Who's got the Vista answers? (1 Viewer)

[unknown405]

If you read my other post, just ignore it. That was like 5 pages explaining it in way too much detail and I already figured that problem out for myself. So anyway, here's some questions I have (ones not really solely Vista related)...

How do I delete restricted files/folders?
How do you delete folders that are restricted from being deleted due to permissions. There are 3 folders in my C:/ that were installed during a Windows XP Service Pack 3 installation and I could never delete them, even when I installed Vista they're stuck there.

They're just named like "7fbaf3bd127e242c4e6ecd29a990e5f6" and obviously contain nothing in them as they are 0 bytes. I just want them deleted because I like having a clean computer that's easy to navigate, but this answers not really top priority or anything.

What's Windows Vista "Home Premium's" normal size on disk?
What size should Windows Vista be? I'm installing a 473 MB update right now (Vista SP 1) and currently the Windows folder before installing the update is 14.1 GB. I have Windows Vista Home Premium and all the updates up until Service Pack 1 which, again, I'm installing right now. Does this sound about right, because it sounds massively high to me.

How do I remove the MOST space possible that's not used on a hard drive, specifically a folder such as Windows without worrying about any damage?
I have a DeLL Optiplex 170L with a whopping 32 GB hard drive, isn't that lovely? Well even with a hard drive (and of course the rest of my computer) as diesel as mine, I seem to be running out space somehow. Normally when I had Windows XP and was running rapidly low on disk space I would just go through "C:\Program Files" and "Control Panel: Add or Remove Programs" to clear up a few gigs.

Well seeing as how I just got Vista a few days ago and haven't installed much other than Visual Studio 2008 and Everquest, there's not too many options for me to delete anything. I think it's a little sad I'm running out of disk space with TWO fresh programs installed after I installed Vista. So anyway, who has a good experience they'd like to share with me on a good method for clearing the MOST amount of space on your hard drive with NO damage done to it?

PS: Yes obviously I know about Window's Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter. I am more specifically asking what the BEST tool is that can free the MOST space, and if those two tools are it then I guess that's what I'm going to be using.

 

[spyderz68]

First, to modify permissions on a folder right click on the folder and click on "properties" click on the "security" tab and you can assign rights to yourself to allow you to delete them.

Second, 14.1 GB is quite a bit of space, most of it is probably taken up by system restore or volume shadow copy. Right click on the "Computer" in the start menu and click on properties. Then click on where it says System Protection to modify or disable these features. It's not the best thing to turn off if you aren't careful with windows but it will save you space.

Third, The amount of ram you have and how well you manage what programs you run can affect how big your windows swap file gets. Your swap file can be as large as 4-6 gigs. On top of that you want at absolute minimum 10% of the drive free at all times.

Fourth, the best way to make sure you have as much free space as possible is to know what is taking up the space you have. The open source program WinDirStat is a great free visualization tool that will let you see what is taking up your space.

In the end your best bet is probably to just get a bigger hard drive. $50 can get you into a 250gig drive. Check NewEgg for some good prices.

P.S. If you are sick of vista asking you if you are sure if you want to do something all the time check out Vista4Experts but be warned that the options are for people who know what they are doing.

 

[isobelle]

few quick things if you're short on HD space:

make your recycling bin to be small. right click it, go to properties, and set it smaller than '10% of your HD'. i set mine usually to 1 or 2%, and if i try and throw a 500MB file away it just warns me that it won't be pullable out of the recycle bin. I never drag shit out of there, if i'm deleting something i want it gone.

second, turn off system recovery, or at the very least, only give it 2 or 3 % of your HD (one or two rollbacks, not 500 billion). my computer > properties > system restore > turn off, or settings.

that alone will seriously free up like 10% of your drive that isn't being used in the first place, but is just being set aside 'JUST IN CASE'.


also, i dual boot XP and vista, but checking my other partition, vista's WINDOWS folder is weighing in at 12.1gb, and wow... i honestly have no idea what the fuck is going on there. it's an install of vista ultimate that contains two full language installs. my wife's acct on this box displays everything in japanese (start menu, folder names, everything), while mine is in english, but that's WAY too much space. XP's WINDOWS folder weighs in at 4.86 gb, still a lot, but not 12-fucking-gigs. i never even boot into vista anyway, bleh...


if you still have the hateful folders you can't get rid of, try booting into safe mode to kill them?

 

[chance98]

vista has done nothing but make me happy with the 64 bit version... hard drives and ram is so cheap... do it right get atleast 4gig ram and atleast 2 80-100 gig hard drives... vista is very stable platform and has ran great for me just cant skimp on what it needs to run.

 

[HardOne]

If you still cannot delete the folders in safe mode try a PE of some sorts. Some good ones are Hirens Boot Disc, Ultimate Boot Disc, MRI PE(GeekSquad utility that you can find, and there are many others out there. You can even use a Ubuntu disc if all else fails for you. None of them will install an OS they will just boot from the CD/DVD you burn.

 

[Ryzon]

Here's a guide to help clean up your disk. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/GuideToFreeingUpDiskSpaceUnderWindowsVista.aspx

Have you tried to delete those undeleteable files from the command prompt?

 

[unknown405]

I haven't gotten a chance to read all of these yet but thanks to everyone that's helping out. I've already done a lot and I'm going to read through all of these and do them as well to try and get my computer on steroids so it can be a little closer to an average computer