Making more space on C drive? (WinXP-SP1 (Pro))

[mikelaz]

I'm trying to make more space on my C drive. In 'Program Files|Common Files|Microsoft Shared' there seems to be some scope.

1) In 'Proof' there are five 'LEX' files. I assume these are for MS Word. As I'm British, which ones can I delete?
2) I hardly use Word so can I delete 'ArtGlry' + 'Clipart'?
3) Are there any others that anyone can suggest?

TIA
Mike

[viking33]

Mike,
If you rarely use Word, do you really need a full blown word processor? If you only write small notes or letters, you might be able to use Notepad or Wordpad, built into XP. Then you can uninstall the whole Word program and save a ton of space. If you keep Word, you should be able to dump Clipart, etc.

Check out your Windows folder for any .txt type files. They are good candidates for deletion. Also .avi ( video ) usually in tutorials. Screensavers can also go .scn. I assume you have cleaned out your temporary Internet files folder and any of the Temp folders?

I suggest you D/L a copy of System Mechanic. It's a great utility to do a LOT of cleanups for you. You will be amazed at the wasted space you can reclaim. <img src=/S/fanfare.gif border=0 alt=fanfare width=31 height=23>

Bob

[jscher2000]

If you have MS Office, the installer lets you isolate and remove selected parts of its tools and support files. MS Works, I don't know. But because bits and pieces tend to be placed here and there, I think it would be safer to try a selective uninstall then simply to delete.

I think there might be a way to redirect your IE cache and various other space hogs to another drive.

Partition Magic and similar products might be able to enlarge C by robbing sectors from D (etc.).

[mikelaz]

Thanks for the advice guys.

It seems ridiculous that I've got space problems with a 40GB disc, but they stem from the initial installation where the advice I received about the partion split between /C and /D was wrong, (about 7.5/32.5) - it's obviously too skewed in favour of /D. Will these various products like 'Partition Magic' help this?

(Bob - I'm retired now but I used to use Word a lot so I suppose I'm comfortable with it - it's the 'extras' I'm hoping to get rid of. Funnily enough, I had a copy of System Mechanic but when I got a new PC a few months back, I forgot to transfer it over! I'll have to get another copy.)

Mike

[cowboydawg]

Partition Magic is a great program. It will let you resize your Partitions pretty much anyway ya want. You can even resize the partition your Operating System is on. I have done it many times and never had any problems. At this point it would probably be exactly what you need, instead of trying to remove files, because if you have a 40GB Hard Drive you should have plenty room to spread things out. How much free space do you have on the Hard Drive?

[mikelaz]

Cowboydawg - I've got loads of overall space - 1.0 free/6.33 used on /C drive, 28.2 free /2.66 used on D drive! The main reason I was trying to save space was because I tried to defragment the /C drive + it said on the screen that you should have 15 percent free + at the time I only had 9 percent. Thanks for the confirmation about 'Partition Magic'.

Mike

[SMBP]

Mike--

Ideally you should have 30-35% free to get a decent defrag--the MSKB recommends 20% for it's lesser version of Diskeeper native to Windows XP; the info on Diskeeper's site recommends 30-35% to get an optimal defrag. That could be debated but what can't be debated is that at 9% free space, you're getting very little benefit from whatever defragger you're using. You are on the way to solving this problem--it seems. There is a running debate on whether that C Drive you have your OS and System Files on should be small--some recommend to make it as small as 3-4 GB--Peter Norton takes this debate up in his hardware book. But you have some extra things on C--true some programs are going to install components or themselves to C no matter what you tell the installer to do.

Get a program like Partition Magic 8.0 or V-Com System Commander 7--you can try but not execute it's features from Power Quest's site and then you can carve up some of that D into 2-3 partitions. Bob had an excellent suggestion--there are several free programs that will provide the Word processing that you are happy with right now since you never use Word, but you can probably do an excellent job with Word Pad--you already have it. If you rarely use Office, then uninstall it or some of its components you don't use. You can do that easily enough from Add/Remove.

If you had your data on one drive, you could turn off System Restore on that drive since it's doing absolutely zip for your data but coexisting and taking up space. It's not backing it up, and people pick up 1-2 GB with that ploy much of the time,maybe more depending.

Right now, until you get something if you want a decent defrag, then audit that drive and take stuff off you really don't need or rarely use. You can always add it later to your new architecture. You can partition with XP's native Disk Management but the downside to using that is you're going to lose anything on the drive--so that's best used for that before you load up, and on areas of your hard drive where you don't care if you lose what's on them.

SMBP

[mikelaz]

I've had a look at the 'Partition Magic' web site - looks a good product and the answer to my problems.

Before using it, will I need to reformat my drives + reinstall WinXP? (Obviously I'd rather not have to do this!!) Hopefully you'll tell me that it's just a case of adding some extra space to my C drive and pinching the equivalent from D, OR creating a new drive and using space from D and then transferring some existing stuff from C. If that's the case, the obvious next question is WHAT?

Mike Lazar

[viking33]

Mike,

You can use Partition Magic without doing any reformatting or loss of data or settings. It's a non-destructive way to change partitions.
Of course, a good back up is always good insurance, but i've used it without any problems.

Bob

[kaplinb]

You can dramatically reduce the usage of your drive temporarily disabling System Restore on that drive or set it to minimal (Windows + Pause/Break keys | System Restore).

You can do the same with Internet Explorer cache (Start | Control Panel | Network and Internet Connections | Internet Options | "Settings" button under "Temporary Internet files" or clean Internet cache clicking "Advanced" tab and checking "Empty Temporary Internet Files..." under "Security".

Also: if you still have installation CDs for programs installed on your computer, uninstall and re-install these programs to D:Program Files instead of C:Program Files.