Transfer files

[300148]

Actually two questions.

1. How do I move files from one HD to another to free up space on primary drive? My C drive cannot be defragmented because there is not 15% free space. Will the files be "found" once moved?
2. ???At shut down I usually have about 800MB free space on C drive. After one hour there is now only 178MB free!

Help appreciated,
Larry

 

[G-Lexington]

You should be able to drag most files from one drive to the other. Open a window displaying the items you want to move, and another that displays where you want them to go. Then just click-and-hold each file in the first window, drag it to the second window, and release. You can do it all in one go by clicking on all the files you want to move while holding down the CTRL button, then dragging them en masse. If it doesn't delete the original file (it may not, since you're moving between drives), you can manually delete them once you're done.

As jav pointed out, you shouldn't mess with system files unless you know what you're doing with them. Stick with documents, mp3s, pictures and videos.

Lex

 

[mike_n_herrin]

you can certainly move things like word documents, movie files, pictures, video etc. you can NOT move programs or system files without screwing up your computer. you CAN uninstall programs on the C drive and then reinstall them and when asked instead of putting them on the C drive put them on your other drive.

try CCleaner, it's free and may help clean up unwanted crap that gets left around on your computer. http://filehippo.com/download/9e7bd73cd3f2bc103c4811454ff9c693/download/

if it doesn't help you out any then don't forget to uninstall it, because it's just going to be taking up more space.

 

[300148]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
"Drag and drop" worked well -and easily. However: I moved or trashed music, pictures and movies in excess of almost 2GB, emptied recycle and rebooted. Only about 200MB of free space was gained on my C drive! Where is the balance?
The various cleaners do little, if anything, as they need 15% free space to function.

LARRY

 

[300148]

As G-Lexington suggestion I did "drag and drop" from C to D, deleted files from C and emptied recycle bin. Files are now available on D. They are no longer on C drive...or at least they are not "visible'. Yet I have gained no free space on C. There is still only 372 MB free space despite my having removed more than 2 GB.

Ran disk check and (results) "The volume is clean".

 

[300148]

What's this?

C drive, Documents and Settings, All Users, Properties, 505 MB.
BUT
Totalling the size of all contained files gives only 80 MB.

 

[300148]

What the F***

Three hours later..................
C drive, Documents and Settings, All Users, Properties, >2 GB!
The more files I delete......the larger this file gets!

 

[trinket]

So weird. I might suggest you try running a graphical space-consumption viewer so you can see exactly which files/folders are consuming the room (and I know you know the folder size, but you can see the particular files responsible). You can pick the entire drive and it will map it out, then show you a graphical and text grid. You could try running this "before and after" your different work. I like Windirstat best, but there are others too (Sequoiaview, SpaceMonger).

 

[versatastic]

Perhaps a clean reboot is in order? It might be a bitch to reinstall everything, but what else can you do?

 

[300148]

Windirstat...impressive! Now I have to figure out what to do with it.
I don't see a way to save the results?

A lot of space is being used in Documents and Settings with:
1.Duplication for Administrator, All users, Guest and the original owner. Can I delete some of the duplication?
2.Recycler: almost 500MB. What "protected files" can I safely remove? There are a lot of Pando archives, JPEGs, GIFs etc.

Re Clean Reboot: I have considered this but am concerned I will have a problem activating XP again. I have read of others who have had problems installing a second time.

Still don't understand why I can delete over 2GB of files and gain only a few MB free space -if any?

THANKS!

 

[versatastic]

If you have problems with activating XP again, and it's a legal copy, just call microsoft. They'll give you another installation key. I've had to do it before when upgrading my processor.

 

[trinket]

Windirstat...impressive! Now I have to figure out what to do with it.
I don't see a way to save the results?

Yeah, with Windirstat, I really only run it "interactively" each time, then ALT-TAB to other apps to clear some space by deleting or burning to DVD, then just "refreshing" (which takes less time than a "new" scan). Just now I tried under the "Report" menu though, with the option to "Send an E-mail to owner", and it opens up the E-mail software that your system has its default send mail set to, and pops up a little "Please check your disk space..." message with a nice sorted text view top to bottom.

