Strange Question

[WilliamP]

I am trying to clean up a computer that belongs to a guy I work with. It was a mess. I have a question. There isn't that many programs on this thing but over 13 GBs used on the hard drive. I don't understand. I have tried to defrag and it gets to 28% and doesn't get any further. How can I tell what is on this thing?

[Close_Hauled]

Please tell us more about the system. What OS version are you running?

[G-Force]

Details Will, details. ;)

GF

[WilliamP]

The system has XP Pro. It appears to be a put together system . None of the names match. It has a Celeron processor.

[bigbuck]

Restore points can sometimes chew up heaps of Gb...

[Close_Hauled]

-{ Quote: "The system has XP Pro. It appears to be a put together system . None of the names match. It has a Celeron processor." }-
Windows XP Pro, with Office installed, and a few utilities takes about 4 gigs of disk space. The best thing to do is to uninstall all apps that are not needed. Remove everything from the startup that is not needed. Run Crap Cleaner, and RegSeeker to remove the excess junk. If you need details, please ask, and I will be happy to provide.

Also, disable anti-virus protection when defraging.

[WilliamP]

It has about 13 GBs used. It just doesn't have enough programs to use that much space. I cut sys restore to 6%. It didn't made adent.

[bigbuck]

Cutting sys restore, I think, will affect subsequent points. Clearing all but the most recent (with disc cleanup), may regain a few gigs. I can recall recovering about 6 gigs on machines before.

[G-Force]

Will,

You could easily drop sys-restore to 2%, and download StartupList from here (http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/~merijn/downloads.html).
Create a folder for it on the main drive and zip it there, it won't affect any system files or write to the registry.


GF

[Close_Hauled]

-{ Quote: "It has about 13 GBs used. It just doesn't have enough programs to use that much space. I cut sys restore to 6%. It didn't made adent." }-
You need to do what I said above. You also need to go into Program Files and look for programs that were not in the software list. Also delete leftover program directories. Adobe is classic for leaving behind junk after uninstall. You need to use the search tool to find files over 1 meg in size. There is a lot still that you need to do. It is no small task.

Make sure that "Show hidden files" is selected before doing the search.

[Bubba]

If by chance he was a downloader of songs and such....that can easily chew up 13 GBs.

[BlueZannetti]

WilliamP,

If you're wondering where all the space is committed, how about developing a quick allocation map of usage. Look at total committed space under the Windows, Program Files and Documents and Setting folders. Do one of them dominate the group above rough expectations? If so, look deeper in the suspect folders. If not, execute a bisection style search of the remaining folders in the root directory to see where space is excessively chewed up.

Bisection search? Highlight groups of folder - say half of the total number of folders (hence the term bisection) and perform a right-click and select Properties - you'll get the total space occuppied by all folders selected. Do the same for the other half. Does one group dominate in size? Yes? OK, take that group, divide it in half and do the same for each half. Repeat until you've zeroed in on the folders occupying an "excessive" amount of space. It's brute force but quick for small populations - for a couple hundred folders a maximum of 8 steps is required, assuming a solution.

I assume you've already cleared all the Temp locations.

Blue

[bigbuck]

Maybe tree size would help?
Ice's Freeware Thread (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=408222&postcount=4)
Jam Freeware (http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml)

[BlueZannetti]

-{ Quote: "Maybe tree size would help?" }-But doing it manually is a chance to have some quality time and bond with your drive :)

Blue

[G-Force]

Yeah Buck, what were you thinking? ;D

GF

[Meltdown]

Or something like Overdisk (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/overdisk.html) could help.

[bigbuck]

-{ Quote: "But doing it manually is a chance to have some quality time and bond with your drive :)

Blue" }- ;D -{ Quote: "Yeah Buck, what were you thinking?" }- ;D ;D

[WilliamP]

Thanks guys. I tried Overdisk. It looks good. I'm still trying to find out what is on there.

[Peter2150]

Hi Bill

I hope you are getting paid for this. I got suckered into helping clean up a machine once, and 8 hours later it was only 50% done. Then silly person, didn't do anything different and just took them an hour to have it back in a total mess. Now my stock answer is "gee I am not to familiar with what do do in this situation" I just don't have the time.

Pete