What happened to my drive space?

Ken Williams · From: Arkansas

My home computer has a 2 gig hard drive. I know that is small by today's standards. Isn't there 1000 megabytes in 1 gigabyte? If I total all programs that I know of, it doesn't seem possible that they would take up over 5 or 6 hundred mb. That's only about 1/4 of 2 gig. But, I'm out of hard drive space. About the only thing that I know of that I ever "save" on the computer is BIAB songs(about 20 or so). I've taken everything off except bare bones programs. Am I just adding this up wrong or is there some type of problem with the hard drive? . I can't run the scanner, no hard drive space left.

Ken

David Pennybaker · From: Conroe, TX USA

Check your c:\windows\temp directory and also your temporary internet files directory.

Those two places can accumulate LOTS of files that take up LOTS of hard-drive space.

Also, consider getting another HDD. You can get 20 GB or so for $200 or less now.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
http://members.xoom.com/dpennybaker/index.htm

David Pennybaker · From: Conroe, TX USA

What are BIAB songs? What format are they in? .wav files and .mp3 files can take up lots of HDD space, too.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
http://members.xoom.com/dpennybaker/index.htm

Ken Williams · From: Arkansas

David, I guess they are wav files. When I make a new song and want to save it, it doesn't ask me the format. I save them Bb file located on the c drive.
Quick question, my son has installed and unistalled several games over the last year. I've thought maybe parts of the games are left on the computer even after they are uninstalled. Is that possible?

Ken

David Pennybaker · From: Conroe, TX USA

BIAB = Band in a Box?

I think those would just be MIDI files (.mid) which are pretty small. If they are .wav files, they will be huge. Stereo .wav files use about 10 MB per minute. Assuming an average of 4 minutes per song, that's 40 MB per song. At 20 songs, that'd be 800 MB, or almost 1/2 of your HDD space.

I doubt that they Uninstall of the games left very much behind. Usually, it just leaves behind stuff you don't need in your registry, and a few .dll files. The bulk of the program should (and that's a key word) have been erased.

You should be able to check what kind of files and how big they are for your BIAB files. That'll answer one question.

As far as the games, look under c:\windows\programfiles\ and look for subdirectories that have any of the games in them.

You really should get another HDD, though. 2 GB is extremely small. You can keep the OS on the small drive, and use the new one for storage.

Depending on the age of your computer, and your budget, you might consider a low-cost Celeron desktop computer. It should come with at least 8 GB of HDD space, and you'd get a new processor, etc. to boot.

But, if all you need is more storage space, get another HDD.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
http://members.xoom.com/dpennybaker/index.htm

[This message was edited by David Pennybaker on 24 August 2000 at 10:50 AM.]

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

The temporary files and temporary internet files will only use a designated percentage of the drive.

You should periodically do a scan disk (at least once a month) and every couple of months do a disk defrag. That could open up some hard drive space. But a 2GB, today, is small and it doesn't take long to fill it up.

My Windows(9 Cool

folder, which includes the temporary files is currently 976MB. On a 2GB drive that's half of it right there.

Everett Cox · From: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)

Ken-- While some good points have been raised, no one has yet mentioned the likely reason for your confusion. Due to the method used by the system to read/write files, they will often use much more disk space than the file size would indicate.

You didn't say what Windows version you are using but, from the size of the hard disk, I suspect the 'cluster size' is 32K. That is the SMALLEST chunk of disk space the system can manage. Which means that each of your 'shortcuts' that Windows says are 1000 Bytes will require 32,768 Bytes of disk space. Most of us have a whole lot of 'little' files taking up a lot of space.

With the larger drives common these days, the system uses better management and the 'waste' space for individual files is not so bad. Can still add up to several hundred Meg's, though.

Use Windows Explorer and RIGHT click on a folder, LEFT click properties on the resulting menu. Now compare the file(s) size in bytes to the size of the 'bytes used'.

There are ways to minimize the problem but I don't want to add confusion. Best remedy is what others have said - get a larger drive which allows Windows to be more efficient. -- Everett

[This message was edited by Everett Cox on 25 August 2000 at 12:44 AM.]

Quesney Gibbs · From: Anniston, AL

Go out and buy Norton Utilities. Install it and it will look for all the leftover crap on your hard drive and get rid of it. Make sure that the version you buy has clean sweep included in it.

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

I also use Norton Utilities, which has a much more effective and versatile version of "defrag". Symantec, which puts out the Norton products, licenses a very stripped-down version of their defrag utility to Microflaccid, which is what you get in W9x.
If you do decide to use Norton Utilities, I would suggest not installing, or perhaps disabing "System Doctor" and "Crashguard", as they are resource hogs. Crashguard can tend to create more crashes than it guards against.
Also check the settings for your recycle bin, as it defaults with 10% of your hard drive set aside for itself. I set it to the minimum 1% value. 200 MBytes of a 2 GByte hard drive is a lot of garbage to keep around, and/or a huge empty wastebasket taking up valuable space for naught.
Norton Utilities also has the "WinDoctor" troubleshooting and repair utility, which I have been using one version or another of for over three years with no problems.
Other utilities included provide for easy system optimization, and a good anti-virus program, with frequent free updates available over the internet.
One of the very best sources for dealing with Windows is the "Windows Annoyances" website, and everything there is simply and concisely explained and easy to understand for even raw beginners. Good Luck!
http://www.annoyances.org/

BTW, BB files are modified midi files, and quite small, typically under 5 KBytes.
The largest midi file I can recall was about 48K, for a 32-bar, very lavishly orchestrated jazz standard piece with complex rhythm patterns and lots of instruments.

[This message was edited by Rich Paton on 26 August 2000 at 10:08 AM.]

Ken Williams · From: Arkansas

Thanks guys for all the info. I'll try some of the things that were suggested. It's a slow process, but I'm learning.

Ken

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