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#1
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
Dear everyone,
I have an antique--a 200MMX with 32 megs of RAM and a hard disk with 1.96GB. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME (as far as I can go) mostly in order to have DSL. I have since gotten all the standard ME updates, bells and whistles, and upgraded to IE and OE 6. I do not go in for heavy-memory stuff like photos and music, this is a very practical computer. Before upgrade, I had, in the 7 years I'd owned this computer, only managed to use about 1.2 or so gig of memory. After the upgrade, I still had some 400-500 meg free, which I thought was just fine. But--the memory is being eaten up, by nothing I can figure out, at at least 4-5 megs a day! In the month since the upgrade, my free hard disk space has gone down to about 100 meg, and at this rate, I should run out in a couple of weeks. I have pretty good antivirus protection (EZ Antivirus) and spyware protection (SpyBotS&D) so I don't think that's the problem. Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. Also, I saw stuff about V:\Windows\Temp, which has some 30 megs in it on this computer. I saw a recommendation about cleaning it out on one thread. On this computer, it has a bunch of subfolders, several of which (e.g. Cookies) sound like something I'd better not just dump in the recycle. I haven't had any errors or blue screens yet, but surely bad things will happen when I run out of room. Explorer is running extremely slowly, which may be just my tiny RAM but which I'm afraid has to do with this problem. Anyway, like I said, Halp! Halp! -puzzled- |
#2
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
32MB of RAM is really below usable limits for Win ME - I'd never consider
using ME in a system with less than 64MB. Other than that, your system is behaving exactly as it should - System Restore can be limited to 200MB using the options in System Properties|Performance|File System - it will, in any case, switch itself off when/if the free space drops below 300MB. HTH -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Dear everyone, I have an antique--a 200MMX with 32 megs of RAM and a hard disk with 1.96GB. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME (as far as I can go) mostly in order to have DSL. I have since gotten all the standard ME updates, bells and whistles, and upgraded to IE and OE 6. I do not go in for heavy-memory stuff like photos and music, this is a very practical computer. Before upgrade, I had, in the 7 years I'd owned this computer, only managed to use about 1.2 or so gig of memory. After the upgrade, I still had some 400-500 meg free, which I thought was just fine. But--the memory is being eaten up, by nothing I can figure out, at at least 4-5 megs a day! In the month since the upgrade, my free hard disk space has gone down to about 100 meg, and at this rate, I should run out in a couple of weeks. I have pretty good antivirus protection (EZ Antivirus) and spyware protection (SpyBotS&D) so I don't think that's the problem. Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. Also, I saw stuff about V:\Windows\Temp, which has some 30 megs in it on this computer. I saw a recommendation about cleaning it out on one thread. On this computer, it has a bunch of subfolders, several of which (e.g. Cookies) sound like something I'd better not just dump in the recycle. I haven't had any errors or blue screens yet, but surely bad things will happen when I run out of room. Explorer is running extremely slowly, which may be just my tiny RAM but which I'm afraid has to do with this problem. Anyway, like I said, Halp! Halp! -puzzled- |
#3
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
Der Noel,
Ha! Wish my upgrader had told me that. But anyway, it is no comfort to hearmy system is behaving exactly how it should. *Should* it be slowly but steadily wiping out my hard disk space? Is that the way Windows ME works? I'm already down to 100MB of free hard disk space. If System Restore stopped working a couple hundred megabytes ago, then what is happening to me? I've religiously done all the standards things to prevent this. I repeat, halp, halp! BTW, if I were to get the guy to upgrade my RAM to 64, would this somehow solve this problem? Meanwhile, what other bad things will happen to me if I don't? Eek! -puzzled- "Noel Paton" wrote: 32MB of RAM is really below usable limits for Win ME - I'd never consider using ME in a system with less than 64MB. Other than that, your system is behaving exactly as it should - System Restore can be limited to 200MB using the options in System Properties|Performance|File System - it will, in any case, switch itself off when/if the free space drops below 300MB. HTH -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Dear everyone, I have an antique--a 200MMX with 32 megs of RAM and a hard disk with 1.96GB. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME (as far as I can go) mostly in order to have DSL. I have since gotten all the standard ME updates, bells and whistles, and upgraded to IE and OE 6. I do not go in for heavy-memory stuff like photos and music, this is a very practical computer. Before upgrade, I had, in the 7 years I'd owned this computer, only managed to use about 1.2 or so gig of memory. After the upgrade, I still had some 400-500 meg free, which I thought was just fine. But--the memory is being eaten up, by nothing I can figure out, at at least 4-5 megs a day! In the month since the upgrade, my free hard disk space has gone down to about 100 meg, and at this rate, I should run out in a couple of weeks. I have pretty good antivirus protection (EZ Antivirus) and spyware protection (SpyBotS&D) so I don't think that's the problem. Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. Also, I saw stuff about V:\Windows\Temp, which has some 30 megs in it on this computer. I saw a recommendation about cleaning it out on one thread. On this computer, it has a bunch of subfolders, several of which (e.g. Cookies) sound like something I'd better not just dump in the recycle. I haven't had any errors or blue screens yet, but surely bad things will happen when I run out of room. Explorer is running extremely slowly, which may be just my tiny RAM but which I'm afraid has to do with this problem. Anyway, like I said, Halp! Halp! -puzzled- |
#4
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
Let's try a reset of System Restore....
