I uninstalled a program and instead of clearing space it took more

Hi
I have a very old computer with a 12 gb hard drive. I have 600Mhz Pentium III processor,
384 mb ram.
I have Windows XP home edition with service pk 3 installed.
I have PCTool Antivirus installed, Threat fire, Smart defrag. I can't degrag at all. It says there is not enough system resources.


I was wanting to clear up some space on the hard drive so I uninstalled several programs.
I am runnng ccleaner and regscrubb as my registry cleaners.
I have done the reg clean and all the disc cleaning but instead of cleariing up space it shows that the space actually went down from 14% free space to 7%.
I have cleaned out all the ef hours ago and now it is gone to 922mb.

Help please.

Cele

 

Hi cele, have you restarted your pc since you uninstalled these app's?... if not do so.

Also try going to C:\Program files and see if any of the app's you have removed still have folders, if they do delete them, and run ccleaner again, make sure to run both options. [i recommend you stop using that "regscrub" it can harm your pc if you dont know what it is removing.]

Q

 

What is your virtual memory set to?

(pagefile.sys)

 

Yes Q I have done both. It stillshows low space. I didn't know that about REg scrup. It seems to go much deeper then CCleaner.
Thanks

 

Try Tree Size to see where all your space is going. You may need to unhide your Windows files. Recycle Bin empty? Sounds like something's making a backup.

 

Right now it is set at 192 mb

 

Do as augie suggested, and find out what is taking up the space.

That is the point, anything that goes deeper than Ccleaner is not recommended for novice users! those type of programs will happily delete vital system entries that can cause a myriad of issues.

Q

BTW, do you have much data stored on this pc? vids, music, photo's, etc

 

Ok Installed Tree Size. But it sure looks like mnore hten I understand. What am I looking for?

Recycle bin is empty.

Thanks
Cele

 

Hi Q ,
I get you. I will not use Reg scrub again.
I have a separate hard drive that I put all my pictures on . And I don't have any videos stored, but do have some mp3 files but they are all on the D drive. This is an 80 gb hard drive.
No pictures or music stored on C drive, or very little. about 200mb in my music which are Mp3 files and lest then 2mb in my pictures.

thanks,
Cele

 

Hit the scan tab and wait a bit until it finishes, with 12 GB, that won't take long at all. Look at the top entries, double click the top one and if you're not sure what should be there, then just copy and paste them here. where someone can decipher it for you.

It might take a while to drill down to the culprit but I don't want you deleting everything in sight either.

 

Ok I scanned it and there is a long list of items. I tried to copy and past it but it won't let me select anything.
the first item is the C drive and and it shows7977.3 mb
next is

 

Hi cele, where it shows the C: drive, ther is a little + to the left click that and it will expand a list, then you can expand any items in the list, and so on and so on seeing where fiiles are being stored and what they are called.

Q

 

Hi Q
I have been looking through all this list . This may take a while. But something weird happened las night as I was looking inthe Tree listing. My computer froze up ( which is why I started looking for probelems in the first place ) and when I re booted I noticed it seeme to be running a little better so I looked at the available space again and all the space was there, over 3 gb. And then later when I went into my D drive to get some photos to send my daughter I found a whole bunch of files that were not there before and some of them appear to be from those programs I uninstalled. Apparently the computer dumped those file onto the D drive. And I don't know what to do with them if anything.
so one problem seems to have fixed itself but but now what do I do with these files.

I am also having alot of problems with the PC anti virus so I uninstalled it and was trying to install AVG 8.5 ( I prefer AVG) but it would not install, it gave me an error Ox80070005.

I looked up what that meant and was advised to install Reg Cure. I ran that scan it showed over 480 problems in the registry. Can that be right? I didn't fix anything. I wanted to get your input first.

 

Hi cele, your computer freezing is not a big surprise with it having had a nearly full HDD, Your system must be fragmented all over the place.

Download a good defragger if you dont already have one... [dont use the windows one]

These are two good free ones...
Auslogics - http://majorgeeks.com/Auslogics_Disk_Defrag_d5266.html
Defraggler - http://majorgeeks.com/Defraggler_d5777.html



What are thesefiles called that have appeaared on D: drive. [what is the full file name]



Ignore those "problems" reg cure has found, it is not a reliable program IMO.

Ccleaner is the only reg cleaner anyone should use without knowledgeable guidance!

Q

edit: as for the AVG problem..... go here --> http://www.crystalidea.com/avg-uninstall-tool and download the tool and follow the guide to fully remove AVG then, run ccleaner again and restart your PC, then try to install it again.
[although i cant recommend anything more strongly than not using AVG free, avira or avast is far superior]

 

Hi Cele,

I don't usually recommend this (even though I regularly do the same thing manually on my own PC's ) but removing your old Windows Update installers will free up a few 100Mb of space.

Also set your System Restore to 4-5% of the hard drive size will create a little more room to enable a defragger to run efficiently.

 

Thank you Q I will do that and I will look at the other anti-virus software too. I don't really care which one I use as long as it is good.

I willgo look at those files and let you know.

Thanks again

 

Thanks Satrow,
I will write these things down and look at doing them when I have done all the other stuff I have to do. I will say one thing here I am learning so much from this website.

I am very grateful to all of you who have helped me with your time and expertise.

Cele

 

Your welcome cele

If you are not fuused on which AV you use, i recommend Avira, it is the best free one IMO and is VERY light on resources.

http://majorgeeks.com/Avira_AntiVir_Personal_-_Free_Antivirus_d955.html

Q

 

Hi Q
I downloaded Avira and tried to run a scan three time and each time my computer froze up when the scan started.

I also have been looking through the Tree Size list and I have found several files from programs I uninstalled months ago.

The uninstaller did not show that AVG was installed but I found several files that are AVG in the program files.
And it showed some programs that I had uninstalled in the list of programs on the computer and when I tried to run the uninstaller it said they did not exist but they still show up on the list.

Also I did uninstall RegCure and the amount of available space went down again instead of up.

I am not sure what I am looking for in the Tree Size list either. I see where it shows the files and the size but none of them show alot of files except the first three listings..Windowsetc. but like i said there are several files with in the tree that are from programes I have already uninstalled.
I am confused.....

Cele