How to free up space on laptop

[Louise07]

Hi, I want to install the latest windows updates and upgrade my internet browser on my laptop but everytime I try I get a message saying there is not enough disk space. I dont know what is taking up the space or how to free it. I haven't got much music on it, have no photos, have programmes such as anti virus and that's pretty much it. I only really use it for web browsing, paying bills and putting musc on my ipod. I am intending to get an external portable hard drive so I can add more music but in the meantime, I can't install any updates. How can I find out what is taking up all the space and then remove it. Thanks in advance!

[Louise07]

Just to add, just looked at itunes there is 6.18gb of music

[factor-fiction]

To look at the size of files on your C drive for example:
- click on your Windows icon
-click computer
- select C drive
-right click on Explore
- sort by size (using the sort tabs)
- you can look at the size of individual things by right clicking and looking at size.

You may also need to look under Desktop and there may be a big file with all your stuff on.

The main culprit for large files is probably backups that are created regularly to allow you to restore files in the event of a problem. You may be able to get rid of a lot of these

[bibblebub]

there are various programs which will graphically display the disk usage e.g. http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

[LochNessMonster]

Couple of things to help dude.

Defrag your laptops drive, buy an external hard drive and transferer you music to it.

[Louise07]

Thanks for reply. The largest file is CTSUFile 45kb text document, then BOOTSECT.BAK 8kb BAK file, then RHDSetup text document 1kb. then there are some file folders with no size listed such as Intel, Program files, Toshiba, Users and Windows.

[factor-fiction]

Those are the smallest files- if you click on the 'sort by size' again it will sort them largest to smallest

[Louise07]

Have done that factor 30, just changes from back to front, nothing else added, still only those listed......

[factor-fiction]

A disk clean up will also help since deleted files/programmes may still be sitting in your Recycle Bin and lots of other things you don't need may be hanging around.

-Right click on your C drive
-Click on Properties
-Look at how much disk space is used and how much is free
-select the Disk Clean Up option. This will tell you how much used space you can get rid of, and it gives you choices as to what can be deleted

[factor-fiction]

Well those folders you have found don't seem to include a lot of things such as your i tunes, documents, so there may also be a separate area- look under Desktop

[Louise07]

OK so, disk clean up said used space 54.9gb, free space 908mb, can free up 2.32gb. Thats really minimal isn't it? It still wont give hardly any free space back?

[Louise07]

Thanks factor 30, under desktop the largest file is a microsoft word doc 24.0kb

[factor-fiction]

It's worth doing- try it and see. Only takes a minute

[factor-fiction]

So where is your 6.18GB of music? Where did you find that earlier?

[Louise07]

Freespace is now 2.93gb, I opened itunes and it said that at the bottom. I've got to go out now but i'll log back on later, thanks for help so far!!

[pastafreak]

Try a free program like CCleaner...it clears out all junk in your computer and can free up a lot of space.

[pastafreak]

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

[stoofur]

Do you know what size your Hard Drive is? Has the Hard Drive been partitioned? Some Laptops are setup so that there are two partitions. One is quite small for thinks like Windows and Programs. The other is larger where you should be storing your pictures, music and movies etc.

[Louise07]

Have performed the Ccleaner and now have 4.38gb free, 55.8gb used. Stoofur, on My Computer it shows there are 2 hard disk drives. The first is Vista (C) with the above space used, the second is data (E) 4.78gb free of 54.5gb

[factor-fiction]

Okay have a look at the contents of E and sort them by file size. What are the biggest few items?

[Louise07]

Hello again Factor 30, it doesn't give me the same options as before, just things like artist, album etc, they appear to be mostly music and photo files, I have hoveredover them all and the largest file is Itunes at 4.29gb