Problem with XP install partition on hard drive.

[leetabix]

Thanks all for the help on my previous question-now time to pick your brains on another, this time a personal problem I've been unable to resolve.

The problem is low disk space on the partition I have windows xp installed. The total size of disk space used is different (more than) the sum of the folders within this drive. Size seems to be periodically increasing, and now I only have 600 ish Mb left where in fact I should have much more than that. I have no idea where this extra increase in disk space is coming from. If no solution presents itself I guess I'll just format the drive. It's in need of a format and it shouldn't take that long to recover the few things I had on it anyhow.

[Sparda]

Sounds like system restore is freaking out, I surgest you disable it and delete all restor points.

[leetabix]

This was my first concern, it has saved me about 400Mb in space, but I'll have to wait and see if the problem persists in future.

[Sparda]

The restor points from the old instalation are probably still there, if you tell windows not to hide anything, you will see a directory called "System Volume Information", that is where the fires for restore points are stored.

[VaKo]

Also check out c:documents and settings<the various UNs>local settingstemp , usually a vast amount of crap in there. You could also go threw application data and remove any caches for things like google maps or adobe bridge. They usually have a lot in them.

[uber_tom]

also rember that the phisical disk space is set in 4kb clusters (i think its 4kb for NTFS) so for example a file reported as 41kb will in actual fact take up 44kb, doesn't sound like a lot but if you have a lot of small files it adds up.

[leetabix]

Thanks for the help all, I'll go through that partition in a while and consider everything said here :).

[Uncle Toxie]

You may also want to check and make sure that your page file isn't getting out of control also. I have run into a few systems where Windows will expand the page file and suck up what free space you have left.

[leetabix]

Ah, I always assumed the page file was set according to how much RAM was present. Therefore for my system with 1Gb of RAM, this would create a page file of 1.5Gb. Usually you don't need this much, but I'm a bit apprehensive to delete page files in case of memory errors D;.

[moonlit]

Windows won't actually let you delete a page file if it's in use... You can however change the size it's allowed to grow to by going to System Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Change...

[Uncle Toxie]

Yupp, moonlit hit it on the head. The typical install will let Windows grow and shrink the page file as it sees fit. You can change it to a set size or move it to an independent disk. Didn't mean to make it sound like you should delete the page file, that would have been a bad thing :oops: .

[leetabix]

Ah yes, of course. Once you have over about 512Mb of RAM I guess the page file size is slightly overestimated, unless you intend to really rape the computer for CAD purposes or similar.

[leetabix]

Just to summarise, I have now recitifed the problem, and in the process cleared 3.2Gb. A very productive spring clean-would be a good idea if someone brought out a simple app that did what I did, which was to delete the contents of the Temp folder, thanks to Vako for that. Also, I reduced the page file size to the 2Mb default. Thanks to Uncle Toxie and Moonlit for that one also. And everyone else for their suggestions :).

[manuel]

Just to summarise, I have now recitifed the problem, and in the process cleared 3.2Gb. A very productive spring clean-would be a good idea if someone brought out a simple app that did what I did, which was to delete the contents of the Temp folder, thanks to Vako for that. Also, I reduced the page file size to the 2Mb default. Thanks to Uncle Toxie and Moonlit for that one also. And everyone else for their suggestions :).

Microsoft actually has a program for that: DisK Cleanup usually found in All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Cleanup.

Or simply go to start, run cleanmgr.exe and click ok.

:)

[moonlit]

Pleased to be of service :)

[Darren Kitchen]

It's often safe to move $hf_mig$, $NtServicePackUninstall$, and SoftwareDistribution to another partition. Win+F 'em ;)