A shout out to Grassmaster and nlls..

....and anyone else who can help.

The computer that my kids use (win98) has a 8 GB hard drive capacity and currently has 7.40 GB used with only 457 MB free. I was shocked to see it so full. I did the usual disk cleanup (including temp files in Win as well as temp internet file), Scandisk and defrag, uninstalled some programs that they no longer use, etc., but it didn't put a dent in the lack of resources. The computer that I use has a 6 GB capacity with about 3 GB free right now and it is about a year or two older than theirs, just for comparison's sake. Both have AOL 8.0 (although we will shortly be getting rid if ot as we have gone to cable recently) and both have Kazaa, (audio files only, no video on either 'puter). Their computer has AOL Instant Messenger and AIM+ and theirs is connected to cable internet via a wireless connection off of my 'puter, so they have the accompanying software. They do have a lot of games (Microsoft, The Sims, etc.) installed on the computer. They have 191 MB of RAM (as opposed to 64 on my computer).

I realize that AOL and the games they have probably use up a bit of space compared to other stuff, but that much? Does anyone have any idea of how I can get more free space on the hard drive of their computer? It just doesn't seem right to me that it could be that full!

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions!

Hello Marty:

You might want to double check "Kazaa" & see how many audio files you have & what size they are?

Don't get mad when I ask this, but have you doubled checked your Trash Bin to make sure it's empty?

It's strange that you deleted all your temps, "Scandisk and defrag, un-installed some programs that they no longer use, etc., but it didn't put a dent in the lack of resources."

You did do the Scandisk & defrag after you deleted everything?

You might want to click on Windows Explorer, then right click on each of the Folders on your Hard Drive & Check your Properties one by one & see what's the Disk Space Hog?

If you can't find anything else hogging disk space, either delete some large Programs or get another hard drive!

I can't at the moment think of anything else to check. If I do, I'll post it later!

Thanks, Grassmaster!

I went back and got rid of a bunch of stuff and got the drive to 1.15 GB free. There was a game, CART Precision Racing, that was 132 MB. They don't use it anymore, so out it went. They have 186 song files that are taking up 629 MB......they are going to dump some of that file, too.

I thought a large part of the problem would be solved when we delete AOL.......it looks as though it is "only" about 92 MB. Can that be right?

Oh yea, I also installed Ad-aware on their machine and ran a scan......321 files were found!

Hello Marty:

Your space that AOL was taking up is probably about right, mine is 80.3MB.

LOL, you know I get on the internet a few times a week, I run adaware at least 3 times a week. I scan about once or twice a month & defrag at least 2 times a Week.

Those MP3's I burn them as MP3's on CD's for my daughter.

BTW: one of those games, I can't remember if it's the Sims or Siberia or something like that takes up a Gig alone!

I'm still running my Antique Dell in a docking station, at home. I have over 130 programs installed on it & I dog it real bad. Only thing that's ever happened to it, is Lightening hit it, My Daughter Plugged it in during a bad Thunder Storm, to DL some MP3's & it got zapped...

My Dell LapTop will be 3 years old, this Fathers Day. I've never did a full restore on it or anything else except running a few Good & Some Free utility programs.

I will buy another Dell LapTop I don't care if they are $6,000, I'll still buy One!

In the very Near Future I'm going to build me a killer Puter, Aluminum Case, at least a Gig of ram & at least a 100Gig HD, DVDR/RW 128MB of Video to add to my Wireless Network at home! :)

In the mean time, I'm going to get me an External 100Gig HD (Maybe Maxtor) for Storage & Backup that is USB2.0 (Firewire Not?) powered. So I can Carry it with my laptop.

Marty, I'm glad you got it straightened out! :)

Sayonara!

I bought a Maxtor 100GB for photos and backing up other junk. It's kinda big. I don't mind it's size because it just sits on top of my computer. But if I was going to carry it around with me, I would have gone with the more expensive smaller ones they make that fit in your hand. I didn't really look at it's size before I made the purchase. I doubt I needed it anyway, but I thought it may help by easily backing up some files in case my hard drive decided to drop dead. I'm not much of a cumputer guy though.