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  • Thread starter Thread starter Len Dolby
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Len Dolby

Having only a 40Gb HDD, space is at a premium, hence this question.

My PC is stand-alone, used by me alone. My "User Profile" occupies 1.4Gb -

What the blue blazes is in a "user profile" that needs that much space -
and, is there any way to reduce it ?
 
How much stuff have you saved to your My Documents folder?
When's the last time you emptied your Temporary Internet Files?

You might want to try the following:
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Internet Options.
On the General page select Delete Files in the TIF section.
In the box that pops up check "Delete all offline content" as
well.
Click OK.
Back on the General page select Settings.
Change the amount of disk space to use to a more reasonable
amount (100 MB should be fine). That will limit how large it gets
in the future.

Nepatsfan
 
In addition to Nepatsfan's response, also note that System Restore which is
turned on by default is set to the maximum, 12% of the drive. You can
reduce that by going to System in Control Panel, System Restore tab, click
settings and move the slider to the left to reduce the space. Note: this
will also reduce the number of restore points and how far back they go as
well.

If you don't use the Hibernation feature, this is not standby, it allows you
to turn off your system without closing open applications and having the
system return to the place where you were at shutdown, you can turn this
feature off as the hiberfil.sys file can grow quite large depending upon
what is open and installed on the system. Control Panel\Display\Screen
Saver tab, click Power under Monitor Power, go to the Hibernate tab and
remove the check from "Enable Hibernation."
 
Nepatsfan said:
How much stuff have you saved to your My Documents folder?
Click to expand...

ANSWER - Overall - 74 directories, about 1Gb total. So where/how should I
save documents if not in "My Documents"? Implication I understand is that
"My Documents" is part of User Profile - what's a directory that isn't ?
When's the last time you emptied your Temporary Internet Files?
Click to expand...

ANSWER - Do this at least 3/4 times a week - every time I do internet
financial transaction.
You might want to try the following:
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Internet Options.
On the General page select Delete Files in the TIF section.
In the box that pops up check "Delete all offline content" as well.
Click OK.
Click to expand...

ANSWER - DONE - as stated above, done regularly incl "offline content" as
routine
Back on the General page select Settings.
Change the amount of disk space to use to a more reasonable amount (100 MB
should be fine). That will limit how large it gets in the future.
Click to expand...

ANSWER - ALREADY SET at 80 Mb

So, the open question is where is "safe" to store documents, that doesn't
affect User Profile ???

Thanks for help to date - look forward to the answer. Sincerely, Len.
 
Michael Solomon (MS-MVP) said:
In addition to Nepatsfan's response, also note that System Restore which
is turned on by default is set to the maximum, 12% of the drive. You can
reduce that by going to System in Control Panel, System Restore tab, click
settings and move the slider to the left to reduce the space. Note: this
will also reduce the number of restore points and how far back they go as
well.
Click to expand...

ANSWER - was already set to 6%, now reduced to 4% (968Mb)
If you don't use the Hibernation feature, this is not standby, it allows
you to turn off your system without closing open applications and having
the system return to the place where you were at shutdown, you can turn
this feature off as the hiberfil.sys file can grow quite large depending
upon what is open and installed on the system. Control
Panel\Display\Screen Saver tab, click Power under Monitor Power, go to the
Hibernate tab and remove the check from "Enable Hibernation."
Click to expand...

ANSWER - I don't use hibernation - have removed the check. Overall result
seems to be a pretty good gain on disk space - nearly 1Gb more !!

Thanks for your help. Sincerely, Len
 
Sorry if my answer didn't quite measure up to your expectations
but I tried to answer the question that was asked. Your "My
Documents" folder represents around 70% of your current User
Profile. I think if you check the Temp folder located in
C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Local Settings you'll
find a sizeable portion of the remaining 30%.

Maybe instead of being worried about the size of your User
Profile you should consider getting a second hard drive and move
some of your files to it. Either that or move some of the files
that you don't use on a regular basis to some form of removable
media (CD, DVD). The real problem here isn't the size of your
User Profile. It's the fact that your 40 GB HD is almost full.
The only way to correct that is to make some space or add another
drive.

In the short term there are some other things you can do to free
up space. Turn off the Indexing Service. Then run Disk Cleanup
and make sure that "Catalog files for the Indexer Service" is
checked.

Nepatsfan
 
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