Also, I'm sure you saw this option but some people miss it, instead of doing a scan of your entire drive (which is never a bad idea the first time anyway) with Windirstat, you can choose the "folder" option and just pick, say, your Documents & Settings folder. This will let it run faster plus "zoom in" to only the area that concerns you and show you more detail in the colored "bubbles". You can even go a few levels down if that's where you see most of your files are residing (based on the text section at the top half of the screen) and run from there, again to get more detail on the true space hogs. If you don't recognize the filename or extention, you can ask here or just Google it to find out what it does and why it might be growing so large for you.

Not sure why you're seeing duplication amongst the different users. I mean, each account will obviously have specific program, setting and user files which will have the same names as part of the profile. Do you mean data files are residing more than once? What sorts of files are you seeing duped? You may want to use a true "duplicate remover" like NoClone to scan first and see if the files really are duplicates. Just be careful about not removing stuff that's part of setup for those different accounts.

For the Recycler, sometimes I've found "Emptying" the recycle bin (and make sure you do this for each of the accounts you mention) doesn't always truly remove the files especially if there was a problem partway through and it stopped or they otherwise become locked as "in-use". You could try a fresh reboot, then emptying again. If the bin is empty but the files are still there, carefully review them and make sure they're stuff that you really did want gone, then remove them (i.e. through Windows explorer).

 

[300148]

Still removong files, but gaining no space,
E.g.:removed NERO Media Player, which was over 1GB, gained nothing and it still appears in the TreeMap.
At one point yesterday free space on C dropped to 12MB!
What "protected" files can I delete safely? They are mostly Bin, SVL, XML, AVM, WinRar zip, and Sav files that use 613MB of space.There is also a 252 MB file labeled "unknown".
EinDirStat:
C drive is labelled Dsk1_Vol2....where's volume 1?
The % is given as[1.56 s] for C.
D is Dsk1_Vol2 and E is Dsk1_Vol3.

Thanks,
LARRY

 

[trinket]

Well, for your question about C: being Dsk1_Vol2, and where's Volume 1, it's just a named label, so doesn't mean everything, but I agree based on any naming convention that should be followed, it's a bit strange. You could use something like Partition Magic to examine your available physical disks and which volume names, letters and partitions are around on them - it might be unused space or somehow accessible, or maybe once held something (like some systems that dual-booted WinME or something). You can also do this right through XP without any third-party programs (may need to be on the Administrator's account). Try this link for instructions and sample screenshots.

I really hate to casually recommend "format and reinstall" because it's a rare case that something that drastic is necessary, but it was recommended earlier in this thread and your problems are so bizarre that I can't quite understand how and why they're happening. If you have everything vital backed up, it may not be the worst idea. I assume based on your volume labelling that they're all physical Disk 1, just various partitions (the "Volumes"), so there may be no need to toast and re-NTFS format each of those volumes, they could potentially stand as-is and keep your data, whereas you just do a new install on your C: drive. Before doing anything drastic like this, though, in case the install routine gets over-ambitious or you choose certain options during the process without realizing consequences, always backup (even across all your volumes) and be prepared for anything during a clean install.

 

[300148]

Haven't given up!
Still through the various suggestions. Thanks everyone.
No free space gained on C, despite using several different scanners that purport to "fix". Big problem seems to be the registry with>1000 errors.

Newest developments:
1. WordPad has disappeared and all my RTF documents changed to ??? format!
2.On startup:
-svchost.exe cannot be found;
-Load Script Failed
-PowerBar.exe has encountered a problem and must close.

"Dude, I'm gettin' a Dell"

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I would copy all the music, documents, pictures, RTF files (even if they are now labeled as ???), etc to your D drive and then reformat the C drive and reinstall windows. i don't know what's going on, but it sounds like there are enough problems with the registry to warrant it and you are having more problems with the computer than not.