Low Disk Space on mini-laptop

Hello All,

First off, Happy 4th!! I am helping my father out here, but I have the mini-laptop at my house to try to fix. My father is a traveling nurse and to save money he stays in the camping of his truck at the hospital. The hospital has internet so he has decided that he wants to take his Asus mini-laptop (only purpose is to use the laptop to surf the net, check e-mail, and watch Netflix, nothing else). The mini lap-top is an Asus mini-laptop Eee PC Series with Intel 900 mhz, 503 ram (I've attached the system info pic). I have also attached space sniffer pictures as well as the warning about low disk space. The mini has no cd drive. It has only about 100 mb left in space. There is no programs other that ccleaner and weatherbug that did not come with the computer. I figure it is service pack 2 plus what additional updates afterwards that have taken up the space.

Like I said he only wants it to surf the net, check e-mail, and watch netflicks.

I am open for suggestions.

 

The first thing I'd do would be to clear out the old Windows Hotfix uninstallers > Ccleaner advanced section, I think it's one of the top 2 entries, check it and run Ccleaner.

What's the total size of the drive, 3.5GB? That's going to make finding space interesting.

 

Your really gonna struggle if I understand the space sniffer output 'I've never used it' your hard drive is only 3.5gb,can you confirm this:confused and your windows install takes up about 2.5gb which is pretty normal.

Did this come reinstalled with a striped down OS and you've installed XP yourself?

If this is true you really are gonna struggle,3.5 gb isn't big enough to install xp on,I've played around with XP on old computers and I end up struggling with old 10gb drives,that is if you want any functionality.

If this is true and your determined to use XP and not upgrade the hard drive,I and other members can try to help you out.

EDIT Sorry satrow you got there just before me,yes interesting is right:-D

 

I have not stripped at all. My father called and let me know about it and asked if I could help so he could take it with him. The mini-lap top came with everything pre-installed.

Hotfix got about 1.5 mb. Total size of the drive is 3.69 GB.

It has spots for usb drives as well as a removable SB slot, but no cd-drive.

 

Sheesh, only 1.5MB, I guess he's not updated it much

Do you have a 4-8GB SDcard you could fit in there?

 

I would gladly go buy him one (it's my fault I introduced him to facebook and netflix) lol

 

If you could do that, it would help a lot, you could move the windows paging file onto it, it'll probably be faster than that Gen. 1 'SSD' anyway - it'll save 2GB straight off.

Uninstall Adobe Reader, we'll find something smaller later. Reduce the amount of disk space used by IE temporary internet files to 48MB.

Does he really need 3 Users, dropping down to 1 will save a little more space?

 

Disable system restore and remove old restore points,keep one good one just incase.

Remove net framework

They are about the only half big things that spring to mind.

You can try to remove windows components using Nlite,just work through each and decide whether you need the component or not,if your not sure leave them.

Here's a guide

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:nlitexp

http://majorgeeks.com/nLite_d4324.html

Bedtime for me,good luck.

 

Thanks and sweet dreams Rikky

 

I will get the card later tonight (crowd at Wal-mart is crazy at the moment).

Other 2 users are deleted. Adobe reader is uninstalled as well as IE temp files reduced. Got rid of some others stuff including windows live mail (he uses gmail), weather bug, messenger and photo gallery.

Now up to 445 mb

 

Thanks, enjoy the 4th!!

 

You can install this to read and create pdf files - it's small

Can you expand on the Windows\Installer and Program Files panes please? I'd like to see the file names more clearly.

 

In space sniffer, the installer pane?

 

Yes please, I've never used it either but I guess you can double-click on a region to isolate it?

 

System restore already disabled...working on the others now.

 

Here is the installer pane.

 

That folder changed since the earlier view, no 97MB .tmp file now, the MSI50.tmp, what date is it?

If you get a 4GB+ SDcard and put the paging file on it, you'll get a total of around 2.5GB free space. I'd leave it at that for the time being, study up on using nLite and creating a Slipstreamed SP3 USB install (3-5 hours?) for the next time you can have the netbook for an evening or so.

