Windows Installer space problem

ranichols · 29th August 2003

My c: drive is almost full (decision a long time ago to use fat16 for OS to maybe help recoveries).

When I tried to install Adobe Acrobat 6, a message box wanted a big chunk of the c: drive, even though I pointed the installation to another drive. There was not nearly enough space, so the installation could not proceed. My "TEMP" env variable is pointed to the e: drive where there is a lot of space.

I'm wondering if the Windows Installer was the culprit, demanding the space for either its temp space or database.

Is there a way to configure the Windows Installer to not use the c: drive?

Thanks,

-Randy

**Bursley** · 30th August 2003

I really believe that it's up to the indivdual install program where to stick it's temp files. In any case some programs require putting information into the winnt directory, so that could be your problem. If you have additional space available on your drive, you may want to consider increasing the size of the partition with partition magic or server magic. Or just take the time and reinstall the OS with a 4GB partition. You could also take the time to upgrade. After all you are dealing with an OS that is over 7 years old.
I'm just wondering with the size of your free space on your C partition, if you have enough space to install service packs and security hotfixes.

ranichols · 30th August 2003

I can't disagree with your comments. I'm trying to get by until I can do what you suggest - upgrade or repartition. Given the trouble this arrangement has incurred, next time I'll go with the "massive c: drive" config that the industry seems to assume we all use.

Am I correct that upgrading to Win2000 requires a complete reformat of all drives and reinstall of all programs? I seem to recall that there is no upgrade path from WinNT.

mflynn · 30th August 2003

It would help and give you some more time if you did aggressive cleanup.

I am not talking about just temps.

Old unsed programs in Add/remove. Lost programs off the root and in program files. Those not listed in Add/Remove.

*.dmp files.

Old backups, old user data files, graphics etc that the clients have thrown on the drive.

Some suggestions below.

Configure CleanMgr to max settings (note: been a while since I used NT but I think Cleanmgr is available)

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1
The above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all except compress, then

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1
As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun is the only thing that needs to run.

EasyClean1.7 <http://gswi.com/downloads.htm>
Run only unnecessary files and registry clean delete all it finds. If you have ME or XP in the “Unnessesary Files” type the word HELP in the skip box. Do not do Duplicate files!

System Mechanic <http://www.iolo.com/sm/index.htm> Do not do Duplicate files!

You may be surprised at how much space you can recover!

Mike

ranichols · 30th August 2003

Thanks for the ideas. cleanmgr does not seem to be on my system.

I think a lot of space got used up during service pack installs, where some "uninstall" info is stored on the C: drive. I'm not clear on how to remove that stuff.

But given I have a 2 gig c: drive, there may not be much I can do if Acrobat Reader 6.0 wants about 2 gig free on the c: drive to install. It is a real space hog.

But I'll start cleaning best I can, because I'm down to crumbs on the c: drive and that's probably dangerous for system stability.

mflynn · 30th August 2003

10-4 to that (system stability). As I said I didn't remember if NT had Cleanmgr!

Did I misunderstand, is this NT server or workstation. If server hence my ref to users.

Use the other programs I sent.

If your last update went well and has been running for a while then you can just delete the backup/uninstalls of these service packs. You could just keep the last one you did.

I don't think Reader actually requires that much free space something is wrong.

Another quick interm solution here would be to add another HD even and older HD.

Mike

**Bursley** · 30th August 2003

There is an upgrade path from Windows NT to Windows 2000. However with your situation, it probably wouldn't work as you don't have the disk space on the C drive to do so.
I don't believe that Windows NT came with a cleanup wizard as with Win98, ME, XP, and 2000. So a manual clean up would be required. You might just have to bite the bullet and do the upgrade.
Are you working with just Windows NT server or Small Business Server? SBS requires a full reinstall instead of an upgrade. If you are running SBS server, you might as well go with Windows 2003.