tech help: windows xp

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12-16-2004, 07:21 PM
freshies

tech help: windows xp

any sys admin/tech geeks around? need some help:

I have an old ThinkPad laptop (4.5 yrs - ancient for laptops, i know) that i think is hitting its max/last legs. here is the deal: lately, i have been getting "low disc space warnings" whenever i try and do something. i have done the disc cleanup thing w/temp files, etc, and that works for a bit, but then it comes back. wen i do a susyems check it shows that my disc space is pretty much max'ed out...but i don't have that many apps loaded: windows xp pro, office pro, adobe photo manager, etc.

Here is the sys basics:

My computer/hard disc drives/properties says:

Windows 98 (C:) ----(SHOULDN'T THIS SAY WINDOWS XP?)
Local Disc
Used Space: 5.41GB
Free Space: 165MB
Total Size: 5.57GB

So, obviously I am maxed, but why? Like I said, I dont have all that much stuff on here...help@! Do I need a new hard drive?
12-16-2004, 07:34 PM
LaramieSkiBum

you definatly do NOT need a new hard drive mane....5.5 gig is PLENTY...

1) check the size of your C:\WINDOWS folder: Windows XP w/ SP2 alone will take up to 1.5 gigs of your drive - this is not unusal

2) Check your virtual memory settings - your system is most likely set to allocate it's paging space on its own. I would suggest that you fix it at a set value, at about 2.5 times the ammount of RAM you have.

3) Do you have lots of videos, music, pictures/photos albums, on the machine? Porn and such :-)...this will take up oodles of room.

4) Games will take from 1 to 2 gigs of space if they are the latest and greatest - i would suggest that you don't have any of these given your computer specs listed here

5) make sure you are deleting programs from the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS control panel, go through it manually and delete anything you don't use or don't recogize

6) make sure you are running antivirus and anti-spam ware programs - check out trend micro for virus and Ad-Aware / Spy Bot Search and Destroy

7) In windows XP make you can turn off system restore to save alot of space - also turning off hibernation will safe a TON of space sometimes

8) All of this really doesn't take that long to do, but the quickest answer sometimes is to just start over with the disks that came with your computer

EDIT 9) if you upgraded from 98 to XP than that would explain the naming of the partition as windows 98...I not completely sure, but i belive that sometimes when you upgrade from 98 to XP that it keeps the old, anchient, inefficent file system known as FAT32 as opposed to NTFS 5.X...that in itself might be reason enough to use option 8 above. You can check this by right clicking on my computer, going to manage, going to disk manager, you should be able to see what kind of partition it is.

Feel free to IM or email if you have questions

If you really have windows XP i can remote control your machine from where i am now VIA windows messenger. It is safe and you can turn it off at anytime, you can also watch what is going on.

Holla
12-16-2004, 07:49 PM
freshies

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaramieSkiBum

you definatly do NOT need a new hard drive mane....5.5 gig is PLENTY...

1) check the size of your C:\WINDOWS folder: Windows XP w/ SP2 alone will take up to 1.5 gigs of your drive - this is not unusal

2) Check your virtual memory settings - your system is most likely set to allocate it's paging space on its own. I would suggest that you fix it at a set value, at about 2.5 times the ammount of RAM you have.

3) Do you have lots of videos, music, pictures/photos albums, on the machine? Porn and such :-)...this will take up oodles of room.

4) Games will take from 1 to 2 gigs of space if they are the latest and greatest - i would suggest that you don't have any of these given your computer specs listed here

5) make sure you are deleting programs from the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS control panel, go through it manually and delete anything you don't use or don't recogize

6) make sure you are running antivirus and anti-spam ware programs - check out trend micro for virus and Ad-Aware / Spy Bot Search and Destroy

7) In windows XP make you can turn off system restore to save alot of space - also turning off hibernation will safe a TON of space sometimes

8) All of this really doesn't take that long to do, but the quickest answer sometimes is to just start over with the disks that came with your computer

EDIT 9) if you upgraded from 98 to XP than that would explain the naming of the partition as windows 98...I not completely sure, but i belive that sometimes when you upgrade from 98 to XP that it keeps the old, anchient, inefficent file system known as FAT32 as opposed to NTFS 5.X...that in itself might be reason enough to use option 8 above. You can check this by right clicking on my computer, going to manage, going to disk manager, you should be able to see what kind of partition it is.

Feel free to IM or email if you have questions

If you really have windows XP i can remote control your machine from where i am now VIA windows messenger. It is safe and you can turn it off at anytime, you can also watch what is going on.

