs it does it have the option to delete the saved old install?

 

[mattjurado]

Tiver, I think wolluf pretty much covered that. One other thing you can do, is purchase a new hard drive, and ghost your old one over. Note, if your motherboard is older, it may have trouble with large hard drives, a pci ide controller card might also be needed in this situation.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.