Ok so my wife has a 32 gig acer laptop, running with Windows Vista (it's good for her.) Anyhow, it says that her C drive only has 11 out of 32 gigabytes of free space left.
I have uninstalled everything i could think of that isn't essential to the computer (games and other misc crap), it defrags/compresses regularly, and she also saves as much as she can to an external hard drive.
Is there anyone who might know why in the heck so much space is being used up?
It's showing 66% of her computer space is tied up in a Windows folder called "winsxs".
Under the "winsxs" header, there's literally hundreds of random subfiles -- here is a pic of the computer screen, just so you know what I'm talking about :
Vista is a hog, can take up to 15gb of space, depending on the version, x86 vs x64, Home vs Ultimate etc.
Not sure if this is an option for you, but you can buy a much larger HardDrive for fairly cheap, $40.00 for a 160gb, $55.00 for a 320gb etc. This of course relies on you having an install disc (see below).
Acer's often come with their own back-up making software, believe the software is called 'Acer eRecovery', so you could use that to make a back-up (takes 2 DVDs, iirc), install the new larger HardDrive and then (re)install Vista.
Just curious, is that 32bg HD a solid-state drive?
I have thought about purchasing a larger hard drive for the laptop itself (I didn't know they were so cheap, tbh) -- I was just trying to do anything I could to minimize the amount of space being used before I went that route. Do newer versions of Windows take up less space? If so, how do I go about removing Vista and adding a newer software? Would that even be easier/more cost efficient?
Re: Re: Re: Where has all the computer space gone?
I think Windows 7 takes less space, but I don't think it's a lot less. Windows XP with SP3 takes about 8gb total, but you'd be downgrading to older software, not sure how you feel about that, but XP is still the most widely used OS.
Get yourself a copy of Win7 or XP, insert disc into CD or DVD drive (will need DVD drive for vista/xp), reboot and follow the instructions for a fresh install.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Where has all the computer space gone?
I only used Vista Ultimate for a about a month (or two) before I went to Win7 Ultimate; I honestly didn't see a huge problem with it and I thought it had a few nice features over XP Pro.
Win7 is the way to go though, out of the three, imo. Unless you're on older hardware of course.
Give me the exact model of the computer, there are some newer comps that XP will not load on, or it's a pain in the ass to load XP, as you have to tweak the bios. You might have one of these.
Are you trying to install it while your on the Vista desktop? If so, that is wrong. Turn on the comp, insert XP and then reboot. Go into your bios (will probably be F8 or F10, it will say), change your boot sequence to boot from the CD/DVD drive first and boot from the XP disc. Follow the instructions from there.
I'd do a complete format of the drive when it ask and then install XP on a fresh slate, as you don't want to install XP side-by-side with Vista.
I just ran the Vista support package 2 -- it gave the laptop 12/32 gigs of free space as opposed to 11/32.
Awesome.
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On another note: I have heard rumors that Windows 7 has an inordiante amount of space going to the winsxs folder. Is that true? Additionally, I am looking at getting the wife a new laptop - should I stick with Windows or cross-over to Mac?
Not sure on the 7 thing, but it takes about an equal amount of space as Vista, reading more into.
Macs are really nice, imo. They're just very expensive. If you buy one from a Mac Store (not sure if you have them in your area), they often give you several free lessons on learning the OS, which is nice if you're completely new.
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Jan 22nd, 2010 03:56 PM