Holla

yep, it is using the old FAT file system vs windows xp. and hey, i am more than happy to let you remotely take a look - what do you need to do?
12-16-2004, 10:12 PM
steved

....is SP2 really necessary? Not razzin' ya'....
A new drive would be nice...., but wouldn't new XP(all NTFS) save some space?
12-16-2004, 10:19 PM
LaramieSkiBum

Quote:

Originally Posted by steved

....is SP2 really necessary? Not razzin' ya'....
A new drive would be nice...., but wouldn't new XP(all NTFS) save some space?

Im not saying he should use SP2, infact just like you i dont think he should.

From the sounds of it i wouldn't even be using XP on this machine. It has 128MB of ram...not exactly awesome for XP, the bare bare minimum...

This machine would hum on windows2k
12-16-2004, 11:24 PM
LaramieSkiBum

FYI,

I don't think your laptop is really on its last legs..

WinXP is just too much for only 128MB of ram

Downgrade to windows2k and you will see a huge performace gain...along with the performance gain for going from fat32 to NTFS
12-17-2004, 12:28 AM
Snow Dog

Quote:

Originally Posted by freshies

Here is the sys basics:

My computer/hard disc drives/properties says:

Windows 98 (C:) ----(SHOULDN'T THIS SAY WINDOWS XP?)
Local Disc
Used Space: 5.41GB
Free Space: 165MB
Total Size: 5.57GB

So, obviously I am maxed, but why? Like I said, I dont have all that much stuff on here...help@! Do I need a new hard drive?

The disk label ("Windows 98") is just a label and doesn't mean anything.

My pretty fresh Windows XP and no MS Office takes up 8GB. All the music, downloads, etc is on another disk.

I have no idea where it all goes.
12-17-2004, 01:28 AM
LaramieSkiBum

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow Dog

The disk label ("Windows 98") is just a label and doesn't mean anything.

My pretty fresh Windows XP and no MS Office takes up 8GB. All the music, downloads, etc is on another disk.

I have no idea where it all goes.

lol...no fresh install of XP is 8GB dood...you have mondo pr0n in your cache....
12-17-2004, 12:06 PM
freshies

shout out to Laramie who helped me out last night: the man took an hour of his time to remotely tweak my system...so cool. Thx again Laramie.

Now, do you guys really think I should downgrade to Win2k? I don't have the discs for this (or any of the original stuff), just Win XP Pro and Office Pro media...what if I upgraded the amount of memory in my laptop? Isn't memory cheap these days?

Laramie was able to help me free up roughly 1.5GB of space, so I now have roughly 30% of free space on my HD.
12-17-2004, 01:18 PM
Snow Dog

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaramieSkiBum

lol...no fresh install of XP is 8GB dood...you have mondo pr0n in your cache....

Well, the hibernate file is 512MB, and the cache is 800MB, etc.. I forgot about the topo maps for all of Canada -- that's good for 1-2 GB.
12-17-2004, 02:22 PM
LaramieSkiBum

I would do one of these three things before spending any money on a new machine:

1) Total reinstall using windows 2000

2) Total reinstall of windows XP, with new RAM, and making sure to use NTFS as the file system

3) A shitter solution: Convert your FAT32 to NTFS right now and keep using XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...onvertfat.mspx

do speed tweaks with XP, ie turn off the CPU hogging default window system and revert to old school and turn off disk caching on the HD.

you will see a marked improvment and should not need to replace your machine if all your doing is surfing and word.
12-17-2004, 02:26 PM
freshies

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaramieSkiBum

I would do one of these three things before spending any money on a new machine:

1) Total reinstall using windows 2000

2) Total reinstall of windows XP, with new RAM, and making sure to use NTFS as the file system

3) A shitter solution: Convert your FAT32 to NTFS right now and keep using XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...onvertfat.mspx

do speed tweaks with XP, ie turn off the CPU hogging default window system and revert to old school and turn off disk caching on the HD.

you will see a marked improvment and should not need to replace your machine if all your doing is surfing and word.

hmm, ok, so i don't have access to win2k media, so looks like i am stuck w/XP. I have the media for Win XP Pro, so should I plug in some new RAM and then re-install? Is doing the re-install essentially the same as just loading XP Pro in the bay and hitting "install" or "run"? Does it just re-do the whole thing? Or do i need to doa bunch of stuff prior to the re-install?
12-17-2004, 03:37 PM
LaramieSkiBum

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...p+from+scratch

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...october07.mspx

try those out, let me know if you still need help mane