I have a problem with my C Drive on a older computer

[avalon warrior]

Hello there

For some reason on my old first PC I have almost no room left on it at all. I think I have less then 150 MB of space. I tried the disk clean up thing that cleaned up a bit of space. I was told to try and remove some programs. But when I look in the add / remove programs thing under control panel I don't really see anything that I would like to remove. Plus none of the programs really look that big in the first place. I have tried looking in the C Drive for temp files or maybe video files from video editing software but I could not find anything. One of my tech friends said I could try and make some room using a program called " Partition Manager " but I am too stupid to know how to use that/ The total size of the c drive like like 8 GB's I am not sure what made the drive so low on space. I recently installed Spyware Doctor, AVG Free 8.5 and I installed a bunch of crap that came with a 1 TB Western Digital MY Book External Drive. Like the " memo back up " crap that no normal person needs!!

arrrghhhhhhhhhh I guess if I have to I will start maybe taking off programs that I do not use. But I would like to be able to make sure I still have the correct and fill program installers so I can put the program back if I want to. I do not even know how to test that........

Ok well if anyone knows what I can / should do please let me know

Thank you

avalon warrior

[sunnyd]

Hi Avalon,
First of all, if you are doing your MS Windows updates, they take up a LOT of space. Second, you may want to try a program called cccleaner which is easy to find on the internet, it removes temporary program files, and does a great job of cleaning all temporary files you don't even realize are there. If you have done Windows SP3, that should have removed some of the excess MS update files and consolidated them into the new service pack. Which operating system are you using? I am not sure that partition manager will do anything much to really help you with a drive that small. As for the files you installed for the 1TB drive, you can remove those, you are correct, they are not needed unless you really intend on doing the entire backup program (I have 6 external drives and never installed anything to use them). If you have several music or video, or other document files on your pc, perhaps move those to the external drive. Just a few things for you to try, and I am sure there will be more suggestions for you from other members here. Good Luck

[Paladwyn]

One thing I do when looking for where space is going...is start checking each directory and figure out where the space is. With Win98 your biggest folders will be Program Files and Windows. Check all the others to see if there happens to be some space being eaten up. From there, just find your biggest directories and go down the line kinda keeping track of where it's going. Sometimes you can find a bunch of space being swallowed up on useless crap hidden away on some no-name directory that may as well be freed. Some P2P programs may have temp files stored..who knows.

That is my suggestion, check your directories to see just where it's all going.

[Fartingbob]

i would recommend you try TuneUp Utilities. Grab the free trial.
Use the Disk space explorer to find the folders and files that are taking up the most space (delete any you dont need, if your unsure what a file is, google it to make sure it isnt a important one. Any large setup files is a safe bet to make space. If you have a USB thumb drive or can burn CD/DVDs then save anything you think you might need later on onto that), then the disk cleaner to remove junk files. Finally, a good defrag if you have over 10% space free.

[Curmudgeon]

For the most part go to folder options and un-check the box "hide hidden folders etc.." then start poking around your documents folder as thats where most programs dump stuff.
You mention video editing. Look for media cache folders,many editing programs will have huge caches.
Memo back up? Is it possible this has reserved a lot of space?
Does the C drive take up the entire physical drive? If not and you have the room I believe Partition Magic will allow you to expand it.
I'm assuming XP.