Dumb mistake on WinXP?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BobK
  • Start date Start date
B

BobK

Hi Everyone,

Well, I really did a dumb thing. I have WinXP Pro on a small partition (C
drive) and made the mistake of installing OfficeXP on the same 3 gig
partition. In an effort to run scanpst.exe to fix a pst file I needed to get
extra space on the C drive.

I cleaned several bak and temp files and then moved a set of files that look
like all the data files that I have been using in Office. Not only did the
files not provide much more space, but I can not find the folder that they
were originally in. So now none of my Office programs want to work. Excel
and Word want to install components for the program and when cancelled it
says "Excel not installed for the current user". It is a one user machine
with me as the administrator and only user.

So the files look like all the recent Excell and Word files that I have been
using but a few other files as well. I have all the files on another drive.

Does anyone know the folder that these files should be in on the C drive?

Thanks,

Bob
 
BobK said:
Hi Everyone,

Well, I really did a dumb thing. I have WinXP Pro on a small partition (C
drive) and made the mistake of installing OfficeXP on the same 3 gig
partition.
Click to expand...

My C partition contains XP Pro, Office 2000 AND Office 2002 and has only
used about 1.8 GB of disk space.
 
Gordon said:
My C partition contains XP Pro, Office 2000 AND Office 2002 and has only
used about 1.8 GB of disk space.
Click to expand...


Geeez, I am using 4.5 gigs and only have about 600 megs free on the
partition (it is really a 4.87 gig partition). I wonder what is going on? I
did have the sasser worm at one point but cleaned it.

I can't imagine what is using all the space. All my documents are on another
drive.

I am also not sure why my documents were showing up a second time on the C
drive. When I moved these files off the drive, all my Office programs did
not recognize the user.

Any thoughts?

Bob
 
BobK said:
Geeez, I am using 4.5 gigs and only have about 600 megs free on the
partition (it is really a 4.87 gig partition). I wonder what is going on? I
did have the sasser worm at one point but cleaned it.

I can't imagine what is using all the space. All my documents are on another
drive.

I am also not sure why my documents were showing up a second time on the C
drive. When I moved these files off the drive, all my Office programs did
not recognize the user.

Any thoughts?

Bob
Click to expand...

Hibernation can use HUGE amounts of disk space AFAIK, also your pagefile
could be quite big. I have my pagefile on a separate partition (waits for
the flame war to start.....) and My Documents are on another partition. I
don't have Hibernation enabled.....
 
Gordon said:
on?

Hibernation can use HUGE amounts of disk space AFAIK, also your pagefile
could be quite big. I have my pagefile on a separate partition (waits for
the flame war to start.....) and My Documents are on another partition. I
don't have Hibernation enabled.....
Click to expand...

I have My Documents on another partition. I don't know how to play with
hibernation or pagefile.

However, I moved a set of files to another drive that appears to be recently
used Word and Excel files. Now all Office applications do not recognize me
as the user. Error messages like Excel has not been installed for the
current user. But I can't recall where those file should go on the C drive.

Do you have any idea?

Bob
 
BobK said:
However, I moved a set of files to another drive that appears to be recently
used Word and Excel files. Now all Office applications do not recognize me
as the user. Error messages like Excel has not been installed for the
current user. But I can't recall where those file should go on the C drive.

Do you have any idea?

Bob
Click to expand...

Moving Office DOCUMENTS should have no effect on the applications. It looks
like you moved program files. I should move them back! Your Documents should
be in a folder such as C:\Documents and settings\Your User Name\My
Documents. You can move that easily enough to a different partition.
 
Gordon said:
My C partition contains XP Pro, Office 2000 AND Office 2002 and has
only used about 1.8 GB of disk space.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's physically impossible. Windows XP uses 1.5GB by itself
and two lots of Office will take up about 300MB+ each - there is *NO WAY*
all that could fil on a 1.8GB partition.
 
Hi, Bob.

Gordon's advice is very good, but maybe I can add a couple of thoughts.

Using hibernation is optional; it allows you to shut down your computer and
then just continue the same letter (or other program) when you start it
again. IF you use it, hibernation will create a file which MUST be in the
Root of the Boot Volume; in your case, look for a hidden, system file named
C:\hiberfil.sys. It will be just a little bigger than your installed RAM;
on my system, with 512 MB RAM, hiberfil.sys is 536,399,872 bytes and the
current version is dated this morning. To stop using hibernation (if you
are), go to Control Panel | Power Options | Hibernate and turn it off.

