Windows Vista Huge Winsxs Folder, X's Don't Close Programs, PICASA Won't Run

Friend's Computer - ACER Aspire Laptop, Windows VISTA Home, 32 Bit System. Tried to install Skype and got a message that there wasn't room on the C Drive. We moved 5 GB of photos from C to D and were able to install Skype.

In looking at the lack of capacity problem, we found that the C drive had only about 3 GB of 30 GB remaining. We did a disk cleanup but that freed up very little space. Used TreeSize and found that the Winsxs folder had about 15 GB in it. We used the Microsoft Support Center and ran the suggested compcln.exe file for cleaning out the Winsxs folder, but it closed itself within about 30 seconds. We tried running it a couple of more times but each time it closed itself out quicker each time. The last time, it only ran for about 5 seconds. We ran Malwarebytes which found 0 problems which surprised me.

Also, when we try to close a Window using the X in the upper right, nothing happens. The minimize/maximize button works sporadically. I can close, restore, minimize, and maximize using a right click on the window icon on the Task Bar.

We also can't open PICASA - error message CblockFile::Restore err-2, Thumbs2_index.db. I have researched that on the Google forums and think I have the fix for that but I want to wait on that til I get the excessive hard drive usage problem fixed.

Any suggestions. I'm fearing that we may need to go see Broni, but I thought I would post here first.

 

Hi Robert, sounds like the HD is not big enough to run Vista and all the Software.
Can you uninstall any unused Software in Control Panel > Add & Remove Programs to give it some space to complete tasks?

I read an article headed: Where's all my disc space going? (Vista) and Volume Shadow Copy is the biggest reason for "missing" space in Vista.

It might pay to Google that heading a have a read. Neil.

 

Arie,

I realize this laptop hard drive is extremely small. I didn't provide any information on the D drive (partition?) in my initial post. It appears that both the C and the D drives are 32GB each. The C is virtually full. The D only has one folder with about 5GB of photos and about a half dozen files (less than 1G) with long number strings for names. I assumed they were temporary files - I tried to take a look (denied access) and they contain a bunch of files that are named with four numbers such as "1034 ". I thought there might be a recovery console on the D drive but I couldn't find one. The owner is reluctant to go with a HD upgrade thinking that she might get a new one down the road a bit.

Neil,

We have uninstalled and removed all the stuff I was comfortable removing. I found a couple of suggestions on Google. One dealt with cleaning up "shadow copies" of backups and system restores - tried it but nothing happened. Most of the references I found cautioned against manually removing the Winsxs folder or any of the files in it.


Is there a way to either move some stuff - such as the big Winsxs folder - from the C to D. Or would it be feasible to eliminate the partition and have one drive of 64GB? Never done this sort of thing before so I am reluctant to strike out on my own.

 

Search "redirect" (Redirect a folder to a new place) in Help and Support. You can put the data on another drive and it appears in the same place.

On my sister's computer, I moved her data (Documents, Pictures, Music, etc) onto another drive years ago. She doesn't know that I moved it (wouldn't particularly care), but it has worked perfectly.

If the user has a large amount of files on the desktop, I (put them in a folder and) move them to Documents, then leave a shortcut on their desktop. I do not redirect the Desktop folder.

Matt

 

Matt,

I thought you had solved my problem but I can't get a "Location" tab when I click on "Properties ". I think I followed the instructions under "Redirect a folder to a new location ". However, when I right click on the "winsxs" folder, the dialog box only shows four tabs - General, Sharing, Security, and Customize. "Location" is not one of the tabs. I looked through the four available tabs but couldn't find any action that would let me "relocate ". Did I go wrong somewhere?

 

Like Arie said, I moved the user's (my sister's) folders, not Window's files/folders.

If you want to make space, move the user's data, not the system.

A long-term "set-up" has been to set the boot drive as only the operating system, then have any data files on another drive.

Keep the Windows system on the original drive, if it is not cluttered with user files it will work GREAT! (Tip: ...and keep the system drive defragmented as much as possible)

 

It appears that we can do little if any to the WinSXS folder. What I am planning to do is use Easus Partition Manager to enlarge the C drive to utilize most of the available space from the D drive. It appears to be pretty straight forward. The owner will be using the laptop to view a wedding from Germany next week so she doesn't want me tinkering with it until after the wedding. I will follow up with the results.

 

We installed Easus Partition Manager and were able to reallocate much of the D drive over to the C drive. All is well now and my friend is starting to shop for a new unit. Thanks to all.

 

Good Robert, trust all works well.

Thanks for the feedback.