Clearing PC space.

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Scudder

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Hope someone can help with this: I get a pop-up that says I'm running low on space. It asks me if I want the PC to eliminate unused files by clicking on a balloon. I do that and it shows a number of checked boxes, all of which seem to be some sort of temp/unused files. It says if I want to get rid of them I will gain 26,000 KB of space, but when I check yes all if does is free up 222KB. I don't get it

I'm new to this forum so I may not be able to find this board again. If anyone can help would you please email me at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

THANKS

Edit: Removed the e-mail address - Quadophile
 
Loose the email address, unless you like spam. :)

You can try using CCleaner

Welcome to PCR :thumb:

EDIT: I fixed the link, not too sure why it didnt work. It was working earlier......:confused:
 
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You have been given the right advise. On the other hand it looks like your hard disk has reached a capacity where you need to make up your mind and upgrade to a bigger disk. Can you give us some more info about your hardware?
 
thanks for replying

I was hoping there would be some technical idea instead of buying/installing a new product. I just don't see how the PC says I'll free up 26,000KB and then only free up about 300K. I have debugged the computer so I don't think it's that at all. And I've removed most of my old programs just to get space but something is off...
 
Nobody is asking you to buy a program! ccleaner is a good utility for the very purpose and it can remove unneccesary files and help clear up space for you. The program is Free to download.

The reason you are not able to delete the files is because they may be in use hence locked. The program is what will help you with the task. Besides, we need more hardware and software information from you to enble us to help you better.
 
It's a Dell Pentium III. It's supposed to have 7.85G capacity. I have added memory a couple times before. I am just BARELY competent enough to know just a little bit about it, but of course a LITTLE bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. I think I added another 256 last time. What I don't get is if you've deleted all the temp files and the unused programs, I don't know why that shouldnt give you a BIG amount of free space. Why doesn't clearing these things out - I mean, we're talking about a finite number of space and if you're removing things why doesn't that big block get smaller?
 
It might be worth looking at de-fragging the disk to see how much space that frees up.:thumb:
 
Hi -

It sounded like CC was something to buy,sorry. I clicked on the link but it seems to be broken. I can search for it later I guess.
 
Can you also tell us what operating system are you using? What programs are installed on your computer?

It will also help to know how much space has been used up by the hard drive. My understanding is your hard should be almost to the capacity so it will give you problems anyway, you must consider replacing it with a bigger one.
 
Defragging may not work if the hard drive is filled to the brim, the system will hang orthe operating system will crash! Defragging requires free space to rearrange files and put them in order, if the drive is full there is no point in defragging, replacement is the only solution. Besides one needs free space for the page file to work as well.

I have mentioned before on this very forum that I consider replacement when I exceed sixty percent of hard drive space. Some will agree some don't.
 
Quadophile said:
Defragging may not work if the hard drive is filled to the brim, the system will hang orthe operating system will crash! Defragging requires free space to rearrange files and put them in order, if the drive is full there is no point in defragging, replacement is the only solution
Click to expand...
Very good point Quads, I missed that one! Oops.

Is there any way of copying off some of the data (temporarily) to make some space available? Just a thought:thumb:
 
More info

I'm running Xp and I only have a short list of programs (I'm sure you don't want THAT info)

I ran CC and it freed up a little more but not a lot. I unchecked "recent docs" and "run(in start menu)" because I wan't sure I wanted to lose recent docs.

In my cryptic (and probably unusable) notes I had written 320 sdram and then pny tech: 256 sdram (256 S100). Confusing, eh? It was supposed to mean something at the time.
 
What takes up a lot of space is QUicken. I asked them if I could run it off a disk (instead of it living on the PC) and they advised against it.
 
CITech said:
Is there any way of copying off some of the data (temporarily) to make some space available? Just a thought:thumb:
Click to expand...

Yes, that option is there, but, only when another drive is available since running programs on this one will be difficult. Even a cd writer program may not work as a full GB of space is needed for that. Scudder it appears does not have the space to spare.

What I would do in his situation is to install a new drive and copy the data from the existing one set up as a slave.

But, I am not sure if Scudder is upto it. However, we will try to help him to the best of our ability.:)
 
slave, eh?

that sounds interesting ;) I'm not sure what "install a new driver" even MEANS. oy. Hopeless. I have backed up my files on a disk to save them, but of course that isn't of any help here
 
When XP is freshly installed it takes up about 1.2 GB of space and gets fatter and fatter as time passes, updates also add to that.

Program folder also has the same tendency and grows bigger and bigger, the page file is usually 1.5 times of ram so that space needs to be free as well. The amount of data one has also takes up space. In my opinion a 7 GB hard disk is too small to really do justice to Windows XP anyway.
 
Scudder said:
that sounds interesting ;) I'm not sure what "install a new driver" even MEANS. oy. Hopeless. I have backed up my files on a disk to save them, but of course that isn't of any help here
Click to expand...

There many on this forum who did not know in the begining whether the cd tray was a cup holder or the drive itself, you are far better in that respect ;)

Our motto here at PC Review is help folks fix their computers without having to spend money, only in the worst case scenario we may be helpless.

Scudder, where do we go from here? Can you tell us how much data is actually on your disk? Goto My Computer and click the drive and read the information on the left, I assume you hace only one partition and that would be C:
 
Your hard drive is full ... that has nothing to do with Ram you keep quoting ... you need a bigger hard drive. That will cost money, and in my opinion that PC is not worth spending any money on it.

Buy a new PC. ;)
 
ahhh, $$$. there's the rub. thanks for your reply -- unfortunately ain't got that dough. alas. thanks though
 
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