60 gig Hdd.............nearly gone!!

[peter4076]

I have a Dell laptop loaded with Win7 32 bit with all updates. I haven't got much loaded on it, because only use this lappy every now & then and holidays, also boot it it up every two weeks to download updates for avast, malwarebytes, CCleaner, Firefox & Thunderbird.
I have (according to add & remove) 18 applications, but alas on my 60 gig Hdd (56.70gig really) it is showing 1.7 gig free!!!!, these applications are M$ Office, Snaggit, Revo Uninstaller, WinRAR, as you can see quite small apps. I don't understand how O/S and 18 programmes come to over 54 gig, any ideas?
Your thoughts as always most appreciated.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

My guess would be that the space is being eaten up by System Restore. You can restrict its appetite by the slider in the SR configuration.

You can also regain more space by turning off hibernation if you don't use it.

 

[richc46]

Welcome
Not good to guess donwload windirstat and see exactly what is taking the space.
http://windirstat.info/

System restore takes up a lot of hard drive space.

 

[pparks1]

Use something like WinDirStat (as suggested above) or TreeSizeFree to see exactly what folders are taking up space. Sometimes utilities like these put a spotlight on a folder with large log files or something else you might be totally unaware of.

 

[peter4076]

Thanks for the swift response. Also failed to mention the laptop is Dell Inspiron 1300 (quite old in this day & age) it is also loaded with Ubuntu 10.10 (643 Mb) also 2 gig memory. will download the above a bit later after dinner (nearly 6pm here) will post later.

 

[Maguscreed]

You could also just try using the disk clean utility in windows.

just go to the start bar search box and type disk cleanup and hit enter.
follow the instructions provided.

 

[peter4076]

Disk clean only found 13.3 Mb.
I have installed Windirstat, and has come up with my biggest drain on the Hdd 19.6 gig (38.5%) it is (windows.old) what is that, three months ago I done a clean install over WinXP with Win 7 (32 bit only) because I could. Is this safe to delete?

 

[pparks1]

Yes, it's safe to delete. It's the backup of all of your old files when it did the upgrade. As long as you aren't missing anything that you might need on your upgraded system, feel free to delete and get that space back.

 

[thebigguyconnor]

Disk clean only found 13.3 Mb.
I have installed Windirstat, and has come up with my biggest drain on the Hdd 19.6 gig (38.5%) it is (windows.old) what is that, three months ago I done a clean install over WinXP with Win 7 (32 bit only) because I could. Is this safe to delete?

Even though you said you did a clean install, becuase you have this file makes me think that you actually did an upgrade. Check out the folder and save anything important and then delete!

 

[peter4076]

I couldn't do an upgrade over WinXP, I had to go the whole hog. I'm doing a 19 gig delete as I type on this desktop computer, will be great to see some space.

 

[DaGooN]

don't Hibernate & pagefile Take up a nice bit of space to.

not sure, but when you said you done a clean.. did you do a advanced or normal?

Advanced Disk Cleanup
-Press the Windows + R keys, type cleanmgr /sageset:1
-Tick the options you desire. Click OK and close out the window.
-Press the Windows + R keys, type cleanmgr /sagerun:1
(note - there is a space between the r and the /)
This will then clean all the boxes you ticked.

 

[peter4076]

Have deleted Windows.old, and claimed back 19.6 gig, so pleased with that..........Cheers.
DaGoon: I done a normal clean diskup, not the advanced, will do that next time, will also look at Hibernate & Pagefile, if I can find them!
Thanks for all your help, been great.

 

[pparks1]

If you have a desktop and don't hibernate, run this to remote the hibernate file.
powercfg -h off in a command line as admin.

Hibernate files will equal your RAM. So, if you have 2GB of RAM, you would have a 2GB file, and 4GB RAM would be a 4GB file, etc.

 

[peter4076]

pparks1. All done, Much obliged to you all.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You can control system restore’s allotted space from control panel/system/system protection.

If you go to that location, you will see the first screen below, with the configuration button. If you poke the configuration button, you will see the second screen below.

You can move the slider in the second screen to control the space system restore can use. Note that mine is set to 5.4 gigs and I am currently using 4.76 of that—which covers about 7 restore points dating back a couple of weeks. How much you should allow is personal preference, subject to the overall size of your hard drive—small in your case.

 

[peter4076]

ignatzatsonic: Have just done that as well, I now have more space that I can fill, still it's been great, a really good forum.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Peter.



Have a look at these 2 tutorials at the links below.


Disk Cleanup : Extended

How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space

 

[peter4076]

Just going out to the city in a couple of minutes, will check the links when I get back.