I'm a dodo with computers. I have an XP home service pack but cannot run
any programs, not even Adobe Acrobat reader because I keep getting a
little pop-up stating I am critically low on disc space, like 14MB. I
try disc clean up to no avail. I even had to turn off System Restore
because I had <200MB and was informed by this thing I can't run SR with
so little MB. Before this thing goes out the window, any suggestions? I
have a Compaq PresarioX86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 Genuine Intel 531
MHz, BIOS Compaq 686C3, 1999 with 128 MB of RAM and I think 25.2 GB.
Anyway, I'm a simple girl. I only want to use my computer to surf the
web with AOL, use my simlpe Lexmark printer, down load dobe PDF files on
occassion and let my son play little games like "Spy Fox". I have no
scanners, no photos, no Word or office stuff.Help please!
You are running out of space on your hard drive. If adding a second hard
drive is out of the question, you need to review the files stored on the
current drive, make some choices and remove some files.
Open Windows Explorer. On the toolbar click Tools> Folder Options. On the
screen that appears, click the tab titled "View." Change the settings to
show hidden system files and folders. Also on this same page, uncheck the
box to hide system protected files and folders.
Review Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall programs that you do not use. NOTE:
If you have AOL and have reinstalled it, you may have multiple
installations of this software. If you select to remove AOL from Add/Remove
programs, their uninstaller will list all of the existing installations.
Choose to remove all except the one that you use.
If there are files in the Recycle Bin, delete them. If you use Norton's
protected bin - files deleted from the Recycle Bin end up here. You need to
empty the protected Bin as well.
Check the temp folders. Disk cleanup rounds up many of these files but it
leaves files 14 days old or less behind. The temp folders are found here:
Documents and Settings\Local Settings\<user account>\Temp
Windows\Temp
Do not delete the folders - just delete their contents.
Adjust the amount of reserved disk space for Recycle Bin: Right click the
icon for Recycle Bin and select Properties. By default this is set to 12%
of the drive. Reduce this by moving the slider down. May want to try
halfway down for starters.
Adjust the amount of reserved disk space for Temporary Internet Files. In
an Internet Explorer window, click on Tools> Internet Options. Before
making any changes regarding size, delete the contents of these folders. On
the General page, click the Delete Files button. On the dialog screen that
appears, check the box to delete offline content. Click OK. Let this
finish. Then click on the Settings button. In the dialog that appears, move
the slider down. Cutting in half is reasonable. Many folks run with this at
a very low setting 0-10MB but a more conservative setting would be around
100 MB.
Review your personal data files. Delete things that are no longer needed.
Zip up files that are accessed seldomly or, if possible, move them to other
storage (CDR, CDRW, zip, etc). XP has built in zipping functionality. Easy
and quick to use. Check Help and Support for more info on this feature.
NOTE: For very important files that are being moved to other media, make at
least two copies. If one set gets damaged, you'll have a second one (or
more) to fall back on.
If this is a desktop computer, consider *not* using hibernate. Control
Panel> Power Options. If there is a Hibernate tab, uncheck the box for this
feature. Click OK. Since this system has 128 MB of RAM, you've just
regained 192MB of space. Not a huge amount but when working with a smaller
hard drive, every bit of space counts. That change amounts to almost 20% of
a gigabyte that can be used for other things - almost the minimum amount to
keep System Restore interested in monitoring your system.
After all of that deleting, uninstalling, removing, zipping, etc., use
Start> Run> Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Defragmenter. NOTE:
Disk defragmenter will not be able to run unless there is at least 15% free
space.
