Windows XP forum: Whats eating up my hard drive space?

Run auslogics disk defrag as a start.

Try the following utility.

ExplorerXP at www.explorerxp.com

You will get a directory tree with the size of each DIRECTORY !

Regards Pieter du venage

You say you deleted a number of files, but you don't mention whether you went back to the Recycle Bin and emptied it of all the files you just deleted. If you don't do this, then those files you deleted are still on your hard drive taking up space.

Hello Marie,
Right off the top. Good old Microsoft is taking your space for the swapfile. You can't do anything about it except to make the swapfile size fixed.
Yours truly
John Pocreva

Perhaps you should check to see if your paging file, the space on your hard drive used when memory usage exceeds your RAM, is still on the C: drive. Even though you've partitioned one physical drive into two logical drives and won't gain a speed improvement, you might want to move your paging file to the D: drive so XP doesn't keep looking to access the hard drive space for memory needs. You'll need to change the properties for both drives. Turn off the paging file for the C: drive and turn it on for the D: drive. I would also let XP manage the size of the paging file on the D: drive as it feels it is needed. In lieu of adding a second hard drive to gain performance when switching the paging file location, this should help with the disk space issue. Make sure you set your browsers to automatically delete usage history, temporary files and cookies, as well.

Good luck,

Britton

I found the paging file in control panel > system > advanced > performance > settings > advanced > virtual memory. This is where you can change the size of the paging file.

My first question is how old is your PC ? Is it a desktop ? You can buy hard drives 10 times that capacity for very little money. I've had my Gateway 710 for 8 years & have replaced the original drive with a larger Western Digital, took the Western Digital out of my old HP, & slapped that one in. Voila ! C & D drives. 320G & 120G master & slave. See what's available to put in that's compatible.
It's cheaper than a new PC, you don't really need to pay someone to make the swap ,cause you're just swapping drives in the same bay. Just make sure your PC has is disconnected from everything, open the case (be sure to ground yourself so there's no static) make the switch, reinstall OS & all that data you had backed up. You can update RAM, sound & video cards while you're at it.
If you can read, updating a PC is really not that hard. As long as you have a case, a power supply, & a motherboard, you have a computer.
However, if you have a laptop, you don't hve the option to update.

That is not entirely true. For a laptop, as long as you have USB ports you can merely attach an external hard drive.

Also, if your feeling adventurous, you can actually replace the hard drive in a laptop.

I had an old PIII Compaq laptop with a 30GB 5200 Rpm Hd in it (which was a defective design from day one and was replaced at least 3 times by my Dad - who offered it to me out of the trash).

I installed a newer Hitachi 60 Gb 7200 Rpm drive and a clean copy of Windows XP about 3 years ago. I dumped the entire Compaq software package that came with it) and I've been using it ever since. It's been as far as the Philippines (I was doing homework for an Solidworks class via email on vacation in 2007).

It taken a beating, too. Only one optical drive works sporadically and the usb ports are broken but its still good for web-surfing and I've got 2 other pc's ...

The drive bay is just inside the panel for the non-removable DVD drive. Open the DVD drive and you'll see the front of the Hard Drive at the top of the drive bay.

Then you install a Stand-alone version of Windows XP SPII (III might give you issues just 'cause III has issues, period). DO NOT USE THE COMPAQ OEM SOFTWARE!!!! Download any drivers you need off the net.

The physical format for the laptop drives is pretty standard. As long you get a drive with the same plug format (I bought the new one on EBAY!). Remember - Compaq/Hp is only an assembler of PC's (and they use the cheapest parts!!).

One trick ... just be sure you know exactly the plug format of the current drive and you should be fine.

I will give more details on this here this evening when I get home from work.

You MAY be SOL (especially on the Desktops).

Compaq's hard drives really suck for some reason. My Dad gave me 2 Compaq's (one desk, one lap) as they'd toasted the drives. I got both to work for a couple of months and then each baked out the HD completely.

The desktop (a WIN 98/ME unit) had some really odd (I think VIA or CYREX?) CPU setup with built in video and audio and it really was limited in upgrading to just 2 pc100-era memory slots, and a space for a 2nd optical drive.

The laptop I replaced the HD in was a 2700 series Presario that started out with XP Home in it so it had at least a fair hardware set. You do need one of those right angle screw drivers or to remove the DVD (3 screws I think) to get at it. There are 2 screws that point down just behind the DVD access panel. After you get them out the HD just pulls right out of the unit.

I would venture to guess that it is possible you have some serious limits on accessable size of HD's with these older units, too.

