C: Drive Full - Help!

[smbtnt]

Please assist with this issue as its causing me untold misery presetly.

My C: drive is running out of space (150mb free), I have purchased a second physical hard drive (80gb) but am not too sure the affects of moving the following folders to the second drive.
1) Program files
2) documents and settings
3) Windows.

I am not very pc literate and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

 

[jacinto]

Please assist with this issue as its causing me untold misery presetly.

My C: drive is running out of space (150mb free), I have purchased a second physical hard drive (80gb) but am not too sure the affects of moving the following folders to the second drive.
1) Program files
2) documents and settings
3) Windows.

I am not very pc literate and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

hi
i am not the chap to be of help, but PM Atilla, sure he can give you a good lead.

for starters,
i wouldnt play with 1) and 3).

j

 

[Priceman]

Please assist with this issue as its causing me untold misery presetly.

My C: drive is running out of space (150mb free), I have purchased a second physical hard drive (80gb) but am not too sure the affects of moving the following folders to the second drive.
1) Program files
2) documents and settings
3) Windows.

I am not very pc literate and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

As jacinto said don't mess with 1 and 3. If there are any add on programs though that you placed on C: I would try to get them onto the new disk. If you can uninstall and reinstall programs using the original CD then have a go. Very dangerous though if you're not very PC literate as you state. Basically if you move as much as possible to the new disk so that there's plenty of room for swap files (a sort of pseudo memory) then that should help. Even better would be to buy a program called 'ghost' or similar to image your old disk onto the new so that becomes the new C: drive. Then do the same; as in keep it free from clutter and use the other disk as storage.

Failing all that a new PC! Sorry to say 80Gb isn't that much nowadays. Good luck.

 

[Trader333]

You will probably find that a lot of space is taken up with System Restore files which you can remove and free up an enormous amount of space. I don't have time now but I will post exactly how to do it later including screenshots.


Paul

 

[JTrader]

Yes i also think you will probably find that a lot of space is taken up with System Restore files which you can remove and free up an enormous amount of space. I did this recently and had around 7gb taken up by old/unneccessary system restore points.

 

[JTrader]

I also recommend the freeware ccleaner. Run this regularly.

 

[roguetrader]

System Restore? .. What's that then?
Dunno what you keep on ur computer or use it for in the main, but for the average user who is reasonably computer literate, the bulk of their disk space is likely to be taken up by the my documents folder, in here most avge users store all their photos, music, and video clips, most of the contents of this folder can be moved elsewhere, I say "most" in case you have something odd in there. As others have said, don't touch program files or windows
As JT said try Ccleaner from here, this may take a while to run, but can be amazing how much crap it removes.

 

[rossored]

You can reduce the System Restore quantity by right-clicking on My Computer, select Properties from the pop-up menu and then select the System Restore tab. There is a slider which you can reduce/increase the amount of space that System Restore takes up, but bear in mind that less space = less restore points (obviously).

As for moving documents and so on, the easiest way is to plug in your portable drive, then right-click on the My Documents folder, select Properties again, then click the 'Move' box that appears in the first window. This opens up a folder tree that will allow you to specify the (new) location of the My Docs folder, and Windows will then ask you if you want to move all files to that location. Say yes, and everything is done for you; but again bear in mind that this drive will need to be connected and powered on all the time for you to gain access/read/write files to and from it.

The other solution would be to buy a second hard drive from your local PC shop or online retailer, open the case and sling it in with a cabled connection as a slave drive, but that requires a bit more know-how (admittedly not much more than being able to hold a screwdriver) than a USB/firewire device.

 

[smbtnt]

You guys have been terribly helpful. I am going to actively remove these system restore files and move big chunks from My Docs to the second drive.
Will keep you informed.
cheers!

 

[Trader333]

Do you still want me to explain how you can do this which is a little different from what the others have said ?


Paul

 

[smbtnt]

Yes please Paul.

 

[Trader333]

If you are happy with the way that your PC is running and have no concerns that would require you to want to restore it to a date before today then to start with do the following to set a new restore point from now:


Go to Start/ Programs/ Accessories / System Tools and select “System Restore” then select “Create a restore point”
The reason for this is a safety measure in case you need to restore your pc in the future.

Now Go to Start/ Programs/ Accessories / System Tools and select “Disk Cleanup” and you will see the first image as attached select “OK”

You will now see the second image and when you do tick all boxes that have any large files. Now click on the tab that says “More Options” and you will see the third image as shown.

Where it says System Restore click the box that says “Cleanup” and you will see the fourth image, Click “Yes” the click “OK”

It may take quite a while to process but it will free up a lot of space.

Good Luck


Paul

 

[smbtnt]

Managed to free up another 2gb on my C: drive, thanks to all who replied with solutions.