Almost sun-up here now, I'm hitting the sack, catch up with this later.

 

Will work on the paging file tomorrow with the SD card...thanks again for the continued help! G'nite!

 

MSI50.tmp's date is March 25, 2010.

Also bad news, the paging file is set to 0 bytes already so unless it is going around the setting, putting it on the SD card won't help :cry

 

In the System Information screenshot, the paging file was 1.5-2GB?. If there's no set paging file, Windows will create one elsewhere anyway if it needs one. Start> Run > DXDiag > first tab gives the current paging file in use.

It the tmp file is that old, I'd say it was safe to delete.

 

You are right of course!

I was looking under System Properties (under Performance and Maintenance) and under Performance Options is said Total paging file size was 0 mb but running the DXDiag it says: Page file: 191 MB, 280 MB available.

 

Ok, I'm pleased the theory works out so far; can you now create a fixed page file of 2048 min and max on the SD card (assuming you have it) and set a 64MB fixed page file on the System drive (just in case of BSOD's - it allows minidump creation for troubleshooting). Then set Windows to create minidumps but not overwrite them.

My guess is that Windows will only use the SD card for paging because using the 'SSD' would be slower, this is what happens on my W7 netbook with 8GB 'SSD'.

Once that's been done, reboot and check disk space?

Do you think moving the 'My' folders to the SD card would be safe (I'm thinking about the user here, he's not likely to lose the card, is he?)? This is the way my netbook is set, it works fine for me.

 

As far as the minidumps go, I am under startup and recovery, but right now I do not have the option to uncheck the overwrite option, will that change once I create the new paging files?

 

No, you'll probably need to change the type of dump to enable you to uncheck the overwrite, toggle between types until you can uncheck it then set it for minidumps.

 

ok so I got an 8 GB SDHC card and it is not being recognized. I guess I am gonna have to try to find just a plain SD card. I cannot find a firmware fix for it to read SDHC:cry:cry


Edit: ok so supposedly it will read SDHC but there are 'issues' and I think my SanDisk is one of the 'issues'

 

Hello,
Try reformatting the card with this utility and see if it helps.
Note: Formats to FAT32.

http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/

 

I have a 701 model eeepc. I have several 8GB sdhc cards and no problem with them being recognized (in linux). I did not need to do a thing to them. I put them into an XP computer, moved the avi movies I wanted onto the card, insert the card into the slot on my eeepc and use the Xandros File Manager and can see my files.

You are running windows. Is this a new install or did windows come on your netbook? If it did not come installed, I have to assume that you do not have all the hardware drivers loaded.

 

Went and bought a 2GB SD card and it wouldn't read it, but then i restated and it did...oh well, I bet the 4 GB SDHC would have.

 

Ok I set the paging file to 1800 because of the smaller card, and did the restart and still says only 482 mb free space.

 

Yup, as plodr said, 4-8GB SD cards should work fine in netbooks.

So, no real change, huh? It really needs some hands on work or a complete reinstall from an nLited SP3 USB stick.

Reduce System Restore space to 4 or 5%, reduce the space taken by recycle bin files to similar, I'll think of some more when the painkillers have kicked in - tension headache.

 

I think you are running into the same problem that all do with an SSD that does have TRIM which so far as I know is only supported by Window 7. Non TRIM supported SSD's do not reuse sectors, TRIM frees the sectors to be reused. I have a similar mini that in about a 6 month period would run out of space with out adding additional programs, it is an Acer with a 1.6, 1g of ram and an 8g SSD, I spent weeks trying to figure out a way to keep it from getting loaded up. I went to every mini board I could find to no avail, I follow the only recommended fix which is to to reload it when it gets full. I can reload and get it back on wireless in about an hour, if my SSD ever dies I will get one with TRIM and switch to 7. I am relatively sure from my exhausting tries you will have to go down the same path.

Added note I have an 8g SSD in the slot that all my data goes on, I have no loss when I reload just the slight inconvenience

Phil