C drive space

premal20 · Oct 18, 2010

Hiya,

i have a lenovo 3000 n200 with windows vista. my c drive shows that i have a total of 143GB of space, with only 8.80 gb free. I have barely 10GB worth of stuff on it that i know of which are mostly songs. i do not know where all the other storage space is gone! i have even moved some of my stuff to an external HD, but did not move the songs as then i would have had to do the whole itunes and iphone thing for my songs again! (too much work)

can anyone help me get some space freed up on my laptop??

thanks

djch129 · Oct 18, 2010

premal20 said:
Hiya,

i have a lenovo 3000 n200 with windows vista. my c drive shows that i have a total of 143GB of space, with only 8.80 gb free. I have barely 10GB worth of stuff on it that i know of which are mostly songs. i do not know where all the other storage space is gone! i have even moved some of my stuff to an external HD, but did not move the songs as then i would have had to do the whole itunes and iphone thing for my songs again! (too much work)

can anyone help me get some space freed up on my laptop??

thanks

Do a disk cleanup including removing restore points except the most recent one ( from step #11 to the end. ) That should give you back a lot of disk space.
Here is the tutorial : ( scroll past all the posts. Tutorial is at the end.)
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html

Lorien · Oct 18, 2010

This covers both space and performance - and in some cases both at the same time.

One very important thing to begin – do NOT use any Registry Cleaner or Registry Booster or Enhancer, or Repairer or Fixer software (or whatever it calls itself) no matter what it says (scans will tell you have thousands of errors just to get you to download and install the program or worse, buy it) or where you got it (even safe sites sell these products but they are not worth the headaches they can cause). Most do nothing of value and some can do great harm (to the point where you need to do a clean install to fix the problem – and that’s not even counting the fact that many such programs are actually malware in disguise). Vista keeps the registry clean on its own quite well and doesn’t need any help.

To improve your speed and space, do Disk Cleanup using: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html. Delete as much as you feel comfortable doing – nothing deleted there will harm your system in any way. This includes deleting the Temporary Internet Files. If you want to keep this from building, go to Tools / Internet Options / Advanced and check the box Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder whenever browser is closed and then that folder will always stay empty (except when you're using the program).

Also do an Optimization: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Optimize-Windows-Vista-for-better-performance. Do all of the options (or at the very least, consider them - many can help a great deal).

At least once every 2 months or so, run CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ with as many options as you choose to delete (but be careful because this program if not used properly and with caution and with you paying attention to what you are doing can delete important and even critical files that could cause a great deal of trouble).

System Restore can take up to 15% of your partition's space but that can be reduced. It's a trade-off. The less space you allocate, the fewer restore points you will be able to retain - but many people reduce this to save some space while leaving enough to save 3-4 restore points at least (which is usually enough - until you need them). Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html.

Go to Start / Search options and type in msconfig and enter and then double click on the program icon that appears. Go to the startup tab and uncheck any program that you don't need starting at startup. That will probably be the majority of items there - if not most of them (some are needed like the AV program and Windows Defender but most are there to make opening the source programs faster and make you think they're more efficient). This will free up a lot of RAM and help a lot in making your system faster (though perhaps not so much that you'll be able to notice the difference - but maybe depending on how much unnecessary stuff is loading at startup). When I did this on my system I removed over 90% of the entries and suffered no ill effects – to the contrary, I noticed startup was quicker, response times when working were better and I could open more programs at the same time and still have no problems, and shutdown was also faster. Better still, download Autoruns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx which is much superior to msconfig and click on the Everything tab and do what was suggested above (though here you can’t delete everything as with the start menu in msconfig because there are some very important files and services included which MUST not be deleted or it can cause serious harm to the system). If unsure, leave it alone.

