I'm no guru, so if I err, it'll be on the "safe side".
Are you sure your computer is virus/trojan/adware/etc free?
Have you done any system maintenance as a regular thing?
If you have multiple users, have they done so?
To do system cleanup, click Start, Programs, Accessories,
System Tools, Disk Cleanup. That will get rid of a lot of
useless crap if you haven't kept cookies , web pages, temporary
files, etc. under control.
Oh, and no, things are not being duplicated. It may LOOK like
they are, but they aren't, unless YOU duplicate them. NEVER
remove any duplicate files from any System folder such as
windows, i386, dllcache, etc.. If you don't know for certain
what it is, leave it alone or you could end up pretty mad at
yourself.
You said:
"All Users", "Default User", > "Gary J. > | Monreal",
GaryJ~1~Mon" and "Owner". Why is this? This
directory is over > | 3.55GB itself...WHY? IS something being
duplicated?
"All Users", "Default User" and "owner": Do not delete those; I
believe they are system created and I don't know how important
they are. You CAN delete any temp files or temporary folders in
them, though. Those won't account for much lost space though.
"Gary J. | Monreal", GaryJ~1~Mon" : I'm sure you can delete
those, BUT(t) do NOT delete them until you check to see if
there's any data in them that you want!
Let's start from the beginning: Which ones show up on the boot
screen after you do a bootup or Restart operation? Do you
have/know the password for each and every one of them?
You cannot delete the last user profile with Admin privilegs:
That one and the hidden Administrator Account are necessary to
maintain the system.
Here's where you can get the straight skinny:
-- Click Start, Help and Support
-- Enter "delete user" with the quotes
-- When it finishes searching, look down for "Full-text Search
Matches (x results)"
-- Click "User Account Overview"
-- Click "User Accounts on a computer that is a member of a
workgroup or is a stand-alone computer"
In particular, read the NOTE on that page. In amongst those
pages you should have all you need to know and then some.
Now go ahead and delete any users you wish to on the bootup
screen, using any Admin account that you normally use.
Once the bootup screen is as you wish it, start Explorer and go
to
c:\documents & Settings.
There you'll find the various names you mentioned above.
Select one, say Gary J and then click My Documents (which is the
My Documents for ONLY that one user. If there's nothing in there
that you want, work your way back up to Gary J and delete Gary J.
You can delete each name there, which also deletes everything
under it, as long as the name is NOT on the signon screen when
you boot up. So, don't delete the name you want to use!
Also, don't empty the Recycle Bin until you're done and are
certain that everything you deleted is actually uneeded. After a
week or so, then empty it if nothing shows up missing.
Hints:
If you look at the Properties for any folder, it'll tell you how
you how big that folder is. It's probably just one folder taking
up any amount of room. My documents should be the biggest one in
a normal setup.
Do NOT delete anything here, but take a look at the Properties
for c:\windows and c\Program Files and you'll get an idea where
most of the space went to. If those two total over say 12 Gig,
you're just plain running out of room for anything but small
files.
If the My Documents folder that you want is large, you CAN move
it to the other drive. But, do NOT use the Copy command to do
that! That's a system file and is necessary. Instead right
click on My Documents and you'll see how to move it.
G'luck!
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