making space on a pc

[PANZERCATWAGON]

i need a run down of the most common space saving methods to use on a hard drive. yes i am aware that you can hurr durr delete things. ive already deleted most of the old programs and shit i found which i dont need anymore

i have a general idea but im pretty sure theres one method you can use which removes things like old drivers and such. is that defragmenting or whatever. i dont know

id prefer a method where the computer can just sit there and do it for a while and i do other things but i also want alternative methods incase i dont go ahead with that :U

much love
your friendly neighbourhood panzercatwagon

[L[0ne]R]

Well, there's a plenty of computer cleaners and maintenance programs like TuneUp Utilities, CCleaner, System Mechanic, etc. But all they can do is go through windows folders and delete temporary files and all that unused system crap. It doesn't free up much space - a few Gb at most.
In the end - your own personal files take up the most space (programs, porn, games, kiddy porn, music, hentai). So if you want to free up as much space as possible - you have to manually go through your files and decide which you need and which you don't, since computer can't decide that for you.




damn, I only have 3Gb left on mine...

[numgun]

Then theres the classic "nuke" aka formatting.
It is the best way to clean any pc, but takes a while to reconfigure the random stuff to get it fully operational.

btw I'm running out of space too and I blame it on the complete Steven Seagal movie collection I got some time ago. <.<

[iDante]

Just buy a new hard drive.
They're cheap and it'll solve all of your problems immediately. All you can do by defragmenting/deleting files/whatever is delay the date when you run out of space.

[Keron Cyst]

Defraggler kind of helps. What consumes the majority of your PC's space? If it primarily consists of movies and other media like that (basically I mean non-programs), have an external HD hold them and only pull them out temporarily whenever you want to watch something, while leaving the PC that much freer.

And yeah, cutting gigabytes' worth of media and pasting them into an HD will require the computer to "sit there and do it for a while." Heck, defragging already can take quite a while if a run hasn't been done for a long time.

[RafiPZ]

There should be an option to compress old files you don't frequently access in disk cleanup. Compressing files will make the files slower to open though, but if you've never done it before it might free up a few gigs.

[demoniac93]

Defragmenting (Try Defraggler)
Cleaning up registries/cookies/etc... (CCleaner)
Removing old drivers, but I think it can only be done manually, if anyone knows of a good piece of software to o it automatically, PM me.
Then you can always compress media files and text files, save any needed programs/applications/etc.. and format your PC.

[L[0ne]R]

Compressing media is usually a waste of time. Most music/video formats are already compressed to the limit, so even if you try compress them on max settings - the amount of freed space will be miserable.
Pictures compress perfectly though, as well as many non-media files.

[chutem]

Hard drives are so cheap you might as well just plonk one in, it's the easiest hardware upgrade you can do, but if you are very lazy you can get an external drive for a tiny bit more cost, however they are slower.

[L[0ne]R]

Yeah. Hard drives are becoming a much more efficient way to store data.
It's faster and easier to store data on external HDs than burning it all onto hundreds of DVD-Rs.
You can get one as big as 600Gb for just 80 bucks. It's a bit more expensive than blank DVDs, but it's worth it.

[Psycho]

I did read an article of some ways you can squeeze some gigs away from what XP uses for basically nothing.

If you have a large drive, a set percentage of it is reserved for system restore checkpoints, meaning the larger disk you have the more GB are set aside.
To modify this right click My computer - system properties - system restore - settings.

There were some other thing you could do, something about the size of the recycle bin, but I never had any problems with disk space since I bought a second HDD so I forgot.

[PANZERCATWAGON]

okok

thank you very much this is very helpful as always

[10th_account]

If you have 4 GB or more RAM then you can quite safely disable the use of the pagefile, which reserves 1.5x your RAM size on your hard drive.