I don't know what I did to my computer, please help!?

Question

My computer is running out of disk space on drive c, every day I get a message that my computer has low disk space. I have a c drive with 5.5GB of memory, there is only 418MB left after I went in and moved a bunch of program files from my C drive to my E drive which has 22.8GB of memory available and is 27.9GB. I have run disk clean up and a ccleaner to help resolve low disk space, which doesn't help, I also tried to run the disk defragmenter and it wouldn't allow me to do it because I only have 8% memory left. I can't open my msn email now because of moving program files that it would let me over to my E drive, there are no other programs that I can delete, it doesn't look like there is much on the c drive, all of my pictures and documents are located on my e drive. Is there a way to combine the two drives? Can I change my E drive to the default for downloads? What can I do to fix this? Also my computer runs very slow.....Please help!

Answer 1

Full hard drives and slow computers are pretty synonymous.  What happens is that under normal circumstances your computer will use your RAM (generally speaking) to store temporary programs and files.  When you run out of space in RAM, it will use your hard drive to act like RAM and when you don't have any real space to use, this will dramatically impact the speed of your computer.  You may need to upgrade your RAM as well - but let's set that aside.  You can read hundreds of articles that go into much deeper (and better) detail than the above, but that is a very simple way to look at things.  

Ok, on to your problem.  5.5G is just small, period.  With all the programs that most people download, you just eat up that space very quickly.  You can uninstall (completely) some programs that you have the disks for and re-install them onto your other drive, but if you have ALL your data backed up, you will more than likely be happier (in the long run) if you get a new hard drive and re-install your operating system on that.  Not a small task.  

Alternatively, buy a new computer :)  I know that sounds trite, but compared to putting money and time into what I believe is an older computer, you will be much happier getting something new.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Joe...

Answer 2

You cannot simply open a window, go to program files and copy those contents to a new drive.

Those programs depend on the paths set when you installed them.

First I would move them back. Then go into control panel and uninstall some apps that you are 100% positive you don't need.

Sounds like you have 40 or 60 gb harddrive. I'd look into upgrading. Any computer shop should be able to clone your drives to a newer larger drive...for a price.

Answer 3

Hi Lynn

Make the E drive your default when you download. Now, for the C drive, delete all temp files. Right click on it and remove all internet files and tmp files.

That should give oyu enough room. What is happening is that Windows is using your C drive as a swap file which accounts for the low mem message and out of space.

Answer 4

move your program files back,and c: drive is everything on your computer, so go through and choose files to delete, and if you don't want to delete them, I suggest a USB stick, maybe 4 gb, then put the ones you want to save on there. uninstall programs you don't want, and then delete the empty folders, because when a program is uninstalled it keeps the folder just empties the contents, then empty the recycle bin. don't download anything for a while, and then delete internet history, cookies, and temp files. I would suggest getting an external hard drive that plugs into the USB to save things on, maybe a LaCie, they can hold up to 80GB and are fairly cheap, but mine's pretty old, probably get a better deal for something else.