Small Issue I hope

Small question... I have a Gateway GT5411E Computer, Operating System is Windows Vista Home Premium. I have 2GB of Memory and I have a D drive that is now full... I have tried doing a backup but it tells me that I don't have enough disk space to complete the back up. Soooo. How do I do a backup on a drive that is full but not enough space to do a backup?? Andddd, when I go to RUN and type in chkdsk, is flashes the black directory screen but then doesn't open.

Thanks in Advance

 

Hi

First of all, you can't do a backup on a drive that is full. You will need to make space for the backup (remove previous backups, etc.) in order to do the backup.

To prevent the Command Prompt from closing like that, click Start, type "cmd" (without quotes) in the search box, then RIGHT CLICK the Command Prompt and choose "Run as Administrator". Once it is open, type "chkdsk /r" without the quotes and hit Enter. If you are doing a CHKDSK on your system drive, it will allow you to do it upon the next reboot.

 

If you have a CD or DVD burner drive you can put all your photos, documents, downloaded files (music, videos), etc onto some disks, verify they are OK then see how much hard drive space you would free up by deleting the originals.

Sam

 

Here is a screenshot.. But it will not let me open or explore this. I have more screenshots.

 

Don't think it is a wise decision to try backing up onto your recovery partition.
Better option is a seperate HD or an external USB drive.

 

Thank you. I actually already have put all my pics and files (documents) on a usb drive. So that it would free up space. For some reason though, I can't see what is on the d drive.

 

I don't really want to do another backup.. I'd like to get the old back up off of it.. Apparently it isn't meant for me to do anything to it for it keeps saying that there isn't enough space to do a back up anyway. I just wanted to know if I could at least try to free up some of the space that is on there.
Thanks

 

Here is the other screenshot of the command prompt.. Thanks

 

On the chkdsk it looks like you have set it to run the next time Windows starts so you should be OK on that. You can just reboot and let it run. [I'm unsure if /r is the correct switch--it did recommend /f. After letting it run on reboot, you should probably rerun it at the cmd prompt to verify that it no longer finds errors.]

You are running chkdsk on C: not on D: is that what you wanted to do?

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If you wanted to run chkdsk on D: it would look like chkdsk D: /F

 

You know it was suppose to be d drive. Wasn't even paying attention.. But it will not let me type that in for the d drive.

 

Here it is the chkdsk on the d drive. It has some big files.. Now if i could only access them to get rid of stuff that isn't used by the system

 

Ok, as that's the recovery partition, you realize that it's needed if you ever need to restore your computer to as it was when you first bought it, right?

 

Yes, but somehow it has music, videos and pictures on it. I don't know how either. That's what Im trying to get off of it. But I can't just view the files. That little box keeps popping up saying low disk space.

 

Maybe D was somehow set as the default download location?
Have you tried removing from Safe Mode?

 

No to be honest I hadn't even thought of that. Main reason why Im so concerned with it is because I work from home and I have to make sure that my system is up and running correctly in order to keep my job. Thank you for all the help.. I will try that now and see if I can remove them that way

 

Before you do too much to the recovery partition--Have you burnt a recovery CD/DVD?

Your manual is here. On page 99 (in your pdf viewer or page 93 in the document itself) are instructions for creating Recovery discs. When you get to the step asking if you have enough discs make sure you do because you usually are only allowed to burn discs once and if you don't complete the process you are out of luck.

If you already have them that is good. If you don't I would burn them before deleting much of anything off the recovery partition.