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tracking contents of hard drive

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by rebecca, 2006/01/03.

  1. 2006/01/03
    rebecca Contributing Member

    rebecca Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I'm at a friend's machine (Windows XP Pro, 40 GB hard drive), and the hard drive is showing up as just about full. Owners can't think of how/why this could possibly be.
    Is there a way to get a display of the contents of the C: drive that might show where exactly all the space has been committed?
    Thanks!
     
    rebecca,
    #1
  2. 2006/01/03
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Rebecca

    If you cannot get the info you require from Windows Explorer - go Tools > Folder Options > View > Show Hidden Files & Folders & uncheck 'Hide protected ....' then try Tree Size (freeware)

    To regain disk space ....

    Empty the Recycle Bin and set max size to, say 5% of drive

    Check the settings for Temporary Internet Files - 50 MB is enough - and delete them. In Internet Options > Advanced scroll down and check 'Empty Temp. Internet files when browser closed'.

    Also Start > Run > type in %temp% > OK. All files here are safe to delete - the latest 2 or 3 will be in use and cannot be deleted. Clear out the Windows\Temp folder too.

    Also check how much drive capacity is allowed for System Restore - reducing the size will reduce the number of possible restore points - your choice.
     
    PeteC,
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  4. 2006/01/04
    rebecca Contributing Member

    rebecca Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks, Pete!
    The individual things you suggested each gave us 1-2 GB of space back. Running TreeSize showed us that there were some 20GB in "Program Files" - we went to control panel > add/remove programs and found a dozen of their sons' games that were no longer being used. My friend had no idea games took up so much space - not having any experience with computer games beyond minesweeper and solitaire myself, I can't say the thought had occurred to me, either.
    In any case, we've now gone from 2% to 28% free space on the hard drive.
    Thanks for the help!
     
    rebecca,
    #3
  5. 2006/01/04
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    rebecca, while you are at it, run chkdsk and defragment the drives. Your friend would thank you for that :)
     
    rsinfo,
    #4
  6. 2006/01/04
    rebecca Contributing Member

    rebecca Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks, rsinfo!
    I actually did defragment the hard drive last night, but hadn't known about chkdsk until a half hour ago (I'm still in the process of familiarizing myself with XP; with ME I used to always run scandisk before defragmenting, but scandisk doesn't seem to exist in XP). I'll try defragmenting again now, to see if the job can be done more thoroughly this time (got a message about the computer not being able to defragment some files last night).
     
    rebecca,
    #5
  7. 2006/01/04
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    rebecca, you won't be able to defragment all the files on the hard disk thru Windows defragmenter. Some files are opened and cannot be moved by defragmenter though some commercial utilities claim to defragment them too. Don't be too alarmed if 8-9 files cannot be defragmented.
     
    rsinfo,
    #6
  8. 2006/01/04
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    also, it is safe to delete the contents of c\windows\prefetch dir, this dir can grow quite large.
     
    TonyT,
    #7
  9. 2006/01/04
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    yes its quite safe. Windows would rebuild it as and when the programs are run again.
     
    rsinfo,
    #8
  10. 2006/01/04
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    You'd better believe it :D :D
     
    PeteC,
    #9
  11. 2006/01/04
    rebecca Contributing Member

    rebecca Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks, all!
    After following all of the above advice, we're up to 36% free space on this C: drive. Mission successful! :D
     
    rebecca,
    #10

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