Windows XPPost your Windows XP related questions here.
Mission Statement
WindowsBBS is an online community dedicated to easily accessible technical support for those using Microsoft operating systems and other Windows software.
Our goal is to become the leading resource for computer users that require assistance with their day-to-day computer usage, including full support for networking PC's, virus & malware removal, system upgrades and general support questions.
If anyone can please help me get started with troubleshooting a problem on my son-in-laws Lenovo notebook (Thinkpad T series) running XP Pro SP2 , I'd be most appreciative.
Though I am not a full newbie, he presents me with a problem I had not seen before. Specifically, he is getting a c: drive full message when he tries to download new files on his PC...it contains a 92 gb c: folder which states that only has 242 mb free...but upon checking each folder on that partition, one by one, we cannot find any files/folders causing the drive to be full.
We cannot defrag the drive due to the limited remaining free space.
I am not sure where to start with this...if anyone can please either specify what, if any, additional information would help, or recommend some initial troubleshooting steps, it would be great.
BTW, we have run a couple programs which typically indicate where bloated files are located, but both Sequoia View and WinDirStat seem to show there to be quite a lot of free space.
We did remove temp files, and cleared Explorer's cache.
Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions.
Peter
Didn't find the information you thought to find? Check out these Similar Threads
Hi Peter. Normally disk space can be used up by System Restore points which by default take up 12% of the harddrives space.
Try following these steps to free up harddrive space:
1. Click Start< Control Panel< Add/Remove Programs and remove any programs that you don't use.
2. While your in the add/remove programs window click the button that says add/remove Windows Components and uncheck the checkboxes next to MSN Explorer and Windows Messenger. When thats done click next and then click finish when the process is done.
3. You can free up disk space by running Disk Cleanup. Click Start< All Programs< Accessories< System Tools< Disk Cleanup. When you run Disk Cleanup make sure you select all the checkboxes on the general tab and click the advanced tab and remove all the old system restore points. Click ok when you are done to allow disk cleanup to remove the files.
4. Also download and run ATF Cleaner. Make sure you select all the checkboxes and then click the empty selected button in the program.
5. Lastly download and run Auslogics Disk Defrag. This tool is much better than the Windows Defragmenter and you can still defragment your system if your harddrive is full.
Let me know if the computer has more disk space after performing the above steps.
upon checking each folder on that partition, one by one, we cannot find any files/folders causing the drive to be full.
It simply doesn't work this way.
Whatever right click on drive C>Propeties says, it's not a lie.
Windows needs at least 15% of a free space to work correctly.
Thanks so much for the list of steps...we had addressed system restore, but will try removing some software and loading the utilities to see what they can do to help...I have used search engines to find other posted suggestions, but none have recovered much space...hard to imagine where 90 gbs of hard drive space is tied up!
petergoode, There are a couple of other things that you should check. Check the size setting of the Temporary internet Files by right-clicking the IE Icon and selecting PROPERTIES > Settings Button. Set it to 100 Megs which is more than enough.
If your problem persists after doing all of the steps previously offered, it's possible that you could have some stranded System Restore Point files. That can happen under certain circumstances when some procedure has caused the System Restore Applet to lose contact with the Restore Points and not be able to delete them as it normally does. (Repair Installs have been known to do that.)
The fix for that is to manually delete those files. If you get an "Access Denied" error when trying to access the System Volume Information folder, you'll have to assign yourself permission to the folder. To do that in XP-Pro you will need to disable Simple File Sharing. Then a Security Tab will be available when right-clicking the System Volume Info folder that will allow you to assign full permissions.
The Permissions procedure is different in XP-Home. One way is in XP-Home is to run a command session and type: cacls C:\system~1 /E /G username:F and press enter.
<where username is your User Identity and C: is your System Drive>
It can also be done in XP-Home by booting to Safe Mode and logging on as the Administrator. From there the procedure is the same as for XP-Pro.
I'm not saying this will fix your particular problem but it's worth checking since I have had it happen on systems before.
Well, having travelled through some of the above steps, I still cannot determine what is causing the drive to appear full. However....I note that although windows explorer describes the c drive as having 86.4 gb capacity and only 3.71 gb free, a program such as WinDirStat shows the c drive as having 18.0 gb capacity. So, something obviously is odd here.
If this might help, here is the disc analysis from disc defragmenter:
Volume Preload (C:
Volume size = 88,527 MB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 84,706 MB
Free space = 3,820 MB
Percent free space = 4 %
I identified a web site wherein someone else with a Thinkpad had a similar problem...seems the default setting for the notebook was to create backups of the entire hard drive on a weekly basis, and store those in an inaccessible folder. The only way to access it was via Lenovos' Rescue and Recovery program...so, with five unnecessary drive backups deleted, there is PLENTY of hard drive space.
Hope someone else runs into this solution if they have a similar issue.
:
