Windows Vista Hard drive full

I have seen that my Windows folder has 13.5 gigs. Isn't this a lot? I was under the impression that Vista would take up 4-5 gigs. I recall that in XP, I could see the installation files for updates, and delete them if I was low on space, but I'm not sure what to do in Vista--I didn't see any such files in the Windows folder or the System 32 folder either. I installed WinDirStat but didn't see how I could use it to clean up anything--and I sure didn't want to just blindly click on their "clean up" command without knowing what it would do.
Any suggestions?

The reason why I even brought this up was that I was trying to back up my 2007 office settings, and Microsoft decided that 2007 users no longer needed a save my settings wizard. The Windows Easy [sic] Transfer wizard told me that I needed 9 gigs of empty space on my hard drive to copy 67 megs of Office settings data, so I need to clean up some space.

 

Here is my on-going list of things to do to reclaim disk space. Surprisingly, WinDirStat is the first item on my list. Most of them are straightforward but if you feel apprehensive or unsure about running something, just ignore it. Items 5 - 9 will regain the largest amount of space. Here they are:

1. WinDirStat shows where disk space is being used, including a nice graphical display. Just let the mouse pointer hover over the coloured areas to identify different file types. It won’t remove anything but it will identify the large "˜chunks’ of used space. Download it here http://windirstat.info/
2. Remove temporary files. Click the Windows Orb (Start) > Run (if the Run command is not there, go to All Programs > Accessories and then click Run), type %temp% and press Enter. All the files that show can be safely deleted, however, there may be a few obstinate ones that refuse to go.
3. Delete any temporary files that may be left over from CD and DVD burning. Navigate to the hidden folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn\Temporary Burn Folder and delete all the files.
4. Run Disk Cleanup. However, read this before running it http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/serious-disk-cleanup-problem-caused-by-broken-registration/ If you have any of the large files mentioned in the article, don’t continue with it but run the Vista Disk Cleanup error bug fix http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/175654-disk-cleanup-windows-error-reporting-bug-fix.html
To run Disk Cleanup go to Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools.
5. If you don't use Hibernation you can save the equivalent in hard drive space as the amount of RAM that is installed by turning it off. In a Run window, type powercfg.exe -h off (note the two spaces) and press Enter. To turn it back on type powercfg.exe -h on and press Enter.
6. Reduce the amount of space used by system restore. Open an elevated command prompt by clicking the Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories and right-click Command Prompt, then "˜Run as Administrator’. To display the current parameters type (or Copy and mouse right-click > Paste) "vssadmin list shadowstorage" (not the quotes but the two spaces) and press Enter. To reduce (or increase) the disk space allocated, type (or Copy & Paste) "vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: /for=c: /maxsize=5GB" (not the quotes but the five spaces) and press Enter. This example assumes changing the space on drive C to 5GB. You may find that all the restore points have been removed after resizing so make sure the computer is behaving itself before reducing the space allocation. Also, make a manual restore point immediately after resizing.
7. Reduce the space used by the Recycle Bin. Right-click the Bin > Properties > Custom Size and amend as necessary. Also, if you have a separate hard drive, more space can be released by moving the pagefile to it.
8. The huge, Windows\winsxs (side by side folder) folder has a built-in function which identifies items that have been replaced by newer versions and it removes them.
8a. Also, there is a "˜run-once’ program in SP1 that will immediately clean up all the components that were replaced in the Winsxs folder when SP1 was installed. NOTE that once you run the program you will no longer be able to remove SP1 should any problems occur, so make absolutely certain your computer is behaving itself before running it. Firstly, check the size of the folder by right-clicking it, choose Properties and make a note of its size and the number of files and folders. To run the program, open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32, look for the file VSP1CLN.EXE (the capitals are for clarity only), right-click it, select Run As Administrator then reply Y to the prompt. Now check its size again. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much disk space you have reclaimed.
8b. There is no harm in running the program where SP1 was either included on the DVD or slipstreamed into the DVD before installation. Depending upon what has been installed, you may gain some disk space. The VSP1CLN.EXE program is described here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709655.aspx
9. If you have SP2 installed and are happy with its performance, you can use the Microsoft program compcln to remove files that SP2 has replaced. NOTE that once this program has been run you will not be able to remove SP2. To determine the disk space saved, have a look at the Properties (numbers and sizes of folders and files) in the \Windows folder both before and after running the program.

