Disk space getting full

I am a computer novice. I have recently purchased a HP ProBook 4540s running Windows 7 professional in Australia. I only use it at home for emails facebook etc. I do not download music, movies or the like.
I have done most things recommended by microsoft, such as 'disk clean up', 'Crap removal' and 'dedrag., but it seems to have not made a lot of difference.
Whilst running the most recent defrag I noticed that suddenly there appeared to be a huge amount of unmovable files. To my knowledge I have not downloaded many files at all. To check against viruses etc I have run a complete scan which shows nothing sinister.
Could one of you good folk out there spare the time to give me a set of easy to follow instructions to clean this mess up?
Any help would be very much appreciated

 

How much free space is shown for your main partition? If you're unsure, run Belarc Advisor as described in this post and post any relevant details.

 

Hi _nullptr. Have run Belarc Advisor. Where do I find the free space on my main partition?

 

Sorry but I'm in my 60s and this is doing my poor head in.

 

Have had a look at Piriform defragger.
It advises that Local Disk (C) has 674.7GB capacity. Used 664.3. free 2%
HP tools has 2 GB capacity. Used 184 MB. Free 98%.
HP recovery has 21.6 GB capacity. Used 18.6 GB. Free 14%

 

You could run WizTree. That will list which folders/files are taking up the most space.
I'd normally recommend running WinDirStat, but it's rather slow and with the amount of space used on your 'C' drive, it would take seemingly forever to run.

 

Thanks for the advice. Will do what you suggest, but how do I know what programmes to delete & which to keep? I have heaps of 'HP', 'Intel' and 'Microsoft visual' programmes that I haven't got a clue what they are, or if I uninstall them, what the consequences are.
I uninstalled, what I thought where old updates for Mozilla and Microsoft and had to revive the whole system as they killed the lot. Got me buggered. Help.

 

Whatever you do, don't go randomly uninstalling things.
Have you installed either of the programs I linked to previously?
They will show any files or folders that are consuming a large percentage of disk space. So we first of all need to know, which entries are the space hogs. Some possible candidates include System Volume Information, hyberfil and page file.

 

Have run WizTree. Shows "Public/Documents/windowsImageBackup/BruceHP/backup2013-08-25" is utalising 400.1GB. 10 items. 6 files. 4 folders. What ever that is.
This is by far the big one.

 

Hi _nullptr. Have downloaded WizTree as suggested. It shows by far the biggest user is "public/Document/windowsImageBackup/bruceHP/backup2013-08-25". Some 400GB.

 

The problem is that you have a Windows Backup schedule that is constantly backing up to your main partition. These backups should really be saved to an external hard drive.
Click on your Start button, then select Help and Support (on the RHS).
Where it says 'Search help', type in backup and restore.
The first entry that comes up should be 'Backup and restore: frequently asked questions' - click on that entry.
Click on 'How much storage space do I need to back up files?'
From there you'll be able to see how to delete older file backups and

• 4. To change the amount of space that is used by system image backups, under System image, click Change settings.
  You can then choose to have Windows save older system image backups or just the most recent system image backup.

If you have any problems or queries, just let us/me know

 

Evening _nullptr, Thanks for all your help so far. I have done the things you have suggested, (I think). Will look into a external backup.
Wiztree is now showing my backup files have reduced to 21.8GB but is still showing 'Windows Image Backup' at 400.1GB. They appear to be two VHD files,
both written on 25/8/13. One quite small at half a gig and the other over 4 gig.
They start with the numbers 380600. then 75 and 76 respectively followed by a string of letters and numbers if that is any help.
Advice???? Please!

 

Hi Butain,

Let's see how much space you have reserved for System Restore.

• Click the Start button, then right click on Computer and select Properties.
• On the LHS of the window that opens, click on System protection.
• Select your 'C' drive in Protection Settings, then click Configure.

Under Disk Space Usage, what is the Current Usage and what percentage is Max Usage set to?

Personally, I'd disable Windows Backup seeing as it's saving to your operating system partition (I've no idea why it would allow this) and just rely on System Restore, until such time as you get an external Hard Drive. Simply put, if you had Hard Disk failure or your system got badly infected, then you wouldn't be able to access the backup and restore it to the same partition.

 

Thanks _nullptr. Managed to master that. Ha. ha. Current usage is showing at 0 bytes. Max usage as 1% (10 GB)
More than happy to disable Windows Backup. How do I do that? Have very little I want backed up except personal friends contacts and a few family photos that I would be sorry to loose. As mentioned I don't download music or movies.

 

Do you have a USB flash drive or DVD that you could back up your contacts, photos etc to?
If not, then I'd leave Windows Backup alone until you can. Better to have a chance of recovery than none at all.

To disable Windows Backup:
Start > Control Panel
If you've got Category view, select 'Back up your computer' under System and Security.
Otherwise it will be listed as Backup and Restore.
On the left side of the opened window, click on Turn Off Schedule.
Click continue if you get a UAC prompt.

 

Have a 1G flash drive and plenty of 4.7GB DVD-R discs. Would they do? If so can you explain how to transfer. Simple steps please for this computer simpleton would be appreciated..