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General discussion

Low on hard-drive space and I'm stuck -- what can I do?

Jun 3, 2016 5:12PM PDT

Dear Sirs/Madame,

I have encountered a problem on my wife’s Lenovl Laptop. It is giving a message that "disc space is very low." It also says that the browser is outdated, but you can’t update because there is like 700 MB of remaining space, which is not enough to load anything. We have Charter Security Suite furnished through our cable company, but I can’t run the scan either. You can browse on Internet Explorer but no room for any type of download and the Google Chrome browser is gone totally -- it shows that three things have crashed each time we try to use it. Maps Galaxy Google for Chrome and F-Secure Extension. Also will not perform Windows Update. It gets to 16% and says there is a failure to update Windows updates and is “reverting ‘…do not close computer. I'm stuck and I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

--Submitted by Jim B.

Post was last edited on June 10, 2016 2:11 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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More details but a couple of things
Jun 3, 2016 5:59PM PDT

1. Uninstall unused programs
2. Empty the recycle bin

Reboot after each program is uninstalled

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Doubt the hard drive is the only problem.
Jun 3, 2016 6:03PM PDT

I'd like to preface this by saying I mean no harm but there comes a time the only upgrade worth spending on is a new PC.

You didn't provide system specifications but based on the fact that image is on Windows XP I'm pretty sure the entire machine is just too old. Windows XP has stop being supported by the manufacturer year now. That is usually a good sign that all the hardware on your PC is also far too out dated.

My recommendations are to replace your laptop with one with a decent dual core processor, at least 6gigabytes of ram and a solid state drive. The last option might be pricey but I guarantee you won't regret it.

A backlit keyboard and a touchscreen are optional.

Spare yourself the pain and discomfort and upgrade. Sticking to those recommendations will keep you happy for at least 4 years.

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(NT) Windows XP?
Jun 3, 2016 6:13PM PDT
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Windows XP?
Jun 3, 2016 6:14PM PDT

I reread the post twice and still don't see XP mentioned.

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No but that image does look like an XP taskbar
Jun 4, 2016 1:12AM PDT

Not enough information to make an educated guess. Don't understand why you can't load say Firefox - it's only about 50 MB. Worth a Windows Disk Cleanup, clear out any temp and log files, clear the IE caches, delete any programs you don't use, delete or archive any data files, you don't use, defrag the drive and see where that takes you.

It could also be accumulated Windows clutter, if the system hasn't been rebuilt in a few years - my Windows 7 grew from an initial install of around 15 GB to 31 GB over the years, this on a 32 GB system partition! Yes, I did run it below 1 GB free for a couple of weeks before I had time to reload it.

The message is coming from Lenovo ThinkVantage by the way, it's just a regular hardware scan and doesn't affect the running of the machine.

You may, indeed be truly short of disk space, in which case, a bigger hard drive is the only option.

Later, there is a post indicating the additional information that will help us all stop guessing and be more constructive.

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I deleted the image to stop the confusion -- sorry all!
Jun 10, 2016 2:14PM PDT

I just grabbed the image that was available and didn't think twice that it was an XP screenshot. Sorry for the confusion.

-Lee

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Even if it is XP
Jun 10, 2016 7:28PM PDT

doesn't mean it will just stop working.

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more than most need.
Jun 12, 2016 10:39AM PDT

If you think about it, she has gotten by all these years with an old XP.. I doubt she needs a solid state hard drive or 6 g of ram. I don't think she is like us and wou well with a dual core and 4 gig or even 2 gig. Let's just hope she doesn't get sold a chomebook.
As for me, I love the backlit keyboards
As for the lack of space, what's in the download folder, pictures, documents and whatnot? I was logged in to a friend desktop and unable to download a program due to the lack of space. I found that she had backed up her hard drive twice to the docs folder. Clearing that out gave us over 100 gig open.

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Getting more disk space, the hard way or the easy way
Jun 3, 2016 6:10PM PDT

First, download and install CCleaner, make sure it does not delete cookies from your browsers, and let it find and delete useless files.

