[Ted Logan]

Hi all!

When I started seminary, I realized I needed a laptop. We bought - literally - the cheapest one we could find at Best Buy or Office Depot or something. It's an Acer.

Anyway, it works fine, but I have a major problem. Over time, my C drive has filled up. Now, I am not really sure what is filling it, to be honest, but it's pretty horrendous. It's 33.5 Gb in size, and Windows Vista is on it, as well as my Program Files directory and a few other things. Anyway, I was trying to figure out what was taking up so much space, so I started doing some tallies. I totaled up the Windows Explorer estimates of each main folder in the C:\ folder, and came up with an estimate of about 7.5 Gb used space.

So why does Windows say that I only have 2.31 Gb free?!?!

This has become a SERIOUS problem, because I frequently have noticed that an update to a program will download, install, and then I don't seem to get any space back from the downloaded file. Shouldn't a huge file that replaces tons of other files then be gone after it's installed?

Or, how about this one. Today, I backed up Heather's iPod and then tried to update its software, and I ran out of space on the drive. So I started trying to hunt down everything, and delete the software update file, and move the backup to my other drive, but I STILL had less than 1 Gb free afterwards. So I spent some time trying to free up space anywhere I can, and all I got is a lousy 2.31 Gb.

So here I am. My music and video files are all on my second drive (which is also near capacity). I try not to install anything on the C drive. But somehow it's full. And the crazy part is that I can't figure out where the space has gone!!!!

Is there a way to figure out what phantom files and programs are taking up all my space? Is there a way to clean up the disk so that all the unnecessary junk is gone??

[thesteve]

When was the last time you cleared out your temp and temporary internet files folders? I've seen my temp files have a ton of stuff in there. I can't imagine how full it would get if I wasn't checking it regularly.

[Ted Logan]

I ran the "disk cleanup" utility and it freed up a measly 116 Mb of space. I'm looking for 24 Gb of missing space

[Ted Logan]

I just ran a program called WinDirStat that shows exactly how space is used on the hard drive. My discovery:

Windows takes up like 22 GB.

Seriously?!

And the worst part of the worst part is that there's nothing I can do to reduce it. The vast majority of the space is in the winsxs folder, which is apparently a behemoth that you simply can't mess with.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

ok...

Try running ccleaner as a first step. It is a free utility that gets rid of the crap windows generates.

Also, run disk cleanup again, only this time, make sure to before exiting it to switch tabs to "more options" hit clean up, then delete under system restore and shadow copies. Often if that has not been done in a while the space savings are huge. I have seen 10 gig appear after that more than once. Usually it is good for at least 2.

This should be the safe way to mess with the behemoth without getting stepped on.

[Ted Logan]

Thanks, Bill. I used a utility that removes files that are no longer needed with Vista SP1, but it makes SP1 irremovable. That freed up about 1 gig, and then I used CCleaner, and removed all but the most recent backup.

So now I'm up to 3.78 G free.

The thing I don't understand is why Windows has become such a monster. I mean, why should an operating system just simply grow like this? I read an article explaining how the winsxs directory works, but it sounded to me like it's basically a giant cabinet that all the OS files are in, and anytime the OS requires another copy of that particular file under a new version, it makes a new folder with the same file stored under the new version name, so you might have tons of identical files that only work with particular programs based upon which version/update of Windows it's connected to. Or something. The implication seems to be that Windows Vista (and presumably Windows 7) is a slowly expanding organism that is sure to consume any hard drive given an indefinite amount of time and continued system updates. Or something.

I really, really wish I could use a low-maintenance/low-profile OS.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by Asparagus Squid

Thanks, Bill. I used a utility that removes files that are no longer needed with Vista SP1, but it makes SP1 irremovable. That freed up about 1 gig, and then I used CCleaner, and removed all but the most recent backup.

So now I'm up to 3.78 G free.

The thing I don't understand is why Windows has become such a monster. I mean, why should an operating system just simply grow like this? I read an article explaining how the winsxs directory works, but it sounded to me like it's basically a giant cabinet that all the OS files are in, and anytime the OS requires another copy of that particular file under a new version, it makes a new folder with the same file stored under the new version name, so you might have tons of identical files that only work with particular programs based upon which version/update of Windows it's connected to. Or something. The implication seems to be that Windows Vista (and presumably Windows 7) is a slowly expanding organism that is sure to consume any hard drive given an indefinite amount of time and continued system updates. Or something.

I really, really wish I could use a low-maintenance/low-profile OS.

Vista for sure, and xp before it did that. I haven't noticed any major changes in 7 that way. 7 seems like it can go much lower profile.

Any OS will be a slowly expanding organism. Linux I have seen can do some similar things. It is the curse of backwards compatability.

Have you thought of switching to a light version of linux? Some of them are quite small. The downside is I assume you need libronix or bibleworks for seminary, which I never quite got running right in linux. (I at one point could get logos open, but it couldnt open any books.

[Ted Logan]

So Windows 7 doesn't seem quite as gigantic? Given how much larger hard drives are now though, is that 20 G on a 200 G hard drive versus 20 G on a 33 G hard drive, though?

Anyway, yeah, Bibleworks is very dear to me now, so I don't think I want to jump the Windows ship. Especially since it cost almost as much as this laptop...

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by Asparagus Squid

So Windows 7 doesn't seem quite as gigantic? Given how much larger hard drives are now though, is that 20 G on a 200 G hard drive versus 20 G on a 33 G hard drive, though?

Anyway, yeah, Bibleworks is very dear to me now, so I don't think I want to jump the Windows ship. Especially since it cost almost as much as this laptop...

Windows 7 can run on netbooks fine. I'd be tempted to say it's time for a bigger laptop hard drive. Can you manage installing one? I have an idea.

[OiBoyz]

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

I have an idea.

Uh oh.

[SporkV]

i find it hard to believe its only a 33gb drive, is it possible theres another partition on there sucking up disc space?

[Cam42]

Now that you bring up that point, download and burn Gparted to a disk and boot your computer from it. Tell us what it looks like, but don't touch any buttons.

[OiBoyz]

This probably isn't your problem, but years ago my dad's computer was saving duplicate photo files. His hard drive was filling up fast until he discovered it.

Also, I'm sure you've probably thought of this, but have you dumped any unneccessary restore points?

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by OiBoyz

This probably isn't your problem, but years ago my dad's computer was saving duplicate photo files. His hard drive was filling up fast until he discovered it.

Also, I'm sure you've probably thought of this, but have you dumped any unneccessary restore points?

I think he did as I gave instructions on that.

[Bryan]

i defragged a long time ago and it freed up some space.