[limofur]

help my hard drive is full and it won't let me update windows XP

what should I do?

[Smith6612]

Well, some of the best things would be to uninstall programs that you never use using the Add/Remove program in the Control Panel. Also, removing OEM software (software like those quick support programs that ship with the computer) can be removed as well. Also, Clear your Internet cache on all browsers and if you have high speed internet, set the cache to 8MB on all browsers as well. Also, delete those installers that you might have sitting around especially on your desktop, as there's no need for them. Every computer I work on always has a very old installer sitting on their desktop just wasting space.

Also, this might free up a lot of room as well. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\*youruseraccount*\Local Settings\Temp and delete all the files in that folder. If it comes up saying it is a System file or folder, do not delete it, but if it is read only, delete it as it shouldn't harm a thing. Do this for each user account you find in the Documents and Settings folder.

Once it is done, check your anti-virus software to make sure that anything in the Quarantine is deleted, and then run a spyware scan and a virus scan to make sure that there isn't a virus or something adding junk to the hard drive. Doing all of this should free up several gigabytes of space. Also, once you free up the hard drive and run the Windows Updates, do a Disk Defragmentation. You're going to need it

[Nathan H]

A very good space saver is to delete your web browser cache, i have literally saved gigs before. Try that as well.

[firesteel]

Originally Posted by limofur

help my hard drive is full and it won't let me update windows XP

what should I do?

Freeware CCleaner (formerly known as Cr*p Cleaner) is terrific for disk cleanup. It'll safely remove the cruft that builds up over many months of PC usage.

CCleaner comes with a registry optimization function as well. I run it about once a month,

It's an amazingly good (and safe) disk cleaner upper.

http://www.ccleaner.com/update/

[nterror]

You can get hard drives really cheap these days. My advice (if the above suggestions do not free enough space), would be to get a new hard drive. If you do not have room in your desktop/laptop for it, you can get an external one.

[alexandgruntz]

If your hard drive is quite small (~<200GB these days), get a bigger one. They're cheap these days.

[Zenax]

Just to recap for you:

1) First choice is to use a cleaning program. Like mentioned ealier, one of the best (yes I use it as well) is the CCleaner. It is freely downloadable from their website. The registry cleaner is quite good. One of the main causes of slowness and hdd's filling up is files that are left behind, as well as the cache of web browsers. Every time you visit a new page, the browser downloads a temporary copy of the webpage you have visited, to enable you to view it quicker when you go back to it again, so it is always useful to clean these pages out every once and a while.

Normally the file sizes for these are only a few KB big but it does mount up and if left for a really long time it can take up alot of large space!

Now if you do not want to use a program to do this, you can use the browsers in-built functionality. You can access it usually by going to Tools and then "Clear Private Data" (in firefox) or by going to Tools and then "Clear Browsing History" (in IE 7).

2) The next option is to remove unwanted programs. Now if you need all the programs on your machine then this leads me on to the next step!

3) Buy a new HDD! This option costs you some money, but as mentioned earlier on in this thread you can pick them up fairly cheaply these days. Some of the best websites that I fount you can buy from is:

http://ebuyer.com
http://www.novatech.co.uk (UK Only)

Obviously there are more websites that you can buy products from. The way that I normally judge by how good a website is if that someone I know has had a good experience with them. Another good way of judging a website is by using Google. Simply enter the item you are looking for and then look at the Google shopping pages. They show all the best prices for the item you are after, and then also have revies on the suppliers that the product is coming from. If they have a rating of 4.0/5.0 then they are a good company to go with. Obviously shop around fo the cheapest deals.

If you have no room in your case for a HDD or are unsure what to choose then you can pick an External HDD which tend to be Plug and Play, which basically means you plug them in and away you go!

If you got any more queries, do not be afraid to ask!

[Cobol to Java]

Well if you have a CD/DVD writer might as well burn all your files into a couple DVD's or CD's. I backup all of my files almost weekly. And I use up only 1 DVD every 2 months for backup.

[toofani]

if all this doent work then?????...just go for a external..thats it...but the last 2 is good (Zenax and Cobol to Java)..i guess now you know what to do..??right..
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feel free to ask