Cannot increase free space on C: drive

Hello,
I have a serious problem. I am Running XP Pro 2002 with service pack 2 installed. The computer is a P4 3.0GHz with 1GB Ram
My c: drive was near full 950Mb free of 9.76 GB. I removed some programs using ADD/REMOVE and files that I was not using, approx. 4.5 GB. My free disk space went down to 930Mb. I did a disk clean up, no change. I did a defrag I now have 0.97GB free. I am at a total loss as to what to do.
Let me explain my drive setup, this is how I purchased it.
I have two 160 GB hard disks partitioned as follows:
C: is mirrored with a total of 9.76 GB
E: I believe is mirrored also with 6.15 GB total and 5.53 GB free this was from moving my documents there and removing them from C:
R: is a Raid 0 with 285 GB with 284 GB free I use this area for storage of CAD files and digital pictures.
Any help is appreciated
Thank You,
Gene Kozak

 

Are you using Norton? Looks like although you are removing programs they may still be in a protected recycle bin. Not able to be run, but not deleted. Despite what you have "deleted" the free space remains at 950mb free (0.97 gb free) so something is stopping them from being removed and freeing up the space.

Run these 3, all free, don't conflict with each other.

Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/ Freeware 3.1
EmpTemp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1575
and CrapCleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

these will get rid of lots of other unnecessary stuff. Bazza

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Hello Big Bazza,
Thanks for the reply. I will try this as soon as I can do a backup.
Can I download these programs to a different drive? I'm not certain my c: drive will have the space.
Thank You,
Gene

P.S. Yes I am using Norton; I thought you could clean the protected recycle bin through windows explorer; or is it just another big brother porgram.

 

thunderstreak, you cannot delete the Norton protected files through Explorer. It is designed to stop you doing that, as an extra safeguard for deleted files. You must do it through Nortons.

Left clicking on my (old version) of Nortons recycle bin icon shows all files that are in the Protected recycle bin. You will probably be staggered on the number of files there, if you have not cleared your Nortons protected recycle bin before. Right clicking on the same icon allows you to delete these files, after you confirm that it is OK to delete them. After they are deleted, I then do a defrag using Norton Speed Disk, to reorganize my drive and the free space has increased. Probably dramatically, in your case.

As to installing programs on another drive, yes, you can install most programs on any drive, if they give you the choice in the install setup. Most allow you to "browse" and you can select where you want to install them.

Try clearing the Protected Recycle bin first, if you want to install these programs on "C". Keep us posted. Bazza
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Hello,
I did the norton thing I am up 1.37 Ghz of free space . although I still have not done the back up to run the cleaning utilities .
Thanks,
Thunderstreak

 

thunderstreak, Congrats, you are on the way. Now run those 3 utilities. Run Cleanup! first. It will tell you how many files, as well as the space of the files removed. Turn the volume up, for the toilet flushing sound. Just answer "No" when it asks you to "reboot Y/N?" this time. Then run CCleaner, then EmpTemp. Write down the results of Cleanup! and CCleaner. How much stuff they cleared. Remember, whatever program you run second, will not find as much stuff as whatever you run first. First one deletes it, so second one cannot find it. This does not mean that 1 is better than the other, just less to find. How much free space do you end up with? Maybe time to do a defrag after all this. I use Nortons Speed Disk (for years, now). Can't recommend any other defragger as I haven't bothered using anything else for years. As I mentioned earlier, I think, I use Speed Disk nearly every day to defrag my drive/s. Bazza

PS: Dont forget to clean out the Norton Recycled Protect bin every so often. I clean mine daily. Baz

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