Hard disk "Eraser"?

I have a laptop with XP Pro@ with a memory of 256.Apparently my memory is getting low.Is there a program that is downloadable off of the net to help clear out [100%] of what was downloaded at one time?It has to be user friendly if possible,I do not know computer lingo that well.Your guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

we need to clarify.

Your system memory is 256MB. What size is your Hard Drive (the space on your C: drive) ..

What is the error message you are getting?

 

Kodo thanks for responding.My "c" states it is 27.8 and 10.9 free.I tried istalling Go Back from Norton 2004 and it could only intsall some of it.I tried disable some other items while it was installing.Plus my teenager downloaded some other things on it.I really would like to clean-it out if possible.

 

ahh..teenagers.. this could get ugly.

You have plenty of hard drive space left. 10.9Gig of free space is sufficient for most.
The process of cleaning your machine is a two fold process. You have temp files that can be removed and you have programs that can be removed. There is no way for any software to know what you want to remove as far as programs go, but there is software to clean out temp files etc.

You will have to remove the programs you don't want manually via the control panels ADD/REMOVE icon.

 

I tried removing some out of ADD/Remv.,but on some of them i get a error saying.,"could not install log file.dll"?,"could not find intialization file"',and do I want to continue running scripts?

 

As Kodo says this is a multi step job. You need to clean out all the TEMP files. You could also delete all the Internet LOG files. I would also delete all the hidden URL information which takes space. You could also try disabling SYSTEM RESTORE. For that go to CONTROL PANEL > MAINTENANCE > SYSTEM and turn SYSTEM RESTORE OFF. This will release quite a lot of space, it does on my computer anyway. After that try Defraging your disk

Find and delete the files above. For the hidden URL's I use SPIDER which can be downloaded from http://www.fsm.nl/ward It is free and I find it very useful with XP Home

After that I suggest you run your Antivirus with up to date patterns

 

Teenagers you say? Then you've got spyware, probably lots of it.

I would download both Spybot Search and Destroy, and Adaware 6. Both are free and probably available on this site. Download and install both and run them both, a couple of times each. You'll be suprised at how much junk you have on there.

S&D may say something about a conflict when using with Adaware. Just ignore that. I use both because sometimes one catches stuff the other doesn't.

I run them both about twice a week.

Tell your son/daughter to NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS! It can be tough soemtimes because the nastiest spyware is usually diaguised as something cute like "Smiley Central" or "Browser Enhancements".