To run it, click the Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories, right-click Command Prompt then "˜Run as Administrator’. Copy & Paste or type %windir%\system32\compcln.exe and press Enter. If you Copy & Paste the command, use mouse right-click to Paste it into the prompt. Type Y to the continue message.

If you want to know which files have been removed, Copy & Paste and run the following dir(ectory) commands, the first one before running compcln and the second after running it:
dir "%windir%\" /b/s/a:-d> "%userprofile%\desktop\FilesBefore.txt "
dir "%windir%\" /b/s/a:-d> "%userprofile%\desktop\FilesAfter.txt "

Close the command prompt and double-click FilesBefore.txt then FilesAfter.txt on the Desktop to display the differences.

 

OK the SP2 cleanup took out several hundred megs--I now have 21 gigs used, and 8 gigs free. As far as other stuff, I use the cleanup utility with Windows and have done so several times over the last few days. I have already deleted all but the last restore point, and disabled hibernation. I have also run the Contig defrag (made by the sysinternals folks now with MS).

 

Is that all you removed. I removed more than 2,000 files and nearly 900 folders spread over 1GB.

I didn’t answer your question regarding Windows Updates because I don’t know for sure where they are located. They are not large but I have a pretty good idea they are stored in: \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore.

Delete or not delete, the choice is yours!

 

OK Arie I'll get to this later and then we can continue this thread.

 

Done, as can bee seen by clicking on the link to the left
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Folks can the iexplorer question be continued in another thread? I don't know if a moderator can split the thread or not, but honestly I'd rather have this thread focus on the question that I originally posed about clearing up this hard drive. Thanks.

 

Sorry, won't happen again

 

You have a 30, or, at best, a 40GB hard drive. That's going to be a constant source of frustration, and it is probably quite old. Do you have a desktop or a laptop? Desktops are a bit easier to upgrade, but honestly, the fact that you (apparently) have a 40 gig HDD at best, it's time to move up in the world.

Alternatively, if you have a new(er) computer, but a dirt cheap one (I'm going by your sig. which says Vista Home Basic) with cheap components. *HALT* I just read your specs.

So you have a 60GB drive. That's the only weakness in your system that I can see. You have 2GB of RAM, which is more than enougha good video card in the ATI Radeon and with 128MB of dedicated video RAM. Dell is a respected brand.

I've had to do this several times when upgrading to a new computer, and switching from one drive to another. You could run a mirror image (an exact copy) of your HDD to a bigger hard drive. You won't find a whole lot of drives under 160GB's. Maybe a 100GB would be enough for you, but then you might run into the same problem in 6 months to a year. I hope I'm not out of line but if you're in a bind for $, I can send you a 100GB for free. I only use Hitachi drives, as that's what IBM and Lenovo use, and in a decade of using them, not a single one has gone rotten on me. lol...Let me know.

 

Crunch appreciate the offer but I was hoping I could figure out a way to reduce any excess files like those left by Windows Updates as I said above.... I could always splurge for a new hdd but this laptop will only be mine for another year or two at the most and then this will be massive for what it would be used for....

I did try WinDirStat but I'm still not sure how to get it to identify unused files and delete them.

 

Haven't used WinDirStat in a while, but I recall that you either
- hover your mouse,
- right click with your mouse,
- left click with your mouse and it shows up in the top pane, or
- look in the Status bar at the bottom of the Window

Sorry for not testing it, but I can't install it on this system (and mine's down).

 

OK John I went and found 1.8 gigs in a cache now I "m under 20 gigs with about 10 free--using WinDirStat. I was expecting the software itself to "do" something to clean it up--I found it while I was looking for tools like CCleaner. But just using it to give you data on file sizes and to open explorer there is more than decent.

OK i hear everyone I gotta get a bigger hdd.