You can accomplish some of these tasks (and more that aren't entirely related) by using http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm (which also searches for malware). I do this on a monthly basis just as a part of normal maintenance and I suggest you do the same (except for the registry cleaner – no not even Microsoft’s own product is entirely safe and the product has been removed from the paying marked for reasons unknown though it’s still available here for now but probably not for long). Make sure you select a full scan - it will take a few hours (mine can take around 5-6) but can work in the background so start it when it has enough time to complete.

You also want to have good AV and AS programs on your system (so no malware is operating in the background draining resources). Windows Defender is a good AS program. The new, free Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx is an excellent AV/AM program that has one of the least impacts on system performance and resources according to reliable sources and it does the job very well. If you're using MSE, you don't really need Defender and MSE will deactivate it when installed (but you would with many other AV programs - though some of them also deactivate Defender). I would also suggest downloading http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and running it monthly to catch anything that MSE might miss.

If you follow this advice and do it periodically (at least monthly) then I believe you will have as fast and clean a machine as it is capable of going given the hardware.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

prukeyhi · Oct 18, 2010

premal20 said:
Hiya,

i have a lenovo 3000 n200 with windows vista. my c drive shows that i have a total of 143GB of space, with only 8.80 gb free. I have barely 10GB worth of stuff on it that i know of which are mostly songs. i do not know where all the other storage space is gone! i have even moved some of my stuff to an external HD, but did not move the songs as then i would have had to do the whole itunes and iphone thing for my songs again! (too much work)

can anyone help me get some space freed up on my laptop??

thanks

i always delete the content of the folder windows\software distribution\download
as well (i dont know if it is safe enough, but that's what i'm doing )

EDIT-just found something about it here
http://www.vistax64.com/software/216789-safe-delete-downloads-softwaredistribution-folder.html
http://www.vistax64.com/software/216789-safe-delete-downloads-softwaredistribution-folder.html

djch129 · Oct 18, 2010

prukeyhi said:
i always delete the content of the folder windows\software distribution\download
as well (i dont know if it is safe enough, but that's what i'm doing )

EDIT-just found something about it here
http://www.vistax64.com/software/216789-safe-delete-downloads-softwaredistribution-folder.html

Kindly do one thing next time....
If A and B both replied to your question, and you wanted to reply back to A, please go to A's reply, click QUOTE under A's reply, then compose your reply.
That way A and B both knew to whom the reply was indended.
If however you wanted to reply same to both A and B, then please click MULTI, then both A's and B's QUOTE.
Like what I just did. I have your post at the top, my reply underneath.
Personally, I'd like to know to whom the reply is intended. If it is not for me, then I'll stay out. If you know what I mean.

premal20 · Oct 18, 2010

thanks! also i wanted to check, would it be a good idea to change my file system from NTFS to FAT32? is it safe and how to do it?

Shadowjk · Oct 18, 2010

premal20 said:
Hiya,

i have a lenovo 3000 n200 with windows vista. my c drive shows that i have a total of 143GB of space, with only 8.80 gb free. I have barely 10GB worth of stuff on it that i know of which are mostly songs. i do not know where all the other storage space is gone! i have even moved some of my stuff to an external HD, but did not move the songs as then i would have had to do the whole itunes and iphone thing for my songs again! (too much work)

can anyone help me get some space freed up on my laptop??

thanks

As most of the users on this forum have said RUN AN ANTI-VIRUS SCAN

A lot of viruses can replicate themselves and destroy your files and then replicate them again taking up HDD Space so be very cautious also check your system restore points and also Check your WiFi Activity if it is high then it may be downloaded data from somewhere on the Internet. If so turn your WiFi off and check the usage

Another point is if it is increasing rapidly could you tell us roughly how much Data is being Lost per Day

Hope This Helps,
Josh

C drive space

premal20

My Computer

System One

djch129

Banned

My Computer

System One

Lorien

Account Suspended

My Computer

System One

prukeyhi

Workaholic

My Computer

System One

djch129

Banned

My Computer

System One

premal20

My Computer

System One

Shadowjk

Network Enthusiast

My Computer

System One