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Question

My Hard Drive's Full!!!

Mar 24, 2014 2:43AM PDT

I've just noticed my Hard Drive is indicating 'red', only 4.65GB free out of 138GB.

I've found these four files on the Hard Drive:

Windows 21/3/2014
Windows.old 21/3/2014

Windows.old.000 19/10/2013
Windows.old.001 19/3/2013

Windows.old.002 14/3/2014

I reinstalled the OS twice, the 18th/19th Oct 2013 &
13th March 2014.

I've tried to delete the third & fourth files to no avail.
However, I appear to be able to delete their contents individually, but, this will take light years. Some of the contents date back to 2006 after OS re-installing.

Any suggestions as to what's happened and how I can get some capacity back on my HD?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Sounds like XP
Mar 24, 2014 2:58AM PDT

I'd buy an external HDD and put everything on it but the operating system. Externals are cheap these days.

Digger

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Full Hard Drive
Mar 24, 2014 3:33AM PDT

It's W'dows Vista Home Basic on a Dell C521 with it's own back up system.
Why back up, with a view to deletion?
Which is the OS the file with the installation date?

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Disk Cleanup
Mar 25, 2014 4:36PM PDT

Try right-clicking on your C: drive and select Properties. On the pop-up select Disk Cleanup. On the next pop-up select all items (I usually include even those with zero size), and click OK.

I don't know if Vista offered this (XP didn't), but there may be an option to "Clean up system files." If it does, click that and again select all items.

Also, go to the Windows folder and find Prefetch. Use Ctl+A to select all items, then hit Delete. Then open Users and find your folder (probably has your name). Look for Recent. Again select all items and hit Delete (you may have to skip the Desktop file in this folder).

Finally, open your browser and look for Tools. Select Internet options, then on the General tab look for Browsing History. Click on Delete to clear your browser history, cookies and cache. Then click Settings and look for Disk space to use. Set that at 50. Depending on your browser, you may be able to select what Internet files are to be deleted. Just to help keep the Browser History cleaned out, select the option to delete browsing history on closing the browser.

After following these steps, you should notice a good increase in free space.

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Got there in the end
Mar 25, 2014 8:32PM PDT

As Bob said Vista is not user friendly, try as I may Files would not delete unless you altered the security attributes and that wasn't sraightforward, nothing is in Vista.
I managed to free up 38GB, that will more than do for my needs, so I'll be leaving well alone with this tetchy system for now.
Thank you for your input, I've copied it to Word for future reference.

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Answer
Sounds like XP.
Mar 24, 2014 3:01AM PDT
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Hard Drive Full
Mar 24, 2014 3:49AM PDT

Read the article, but, that's Chinese to me Bob.
Can you tell me what's happened in this respect?
I thought an OS re-installation wiped the slate clean?
Could it be time to bin this lot and upgrade to W'dows 7/8?

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In that case.
Mar 24, 2014 3:58AM PDT

You may want to give yourself time to learn more about PCs in general. And no, a re-install does not wipe the drive clean. That would take more steps.

The .000 folders are backups of files kept around in case the owner made a mistake. You could try booting SAFE MODE to delete them but remember this is not that user friendly an OS. It's from a time where Microsoft thought folk should read books and take classes or take it to the local support folk.

Today folk don't like that idea and Microsoft is slowly revising it's ways. But in doing so can leave a lot of old hardware in a lurch.
Bob

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...making headway
Mar 25, 2014 8:26PM PDT

I managed to delete one very large file in safe mode as you suggested, I had to change security attributes, but managed to gain 38GB of capacity, way more than I'll ever need.
I had to reinstall some files from Dell as some of what was deleted must have been in use, even though I opted to keep in use system files!!!
You have given me food for thought though. I've looked up the Linnux OS and have the idea of getting a customised pc built and installing Linnux, which is free.
I've also started to look up info on pc's and how they work, it's early days yet mind.
Thank you once again Bob.
regards,
Art.

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Read this old link.
Mar 26, 2014 2:03AM PDT
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Answer
Save the HD
Mar 25, 2014 6:51AM PDT

My techs installed a new system with a virtual box putting the old OS inside of it thus preserving all my files on the old PC HD. It is a little bit cumbersome when both systems grab the cursor but I am getting better at managing that and will be a happy camper when the rig sees the printer in both systems.

cywrite

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Answer
Re: Windows.old
Mar 28, 2014 7:53PM PDT

windows.old folders are made when you reinstall the OS, to save the old contents, in case you would need some of it.
If you don't need anything from it anymore, better delete them. I'd say: delete all 4.
If for some reason you get an error message, try Safe Mode, or try to take ownership or do it (last resort) from Linux.

Kees

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Windows.old
Mar 29, 2014 3:25AM PDT

Have made a note, thank you Kees.