So I was trying to download and install a newer version of AutoCAD and it said my hard drive was full. Checked it sure enough. Uninstalled 3 Big programs: BMW etk-frikin huge-still have the discs. Printshop. Some HP photo thing.
All of these were between 200 to 400 MB's. Re-checked: My computer/hard drive/properties-the same. OK my computer is 6 years old, 60 gig hard drive, although when I check it it says 30 gig. I know I should at least double up, and I will.
My question is shouldn't the hard drive free up space when uninstalling programs? Are they still there clogging my drive? Is it the registry? Should I just buy a 120 or bigger from newegg? Budget is always a concern right now.
TIA
Dave
OT: Computer issues
-
Mark 88/M5 Houston
- Posts: 8548
- Joined: Feb 12, 2006
- Location: Far North Houston
-
Bimmerguy2002
- Posts: 11974
- Joined: Oct 03, 2007
- Location: Lodi, California
If you want slow-ass performance. AutoCAD is a disk intensive program.Bimmerguy2002 wrote:EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE DAVE!!!!
buy.com has some screaming deals on them right now, and when you have a gmail account, you get 10 dollars off, and usually shipping is free.
If you've done everything you can with removing unwanted programs, go into your Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders (search for these) and empty them. I've had a dozen gigs of crap add up over the course of 3 years. I prefer to reinstall my OS a few times a year, but at work I don't always have that option. CCleaner is a good free program for removing remnants of older programs from the registry and other areas of the system. It's not bloated and it doesn't install spyware like some other registry cleaners tend to do.
-
Mark 88/M5 Houston
- Posts: 8548
- Joined: Feb 12, 2006
- Location: Far North Houston
Definitely sounds like time for more HD space then. Either another internal or an external. With the age of your system if you go with an external drive you might need to add a USB2 / Firewire card to help the thru-put if you have and open PCI slot.dcollin wrote:I might go external, and Mark I did all of those to little results.Bimmerguy2002 wrote:EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE DAVE!!!!
buy.com has some screaming deals on them right now, and when you have a gmail account, you get 10 dollars off, and usually shipping is free.
A year is a lot of time to amass a few gigs of garbage somewhere. Can you afford to wipe the system clean? It's the most cost effective way to increase performance in an older system. If you did get an external drive, it would be a good place to store your data while you install the OS from scratch.dcollin wrote:The weird thing is: last summer I install AutoCAD 2007 no problem, and had all of those other ones I got rid of as well.
This summer I try 2008, I know it's a little bigger, not huge, and I'm having this problem.
How much actual free space is displayed for the disk in question?
Last edited by pdx 528e on Jun 24, 2008 2:02 PM, edited 1 time in total.
pdx 528e wrote:If you want slow-ass performance. AutoCAD is a disk intensive program.Bimmerguy2002 wrote:EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE DAVE!!!!
buy.com has some screaming deals on them right now, and when you have a gmail account, you get 10 dollars off, and usually shipping is free.
If you've done everything you can with removing unwanted programs, go into your Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders (search for these) and empty them. I've had a dozen gigs of crap add up over the course of 3 years. I prefer to reinstall my OS a few times a year, but at work I don't always have that option. CCleaner is a good free program for removing remnants of older programs from the registry and other areas of the system. It's not bloated and it doesn't install spyware like some other registry cleaners tend to do.
My wife's computer had either CounterSpy or Spybot and it load some frikkin HUGE thing called window safety alert. Took me forever to remove. And infected her with virus galore.
[/quote]
A year is a lot of time to amass a few gigs of garbage somewhere. Can you afford to wipe the system clean? It's the most cost effective way to increase performance in an older system. If you did get an external drive, it would be a good place to store your data while you install the OS from scratch.
How much actual free space is displayed for the disk in question?[/quote]
Right now 43 M. My computer is constany popping up"Time to deal with it". When you say wipe the system clean, you mean formatting the hard drive? I know I have the disc's that came with the computer, does that mean re-installing window? I've never done it.
A year is a lot of time to amass a few gigs of garbage somewhere. Can you afford to wipe the system clean? It's the most cost effective way to increase performance in an older system. If you did get an external drive, it would be a good place to store your data while you install the OS from scratch.
How much actual free space is displayed for the disk in question?[/quote]
Right now 43 M. My computer is constany popping up"Time to deal with it". When you say wipe the system clean, you mean formatting the hard drive? I know I have the disc's that came with the computer, does that mean re-installing window? I've never done it.
Here's my computer http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-d ... tml?hhTest
I do have the OS disc and some others.
I do have the OS disc and some others.
I've managed to lose you number Dave, Give me a call and I'll see if I can help you out over the phone.dcollin wrote:Here's my computer http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-d ... tml?hhTest
I do have the OS disc and some others.
From looking at that machine, I'd say that it may be time to upgrade if you plan on doing extensive drafting with 2008. I find windows XP is generally unhappy with any less than 512 MB to1 GB of RAM. AutoCAD can chew up another 512MB on its own. Have you maxed out your RAM expansion yet?dcollin wrote:Here's my computer http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-d ... tml?hhTest
I do have the OS disc and some others.
