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Hard Drive Space lost

post #1 of 20
2/3/06 at 12:45am
Thread Starter 
This is the 2nd time I reinstalled windows XP SP2 and then updated all the latest patches. Installed to the partition "C" 6.10 Gigs.

Out of 6.10 gigs 3.61 are taken by Documents and Settings, Program Files, WINDOWS that is it, not other folders or files, non hidden. I keep on getting low disk space and apperently I only have 327 mg lesft of space on "C"

Question is where did or does the space go?

I mean maybe I can believe that win xp SP2 with all the updates takes 2.08 Gigs of space which is what I have for my WINDOWS. I have very few aaplications installed on "C"

Anyhow, any ideas where is the space?
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post #2 of 20
2/3/06 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
any ideas?
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post #3 of 20
2/3/06 at 12:54pm
open C:
highlight every single file & folder
right-click, select Properties
This will give you 2 numbers... how big the selected files/folders are - and how much space they actually take up on the drive
if you're not seeing hidden files, this may not include the swap file
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post #4 of 20
2/3/06 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
Here, take a look at the problem, tell what you think:

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post #5 of 20
2/3/06 at 1:56pm
looks like the swap file to me. With a windows partition that small, most people create a seperate partition for the swap. Enable the viewing of hidden files and folders and repet the process.
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post #6 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr. roboto
looks like the swap file to me. With a windows partition that small, most people create a seperate partition for the swap. Enable the viewing of hidden files and folders and repet the process.
Hidden files can take up a lot of space.
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post #7 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:04pm
Thread Starter 
What is the swap file?

Hidden files are already enabled:

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post #8 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:09pm
Thread Starter 
Also look at this, I can click on any folder but "FILES" which is almost as big as the windows folder. Maybe that is the problem. But what is this "Files" thing that I cannot access?

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post #9 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:31pm
You haven't enabled to show all hidden files. There are roughly 8 files in the root directory.

How big is the paging file?
The Windows directory?
Program files directory?
Other directories?
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post #10 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:49pm
Thread Starter 
can you please tell me how to enable "all hidden files.' the screenshot I showed above is all I know, it says show hidden files.

How do I see the rest?
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post #11 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:50pm
Yea, show the hidden files. Go to My Computer and double click on C. Then select the Tools tab and select Folder Options. Select the View tab and click on the circle next to "Show hidden files and folders".
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post #12 of 20
2/3/06 at 2:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by g00nter
Yea, show the hidden files. Go to My Computer and double click on C. Then select the Tools tab and select Folder Options. Select the View tab and click on the circle next to "Show hidden files and folders".

I already did that, see the screenshot above. He is talking abotu more hidden folders.

How do I do that?
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post #13 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:00pm
You want to unclick the "hide protected system files (recommended)"
There will be a large pagefile. file in the root, roughly 50% more system memory. So in a 512MB machine pagefile will be 750MB.
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post #14 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:09pm
Thread Starter 
The file is huge 1.5 gigs.
What is this file?
Why is it so big?
What do I do about it?
Erase it or create more space?

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post #15 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:17pm
Virtual memory paging file
So big because it has to be, when running out of memory it uses the paging file.
You can reduce it though, depending what your computer use is. If you have loads of RAM, which I estimate you do and only use word excel etc can disable altogether. However if you play games/photoshop/dv editing it will require this amount.
Just buy a bigger HD. Oh creating partitions on the same physical drive is slower than a single partition per disc. Try moving a 1GB file from C: to D: It's the same physical drive so a single partition will be straight away, but because windows sees it as two drives it's like copying across two physical drives, but it can't do that as quickly.

edit what's in "Drive Information" never seen that in a fresh install "System Volume Information" is normal.
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post #16 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
Maybe I am lagging behind technology a bit. U remmeber back in the days when you install win xp and it takes up about 800 Mg of space. So, based on this I thought that 6 gigs of space would be more then enough for partition C where windows is. My HDD is 80 Gigs plus I have an external of 200 Gigs. yes I do a lot of load at times nad run a lot of applications.

But man, I have never thought that windows alone could take soooooo much space.

I'll just move 1 gig of space from D to C so that it will have 7 gigs of it.

man so much space just for running windows.
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post #17 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:32pm
Do a search for one of my posts a bit back, or see updated sig. You could also delete old system restore dump (heh heh I said dump)

I can get XP down to 800MB with XP Lite, although base minimum config.
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post #18 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:40pm
Thread Starter 
where do I get teh program "XP lite"
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post #19 of 20
2/3/06 at 3:54pm
http://www.litepc.com/
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post #20 of 20
2/3/06 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you.
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