Second, look at all the installed programs and remove any you do not use. If you have a consumer-grade Lenovo laptop, they are known for loading the system up with junk files.

Enter %temp% into the Run command box, and delete all contents from this folder. CCleaner does not clean this up well. If Windows complains that it cannot delete a file for any reason, click Skip.

Fourth, run CCleaner again and let it clean up after all the software just removed.

Now, how much free disk space is there?

The harder and more expensive way is to buy a larger drive, clone the drive contents onto the larger drive, then expand the main partition to its max (if needed). If you do not have the cables and power supply needed to do this yourself, contact a professional and get a quote first. For me, cloning a drive is a very routine task and not super expensive.

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CCleaner, a great suggestion, BUT.............
Jun 4, 2016 11:38AM PDT

On Windows XP on an old computer, the latest version of CCleaner doesn't play well. I couldn't even get the latest version of CCleaner to work well on Win 7 on an older computer. Because of this, an older version of CCleaner is probably the best that can be suggested. YMMV.

Get, an older version of CCleaner (I suggest version 3.2Cool from here: http://www.oldapps.com/ccleaner.php?old_ccleaner=11902 The reason I suggest a particular version is that I have an old Compaq Presario with it's native XP installation on it and the latest version of CCleaner that will run on it is version 3.28. Any later version than that crashes the program. Like I said, your mileage may vary.

If I were you, I'd go ahead and try the newest version to see if it works. It is worth a try. If it doesn't then go ahead an grab the version that I pointed you to and install that after uninstalling the newer one that doesn't work. Get the latest version here: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

***As a side note: The free version does just fine on a home computer. That's what I have run for many years on all of my Windows computers.

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CCleaner operations
Jun 10, 2016 10:23PM PDT

CCleaner, last time I checked, has a provision for not deleting files within the past so-many days that can be checked or selected.

Maybe this fact accords with why you say the program does not delete everything you want gone (and then again, maybe it doesn't)

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Low on hard-drive space and I'm stuck !!! Here's what i did
Jun 3, 2016 6:19PM PDT

i'm not a tech. I purchased an external Hard Drive & down loaded everything I really didn't need. It gave me back almost 537 gigs out of my 1 Tb. From what I have read you can run it with your PC & you can get to anything you need. I'm running very good now.

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Remove the save files
Jun 3, 2016 6:25PM PDT

Get a thumb drive, external hard drive or any combination you can afford big enough to transfer all pictures, videos (especially) and documents to and cut and paste them there. That should free up enough room to start cleaning your machine.
After cleaned up and updated cloned to a larger drive would help down the road.
P.S.
Easeus is a very good no cost program that can do that and adapters that can attach your new larger drive to the laptop for the cloneing are not expensive. Sabrent is my brand of preference.

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YES! Transfer pics & vids to a memory stick; Clean the Drive
Jul 4, 2016 12:44PM PDT

- [Long response but well worth reading]
All photos & videos take up space, and you can transfer all of them temporarily (or permanently) to a thumb drive. Use your XP's built-in "Move to" function, or just cut-n-paste the folders to the thumb drive. This will free up enough space to make the pc usable enough to perform some basic maintenance functions. Before using these "cleaning" and "tune-up" programs folks are suggesting, go to Start> System Tools> Disk Cleanup. This program will gather info on everything on your hard-drive considered not needed, tell you how much space they're using, and gives you the option of selecting what you'll allow removed. Disk Cleanup will also compress all files not accessed in the past 3 months. The process is timely but the results have always proved good for my XP machines. It frees up many megs of space. THEN, after this operation use the built in "Disk Defragmenter", also located in System Tools. When both are complete, shutdown, wait 10 seconds then turn the pc on. After it re-boots it is often helpful to do a restart, because the 2 maintenance operations are like "major surgery" if they have never been run before or for over a year.
{A helpful tip: Don't save a lot of info on your Desktop. It's not intended for anything more than shortcuts and small Word docs, Note Pad, and RTF docs. Yes you can start a folder on the Desktop, but always cut-n-paste it to My Documents, where you can place a shortcut to it onto the Desktop. A Desktop loaded with many megs of folders will slow down boot-up time.}
I also suggest uninstalling Chrome and replacing it with the more efficient "not-for-profit" Firefox. Whereas Chrome is provided by Google, the biggest user of tracking cookies and marketing of anything they can learn about you, (Look it up people, but don't use Google, they filter most links with negative info about them. Oh yes they do!) but Mozilla's Firefox does NOT do this.
I use XP and many business's still use XP, employing private security firms to upgrade any security issues that may exist. I use several excellent security programs to protect my PCs. XP is considered the "workhorse" of operating systems. It's straight forward and easy to understand. Upgrading to Windows 7, 8, or 10 is what Microsoft wants us to do, as they are in business to make a profit. Once everybody had XP, their profits slowly dropped because they had nothing new to sell. Your XP can still be upgraded with additional RAM and external hard-drives; plus excellent maintenance software and security.
Believe it or not, there are still folks who use Windows 98. I hope I have helped you.

