Computer Help, Hard Drive space issues

[edinatlanta]

I have an Acer laptop with two 30 gig harddrives (dual harddrives or whatever they are called).

The C drive is 99% full, it only has programs and a few word documents (i think the many podcasts I download are stored there, but my few iTunes purchases are on the D, so I don't know). My D is 50% full and I store music there and some pictures.

My question is, how do I free up space on the C drive? I uninstalled programs that I don't use last night and I still have hardly any free space. Is there any way to move some programs to the D drive, without uninstalling them?

Thanks

 

[daft]

Check what's taking up the most space and if it doesn't have to do with the critical functions, just reinstall them in D

 

[j]

First thing I would do is check your temp directory. Navigate your way to C:\\Documents and Settings\\[your windows username here]\\Local Settings\\Temp and delete everything in that directory. There may be a few things it won't let you delete, because they are in use. Delete everything else.

If you're using up 30GB of space it is very unlikely IMO that it's all just programs. 30GB is a ton of programs. You should check through your My Documents folder (and subfolders) and see if there's anything in there that you could move to another drive.

Aside from that it's hard to give really general advice, but it's a start.

 

[edinatlanta]

HOLY FACK!

Deleting the Temp files just cleared up 13 GIGS!

fack!

Thanks for the help!

 

[edinatlanta]

Wait, no, I just clicked on D drive's properties, C still full.

 

[CDFS]

Something else to think about is using a registry cleaner. I use CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/ and Eusing: http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_...ry_cleaner.htm. They can speed up the workings of your computer and I've had them clean out almost a half a Gig/Gig of useless information more than once.

 

[otc]

look up a program called WinDirStat

It will give you a visual representation of the size of all the junk on your hard drive.

It comes in handy when you see a giant box, put your mouse over it and discover that it is some 3GB uncompressed video file you created when playing around with your webcam and had completely forgotten about...

Very nice to see where all of that lost space has really gone

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by otc

look up a program called WinDirStat

It will give you a visual representation of the size of all the junk on your hard drive.

It comes in handy when you see a giant box, put your mouse over it and discover that it is some 3GB uncompressed video file you created when playing around with your webcam and had completely forgotten about...

Very nice to see where all of that lost space has really gone

Hahaha...I like the little pacmen. Nice prog.

 

[edinatlanta]

So apparently deleting episodes of the Wire from iTunes doesn't take it off your hard drive.

And I've dl'ed a lot of pr0n.

My computer runs tons faster now, but I can't open iTunes.

My life is a hell !

 

[odoreater]

If you are using windows, the thing that is probably taking up the most space on your hard drive are previous restore points. You can go on google to figure out how to delete all but the most recent restore point and how to lower the amount of disk space your computer can use to create more restore points. This is guaranteed to significantly increase the available space on your hard drive.

 

[BrettChaotix]

Turn on the "SHOW HIDDEN FILES/FOLDERS" setting (open MY COMPUTER and go under Tools -> Folder Options -> VIEW")

Take a look in your windows directory, usually C:\\WINDOWS

If you are showing the hidden files/folders, you'll see a ton of folders that start with $NtUninstallKB...
"

These are the leftovers from all the automatic windows updates that install on your computer. If you've been through many upgrades, especially service pack upgrades, these folders take up a lot of space. Some people have hundreds of them.

As long as you do not intend on removing any of your windows updates (and really, who would?) you can safely delete these folders and free up extra room.

 

[BrettChaotix]

Originally Posted by odoreater

If you are using windows, the thing that is probably taking up the most space on your hard drive are previous restore points. You can go on google to figure out how to delete all but the most recent restore point and how to lower the amount of disk space your computer can use to create more restore points. This is guaranteed to significantly increase the available space on your hard drive.

Restore Point space should never take up more than 5% of your total hard drive space (Right-click on MY COMPUTER, go to SYSTEM RESTORE and adjust the slider)

Any more space than that and it's a waste (and also a potential holding pen for malware that virus scanners have a tendency to skip past)

 

[edinatlanta]

Seriously, thanks to all y'all for your help!

My computer is much faster and I have 16 gigs of free space now!

The PC is OK now.

I feel almost comfortable.