The page file can be on any volume with enough room, or it can be split
among multiple volumes. To manage it, go to System Properties | Advanced |
Performance Settings | Advanced. Under Virtual Memory, click Change. On
the next screen, you can set the page file on your volume C: to zero (or to
the minimal 2 MB), then pick another volume and Set the size for the rest of
the page file to go there. (I set it to System managed size; it creates a
page file of 1.5 times RAM, or 768 MB on my system.) If you change the page
file setting, you will need to reboot for it to take effect. After
rebooting, you can locate the old page file and delete it.

There is no need for Office to be on your boot volume. It will be just as
happy on any volume with enough room. In your case, if you want to move it,
just use Add or Remove Programs to remove it from C: and install it again on
D: or X: or wherever you want it. Once it is reinstalled and working
properly, let each program (Word, Excel, etc.) Browse to find its data files
once and it will remember those locations.

Of course, you will need to empty the Recycle Bin to actually be able to
reuse the space from your deleted files.

RC
 
Cerridwen said:
I'm sorry, but that's physically impossible. Windows XP uses 1.5GB by itself
and two lots of Office will take up about 300MB+ each - there is *NO WAY*
all that could fil on a 1.8GB partition.
Click to expand...

It's worse than that - it is a 4.8 gig partition and about 3.8 gigs are
being used. No other programs or data files are loaded on that partition. I
think I will just do a clean install.

I wonder if I should put office with the rest of my programs on a different
partition?

Bob
 
BobK said:
It's worse than that - it is a 4.8 gig partition and about 3.8 gigs
are being used. No other programs or data files are loaded on that
partition. I think I will just do a clean install.

I wonder if I should put office with the rest of my programs on a
different partition?

Bob
Click to expand...

I'd strongly advise the purchase of Partition Magic 8 or similar, resize the
C partition, maybe 20GB or so, depending on the size of the drive. Then I'd
relocate My Documents to the secondary partition (more for security than
anything else) and install Office - and any other apps - on D.

Basically, my set-up at the moment is thus: -

C - 60GB
D: - 60GB
E: - 60GB (this is storage for Drive Image 7 images)
F: - 20GB (mainly image files)
G: 1GB (Linux swapfile)
H: - 60GB (SUSE 9.1)
I: - 60GB (Fonts - I'm a complete fontaholic and I'm afraid there's no
chance of me drying out! LOL)
J: - GDG (General Dumping Ground)

Of course, this is raw disk size, it doesn't take formatting into
consideration, but you get the idea.
 
Cerridwen said:
I'd strongly advise the purchase of Partition Magic 8 or similar, resize the
C partition, maybe 20GB or so, depending on the size of the drive. Then I'd
relocate My Documents to the secondary partition (more for security than
anything else) and install Office - and any other apps - on D.

Basically, my set-up at the moment is thus: -

C - 60GB
D: - 60GB
E: - 60GB (this is storage for Drive Image 7 images)
F: - 20GB (mainly image files)
G: 1GB (Linux swapfile)
H: - 60GB (SUSE 9.1)
I: - 60GB (Fonts - I'm a complete fontaholic and I'm afraid there's no
chance of me drying out! LOL)
J: - GDG (General Dumping Ground)

Of course, this is raw disk size, it doesn't take formatting into
consideration, but you get the idea.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a 20 gig C=4GB, D=16GB and an 80GB split in half.

C= WinXP & OfficeXP
D= Backup
E= Programs
F= My Documents

I am going reinstall WinXP and Put OfficeXP on E with my other programs.
Then make C 5GB and D 15GB.

I am also setting up a nework with an older computer for a full backup of
the new one.

That has to work.

Bob
 
Cerridwen said:
I'm sorry, but that's physically impossible. Windows XP uses 1.5GB by itself
and two lots of Office will take up about 300MB+ each - there is *NO WAY*
all that could fil on a 1.8GB partition.
Click to expand...

Sorry, my install of XP SP1 used 1.2GB.
 
-----Original Message-----


I'm sorry, but that's physically impossible. Windows XP uses 1.5GB by itself
and two lots of Office will take up about 300MB+ each - there is *NO WAY*
all that could fil on a 1.8GB partition.
Click to expand...

It could if it was compressed.
 
-----Original Message-----


I'm sorry, but that's physically impossible. Windows XP uses 1.5GB by itself
and two lots of Office will take up about 300MB+ each - there is *NO WAY*
all that could fil on a 1.8GB partition.


.
Click to expand...

It could if it was compressed.
 
You might try taking a look at your temp folders and you
temporary internet files. They can hog a lot of sapce.
Every time I have problems like that they are usually the culprits.
The temp folders are

C:\temp and
C:\windows\temp
you temporary internet files should be in your profile folder I think.
 
It could if it was compressed.
Click to expand...

It is a very stupid idea to install an operating system on a compressed
partition or to compress the partition the OS is installed on.
 
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