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house cleaning
Jun 3, 2016 6:52PM PDT

Assumptions:
Windows 7
You do not do any regular maintenance on it
you have a 500GB drive
You don't have a backup of your files

Temporary files take up a lot of space and are useless.
start with TFC.exe - a temporary file cleaner from Bleeping computer. I am guessing there is more in there than u can imagine. TFC is small so you should have no problem downloading and running it. Run it from your desktop.

The system is only about 50GB - probably less
Normal program load may be another 50GB unless you have a lot of programs loaded.
If there is more than one user then that could be an issue as you may have no clue what the other person has downloaded.
Get a 1TB external USB drive and copy your MY DOCUMENTS, DOWNLOADS, PICTURES, MUSIC, and DESKTOP to it. Then if you have a total screw up you are safe.

A BIG hit is music files. You may need to offload them to an external drive or burn them to DVD.
You can see the space taken by folders in Windows Explorer by right clicking a folder and clicking properties. That way you can search for folders with lots of STUFF in them. Start at MY DOCUMENTS and DOWNLOADS
Then just do some deep cleaning house work. You may also find a lot of duplicated files left over from the last attempt at house cleaning.

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Have you resolved the problem?
Jun 3, 2016 6:57PM PDT

Hello Jim,
There are several helpful replies already posted, but i noticed you have not marked any of them as helpful. So, either the replies are not easy for you to follow or you haven't had time to check back here yet. If you need step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish the suggested fixes please post again and one of us will be glad to help. Cheers!

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Get more space
Jun 3, 2016 8:03PM PDT

Using tool setting, click on defrag. Follow instructions. Then again in tool setting , click on disk cleanup and follow the instructions. You should do this periodically

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Defrag is impossible
Jun 4, 2016 4:12AM PDT

You need to have 10% freespace to do this

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Re: Defrag ...
Jun 4, 2016 9:19AM PDT

It is not only impossible with too little free space - it would also take firever with barely enough free space. But most importantly it won't free up any disk space. It is there just to collect the parts of each file and the many small pieces of free space, so they are all neatly lined up. It's great if you've got nothing else to worry about and are compulsively neat.

A waste of time in this situation.

Besides, before you do a defrag you should also get rid of everything you don't need - then you don't even need to defrag it.

Okay, I'll read the rest of the posts and then put in my shot at an answer (if needed.)

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Defrag reduces the waste of partial use of disk clusters...
Jun 10, 2016 8:19PM PDT

Defrag reduces the waste of partial use of disk clusters by concatenating the files.

In the interest of helping the person with the problem, at the least, don't give him wrong information.

Also, if getting rid of what you don't need also means that you don't need to defrag, per your post, then you are not fully clear on what defragmenting the hard drive actually does.

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Some hints
Jun 10, 2016 10:59PM PDT

Defrag will not give you significant space. All it can do is NOT by concatenating files (this does not save any thing), but it MAY move SMALL files (lower than 1KB) into the MFT (if you use an NTFS filesystem), where the cluster size is reduced to units of 1KB (the MFT is allocated differently than the rest of the disk).

