Information on how to clear up hard disk drive
space...
If you are comfortable with the stability of
your
system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP
has
installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows
XP - to
erase all but your latest restore point and
cleanup even
more "loose files".. How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and
you don't
use it.. When you hibernate your computer,
Windows saves the
contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result,
the size
of the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the
amount of
physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to
recapture
the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the
following
steps: - Start the Control Panel Power Options
applet (go to
Start, Settings, Control Panel, and click Power
Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable
hibernation" check box, then click OK; although
you
might think otherwise, selecting Never under
the "System
hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab
doesn't
delete the hiberfil.sys file. - Windows will
remove the
"System hibernates" option from the Power
Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System
Restore can
use... 1. Click Start, right-click My Computer,
and then click
Properties. 2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you
only have
one) and click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish
to
allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB
(1024MB or
close to that...) 5. Click OK.. Then Click OK
again.
You can control how much space your Temporary
Internet
Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink
the size
it stores to a size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary
Internet
Files" section, do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of
disk
space to use:" to something between 64MB and
128MB.
(It may be MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete
all
offline contents" (the checkbox) and click
OK. (If you
had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or
more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet
Explorer,
re-open Internet Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your
system for
log files and temporary files and use that to
get rid of
those: Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all
the space
is being used. If you are concerned over less
than 5GB of space total
at any given time being freed up on your hard
disk drive
- then something is wrong and you would be
better off spending a little and putting in
a drive that is likely 3-8 times as large as
what you
have not and not concerning yourself over such
a small
amount of space OR you seriously need to
consider what you really need on the system and
what
should be archived.
Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home,
if your
storage area gets full - you either have to
decide what
you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a
new place
to store stuff that will accommodate everything
you
need. You don't walk into a warehouse of cars,
look at
the filing cabinet in the corner where you keep
all the records for the cars and decide that if
you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for
cars. ;-)
and stupid me, I forgot to