Frankly, given the low cost of new gear you would just be better to donate them to a recycler and buy something that can at least surf the web or play a minimal game without locking up or crashing due to video overload.

Anything pre-PIII 800Mhz with less than 500mb Ram, 16mb video and 30gb HD is only suitable for trashing. If it didn't start out with Win 2k or XP, it likely isn't worth a second try to fix it.

It was a Presario 2700 Laptop that origianlly came with XP.

I removed the 2 screws from front of the original 30 Gb 5400 rpm HD (I think it was a Toshiba) and installed a 60 Gb 7200 rpm Hitachi HD pulled it out and put the new one in. Then I took a RETAIL (as in not OEM or the original software version) of Windows XP and installed it.

I did NOT reinstall ANY of the original software that came with the PC. I didn't have most of it.

My version of XP recognized just about everything I NEEDED and getting the drivers for most everything else went pretty smoothly.

However ... the 2nd backup battery has not been recognized since the fix (both batteries were already toast anyway and most of the time so is the CD burner).

The USB ports worked for another year and a half (physically broken now - spouse abused!) and I still use it for surfing on AC power all of the time. I did rely on it for a while as a primary and used flash drives for backing up Quicken and CAD homework.

Hi people,
I teach computing in the University of South Australia, and this is a common problem that many students have problems with.

One of the first things that I suggest is Pagefile, followed by a Registry Crawler Program, and then Registry Healer.
If you go to TuneUp.com (Freeware Download) and run across your system, will solve many problems.

Empty the Recycle Bin.

Internet Explorer is rife with problems and on average is the MAIN problem with Virus/Trojan download and infections. To alleviate this problem "Download FIREFOX 1.0". Then go into programs and uninstall "Internet Explorer".

Restart "Firefox" and download that latest version of Firefox (3.0.5). With Firefox, you have the ability to empty all temp folders/files, passwords, cache etc when you log off.

I try to enforce in people's minds that digital photos, videos and music use up extraordinary amounts of Hard Disk Space. If you are a buff o this type of surfing &/or storage, buy yourself an External Hard Drive. To keep your computer purring along nicely, try to maintain a minnimum of at least one quarter of your hard drive - as free space. Just because it is there, does not mean that you have to fill it up. Each program on your computer has allocated itself a certain portion of your RAM & too, your HDD to run. The more programs you have, the less available RAM and space of your HDD.

Another common problem is that people load Mega/Gigabytes of information onto their Desktops. This means that every time you want to do something the computer has to run through everything on your desktop to start with. If you want to have everything on your desktop, right click on it and "Create A Shortcut" to the program or whatever, then go and file the original in My Documents or Programs.

Another way to free up space is: if you have several users in your startup screen, delete the ones that you donot use on a regular basis, as each user is allocated the same programs that you have access to. If you have four users on your computer, you have effectively taken up 250MB space that could be used for something else.

I trust that this may answer some of the questions of the problems that some people experience
Happy computing in 2009, if anyone wants more solutions, feel free to contact me at "ozziecuttlefish@gmail.com"

It's been years since I've played with Internet Explorer, but back when I did, I learned the hard way that IE and Windows Explorer are interdependent. What happens to Windows Explorer when you remove IE? Does it still work? Will opening My Computer still be possible, or useful?

Your advice has possibilities, but I am concerned that you seem to have a strong bias against IE. Running IE 7 in parallel with Firefox 3.0.5, I have learned that Firefox takes longer to boot up and may be a little quicker on the fly ... until you start loading it up with Add-Ons. I find that IE7 running with IE7Pro can pretty much match anything Firefox can do natively or with the bulk of recommended add-ons.

Internet Explorer 7 takes up almost 5 MB of programming space; Firefox takes up almost 27 MB (5 times as much, although both are negligible in terms of computer space. IE7Pro adds 8 MB, btw. Both use apparently similar headspace in terms of RAM usage (although this is hard to measure fairly).

Believe me, I am no lover of Microsoft, but you need to give the monster its due if you want your recommendations to remain believable.

Have you checked the amount of space that's taken up by System Restore? That usually (but not always) "eats" about 10% of your hard drive. You can easily lower that amount.

Go to the Control Panel, then System, the the System Restore tab. Then Settings. At that point, you can control the amount of your drive that is taken up by System Restore.

I use only 5%, but, then, I have a drive that's almost twice the size of yours.

But, this might help.

I would venture to say that you have too many "restore" points. Delete all but the latest,known to be good one.