Defrag will attempt to reunite the MFT in less fragments, this does not save space but helps getting faster access to its content (it is actually a single file in NTFS). The NTFS filesystem driver first allocastes all files created in the MFT until they reach the 1KB limit there they are moved out of the MFT and allocated elsewhere using the standard cluster allocation strategy (where clusters are typically larger)

In the MFT you save space because several small files may fit into the same 1KB entry.
But anywhere else, the clusters are left with unused sectors at end of files (those clusters are never shared by multiple files, except if those files are linked by "hard links", i.e. they share exactly the same content.

When you get low on disk storage, large files (more than 1KB) may also be placed in the MFT, but they will be fragmented into the MFT. Defrag will attempt to move these files out of the MFT, if there's space for that on the rest of the disk. Otherwise it will attempt to restructure the MFT so that the file fragments in the MFT will be grouped together. Defrag will also attempt to readjust the MFT size to adjust what is needed.

Hoever if your system is formatted with FAT32, there's no such strategy of placement: the same cluster size is used for all files independantly of their size, and all files have the same cluster sizes. Also on FAT/FAT32, there's no support of hardlinks for files with shared content, so FAT/FAT32 wastes more space.

FAT/FAT32 also has no support for storing security ACLs and other extended attributes. However it can store "long files names" and Unicode filenames using tweaked directory entries (in addition to the short "8.3" filenames using the legacy OEM 8-bit encoding which has no support for many characters, and does not allow distinctions of filename extensions: the short filenames are also very slow to generate). FAT32 is also much slower as directories are not indexed at all and must constantly be scanned forom start to end to locate a filename.

NTFS is then much faster than FAT32 and more efficient in general, in addition to allowing safer operations (becuse NTFS is journalized and lost fragments on NTFS after an application crash are extremely rare: the journal helps restoring the filesystem integrity automatically on reboot)

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If you get low on disk space, the best you can do is to cleanup your files, moveing your files, photos, videos to another disk.

Yoy may also want to use some cloud storage (SkyDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox...) to store your data online (but access to these files is generally very slow compared to local storage, unless you have a very good Internet connection, and onlien storage may be expensive above some volume as you'll get a monthly bill).

But consider buying an additional drive (it may be an external drive connected to your PC with a USB cable, or a drive attached to some multimedia device on your local network, such as a connected TV, some Internet routers that embed a multimedia player).

If you add an internal disk, probably it will be much larger (and faster) than the current one you have, and you may migrate your system completely to this new drive. Some drives are sold with a migration tool.

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If your internal disk is a SSD, it is generally small (often 128Gb or lower) and you need an additional hard disk for storing other documents: use the Windows "Files Explorer", open your user folder, and move your "My Documents", "My Videos", "My Images" subfolders to another disk where you'll have created a new folder (named like your user name) to store these personal files. (First make sure that no files in "My Documents", "My Videos" and so on are not open in an application). The file explorer will update the link to "My document to use the external drive instead of C:

This way is generally the best thing to do if you need to store lots of musics or videos that rapidly take up much space on drive C:, because a large SSD is generally very expensive.

Hard drives are really cheap. They are simple to install but you need a USB cable and USB port to connect them if you can't fit them in your PC.

Most applications may also be installed on the external drive without significant loss of performance. Keep your SSD for the system or the base of your user profile (where the user registry is stored) as it is accessed very frequently.

You may still create a user account on the external drive directly instead of the default: instead of creating a user account on the default C: drive, use the "administration tool" for "Users and groups" and create the user account from there: you can specify where the profile (and all its attached subfolders "My documents", "My videos"...) will be stored. Once the user account is created, logoff and long on to the new account, and start moving files from the previous user account to the new one. When this is done, you can drop the former user account using the control panel for users (but note that you cannot drop the user account on which you are currently logged on).

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Thanks for clarifying the defrag issue and ...
Jun 11, 2016 5:36AM PDT

... responding to the very misleading response to my earlier post.

Lots of great detail, and all quite correct and to the point. I kept my first post short because I didn't think the detail would help the OP who seems to need assistance on a fairly basic level. And that's quite okay! We have places like this so those of us who need help - at whatever level - can get together with those who are able and willing to give it.