Reinstalling the OS can be a complicated procedure if you haven't done it before. I'd enlist the help of a computer savvy friend or co-worker, as you'll need to get your drivers sorted (at least Dell tends to provide all of them), and all of your favorite programs reinstalled.
Another option is to buy a larger hard drive, and then image the data from the old one onto the new drive (Norton Ghost is an application that can handle this). The benefit here is that you will have no fragmentation. Then you can use the old drive in an external enclosure (or leave it inside the computer if you have room) to store your photos and movies and such.
-
DiLLiGaF - IA
- Posts: 1091
- Joined: Nov 22, 2006
+ 1 on the ccleaner, awesome program for cleaning out temp files, and grabage from the registery. http://www.ccleaner.comdcollin wrote:pdx 528e wrote:[ CCleaner is a good free program for removing remnants of older programs from the registry and other areas of the system. It's not bloated and it doesn't install spyware like some other registry cleaners tend to do.
My wife's computer had either CounterSpy or Spybot and it load some frikkin HUGE thing called window safety alert. Took me forever to remove. And infected her with virus galore.
It must have been Counterspy that did that to you then, spybot S&D is another great program for removing spyware crap.
Re: OT: Computer issues
Are you saying that you know you have a 60 GB hard drive, but it's only detecting that it's 30 GB? Based on that, I would guess that your hard drive was partitioned at one point and something has happened to the partition table to make windows no longer recognize the second partition. If you are only using 30 of 60 gigs, there's no reason to upgrade.dcollin wrote:OK my computer is 6 years old, 60 gig hard drive, although when I check it it says 30 gig.
Re: OT: Computer issues
Some system manufacturers will partition the physical disk to provide a restore partition on a single drive. One of their discs or a bios command feature can activate the restoration. I'm not sure that this is what's going on here, but good catch. I've seen this largely common on laptops.duggi wrote:Are you saying that you know you have a 60 GB hard drive, but it's only detecting that it's 30 GB? Based on that, I would guess that your hard drive was partitioned at one point and something has happened to the partition table to make windows no longer recognize the second partition. If you are only using 30 of 60 gigs, there's no reason to upgrade.dcollin wrote:OK my computer is 6 years old, 60 gig hard drive, although when I check it it says 30 gig.
The bad thing is.. if the reason you have to install your OS again is due to a failed HDD, what good is a restore partition on the HDD? 2.5 inch disks seem to fail if you look at them wrong.
Re: OT: Computer issues
I'm familiar with this, but it would be surprising if the restore partition was half the size of the drive. If it is the case, I would reformat the restore partition and use it as a second logical drive. Double your hard drive space, for free =)pdx 528e wrote:Some system manufacturers will partition the physical disk to provide a restore partition on a single drive. One of their discs or a bios command feature can activate the restoration. I'm not sure that this is what's going on here, but good catch. I've seen this largely common on laptops.duggi wrote:Are you saying that you know you have a 60 GB hard drive, but it's only detecting that it's 30 GB? Based on that, I would guess that your hard drive was partitioned at one point and something has happened to the partition table to make windows no longer recognize the second partition. If you are only using 30 of 60 gigs, there's no reason to upgrade.dcollin wrote:OK my computer is 6 years old, 60 gig hard drive, although when I check it it says 30 gig.
The bad thing is.. if the reason you have to install your OS again is due to a failed HDD, what good is a restore partition on the HDD? 2.5 inch disks seem to fail if you look at them wrong.
So "My Computer" is showing your local disk at 30 GB when you have a 60 GB disk drive? Dell usually creates a 10 GB hidden partition, and you may have only had 55 GB of usable disk space, anyway so that should put you at a minimum disk size of around 45 GB. 30 seems way too low. If you right-click on "My Computer," go to "Manage," and click "Disk Management," you should be able to see all partitions. What does that show?
-
Bimmerguy2002
- Posts: 11974
- Joined: Oct 03, 2007
- Location: Lodi, California
I don't see Manage there. I did do a CCleaner and now instead of 43 MB available, I have 3 GB!WVe28 wrote:So "My Computer" is showing your local disk at 30 GB when you have a 60 GB disk drive? Dell usually creates a 10 GB hidden partition, and you may have only had 55 GB of usable disk space, anyway so that should put you at a minimum disk size of around 45 GB. 30 seems way too low. If you right-click on "My Computer," go to "Manage," and click "Disk Management," you should be able to see all partitions. What does that show?
Did that, and did some things Logan told me on the phone: Now 8 GB freeWVe28 wrote:If you're using XP you should have "open", "explore", "search", and "Manage" in the top section of the drop-down menu. (Do it to the one in the start menu to ensure you're not clicking a shortcut)
3GB is a pretty good improvement, though
Thanks everyone.
Now that you've done that, it would be a good idea to get one of these external drives and put your files on it. This way, if the OS craps out and requires reformatting or the drive fails completely, you don't lose everything. Plus, it'll make your daily computing a much more pleasant experience. I've been using them for years. I've got 3 for various files and 2 for music. Unfortunately, I have to buy a couple more so I can move stuff to format a couple drives so they're not NTFS, which can be read, but not written to by OSX. 