Again, thanks!

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defrag is automatci
Jun 12, 2016 10:42AM PDT

even on a windows XP defrag was an automatic feature.

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Low space
Jun 3, 2016 8:24PM PDT

Run a pass of disk cleanup.
It's a built-in windows tool.
Use google to see how to run it.

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Use All of the Clean-up tools here...
Jun 11, 2016 8:47AM PDT

Clean out all of your system files and delete your system restore points. Set your system restore capacity to a lower amount and create a new restore point.

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More Information Would Be Helpful
Jun 3, 2016 8:54PM PDT

Hi Jim

It would really be helpful if you would provide morespecifics about your wife's laptop. As it stands members are providing generic
answersbased upon suspected issues. The answer could very well be that the
disc is full??? There are any number of causes. Windows page files, restore
points or maybe your wife stores very large JPEG's. 


Here's information that would be helpful (especially 2, 3,4, 5, 6 and Cool:
 1. Purchase date
2. Model
3. Disc capacity
4. Windows OS
5. RAM
6. CPU
7.  Programs Installed(Office, Anti-Virus, Email Client, Photoshop, Games, Accounting)
8. Does she power down the computer, let it go into sleepmode or hibernate when not in use


If you're not familiar with how to find some of theinformation requested the following links may help:

Here's a link on how to find system information in XP, Vistaand Win7
http://www.wikihow.com/Find-out-Your-System-Information
Here'a link on how to find system information in Win8/8.1and Win10
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32371-system-information-view-about-your-windows-8-pc.htmlPlease post the requested information and you'll get a moreprecise answer. The Community is here to help!

Together Everyone Achieves More= TEAM

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WinDirStat
Jun 4, 2016 2:30AM PDT

I occasionally fire up WinDirStat, a free program that scans your hard drive and then lists the folders in order of the size of the files in them.

Don't go deleting large files and folders without understanding what they are. If you're unsure, then post back here, or find a knowledgeable person to help you decide.

Usually, if I'm surprised that my disk is full then this program will show one folder that's just enormous, and is taking up the majority of the space. Almost always, it's due to a program that I had installed recently that I had configured incorrectly. It was continuously creating log files, image files, etc. without deleting older versions.

If it really is all legitimate content, then you'll need to choose among several of the other suggestions posted here. Either clean out some old temp files, uninstall unused programs, upgrade the hard drive, get some sort of external drive to offload some bulky files, or upgrade the entire computer.

If that screenshot at the top of your question really is from your machine, then I would agree with apocolypse2000_99. A new computer would make a night an day difference in the performance of the machine. It would be enough of an improvement that it would actually change how your wife uses her computer.

I just upgraded my mom's computer a little over a month ago, from a 2009 Win 7 box to an i5 with 8 GB. She has noticed a big difference. I basically got her a step above the current bottom-of-the-line laptops out there. I find that's the best bang-for-the-buck. There's a good chance that this new machine will also last her 5-7 years, whereas a dirt cheap one would probably start to become frustrating in 3-5 years.

Drake Christensen

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WinDirStat and DiskMax (Koshy John)
Jun 10, 2016 8:17PM PDT

WinDirStat is good for people to get the gist of what is taking up so much space. Whenever i see a hard drive reporting less space than i think it should have, use WinDirStat to check the individual file.

DiskMax will free up a lot of space, with no spyware or other non-sense. I never used CCleaner or other quasi registry cleaners.

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More helpful idea's:
Jun 14, 2016 9:34AM PDT

You are correct when you state that some software can "hog" free space on our "C" drive! I have found that some - back up - programs can keep running over and over, until the drive is full. If you install an external drive and set it as the back up drive you can clean up "these" multiple back ups on your "C" drive.
Make sure you run a full back up to the external drive before cleaning your C drive! ( Aquire a quality back up program that adds -only- "recent changes" to your system, onto this external drive! ). ...Tom...

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This is true
Jun 14, 2016 12:28PM PDT

I have a separate partition that I use for backups. My backup program only backs up to that partition. For a small drive that is getting full this is impractical, but it is a good thing to plan for when first setting up a computer.