To Reset System Restore - System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and IMMEDIATELY reboot. This will flush you restore folder and erase all checkpoints, then, System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and uncheck "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and again IMMEDIATELY reboot. This should now automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart. Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder, System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to your preferred setting. Most people find that a setting of 200-300MB is sufficient to hold 10-15 days worth of restore points, unless you are doing a lot of installs/uninstalls, or installing large applications (such as Office). see how much room that creates on your system.... Are you using (or have you EVER used) Norton products on that system? -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Der Noel, Ha! Wish my upgrader had told me that. But anyway, it is no comfort to hearmy system is behaving exactly how it should. *Should* it be slowly but steadily wiping out my hard disk space? Is that the way Windows ME works? I'm already down to 100MB of free hard disk space. If System Restore stopped working a couple hundred megabytes ago, then what is happening to me? I've religiously done all the standards things to prevent this. I repeat, halp, halp! BTW, if I were to get the guy to upgrade my RAM to 64, would this somehow solve this problem? Meanwhile, what other bad things will happen to me if I don't? Eek! -puzzled- "Noel Paton" wrote: 32MB of RAM is really below usable limits for Win ME - I'd never consider using ME in a system with less than 64MB. Other than that, your system is behaving exactly as it should - System Restore can be limited to 200MB using the options in System Properties|Performance|File System - it will, in any case, switch itself off when/if the free space drops below 300MB. HTH -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Dear everyone, I have an antique--a 200MMX with 32 megs of RAM and a hard disk with 1.96GB. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME (as far as I can go) mostly in order to have DSL. I have since gotten all the standard ME updates, bells and whistles, and upgraded to IE and OE 6. I do not go in for heavy-memory stuff like photos and music, this is a very practical computer. Before upgrade, I had, in the 7 years I'd owned this computer, only managed to use about 1.2 or so gig of memory. After the upgrade, I still had some 400-500 meg free, which I thought was just fine. But--the memory is being eaten up, by nothing I can figure out, at at least 4-5 megs a day! In the month since the upgrade, my free hard disk space has gone down to about 100 meg, and at this rate, I should run out in a couple of weeks. I have pretty good antivirus protection (EZ Antivirus) and spyware protection (SpyBotS&D) so I don't think that's the problem. Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. Also, I saw stuff about V:\Windows\Temp, which has some 30 megs in it on this computer. I saw a recommendation about cleaning it out on one thread. On this computer, it has a bunch of subfolders, several of which (e.g. Cookies) sound like something I'd better not just dump in the recycle. I haven't had any errors or blue screens yet, but surely bad things will happen when I run out of room. Explorer is running extremely slowly, which may be just my tiny RAM but which I'm afraid has to do with this problem. Anyway, like I said, Halp! Halp! -puzzled- |
#6
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
He's already stated that, Mike....
quote Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. /quote -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "Mike M" wrote in message ... Let's try a reset of System Restore.... Or even determining how much space the archive is using. -- Mike Maltby Noel Paton wrote: Let's try a reset of System Restore.... To Reset System Restore - System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and IMMEDIATELY reboot. This will flush you restore folder and erase all checkpoints, then, System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and uncheck "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and again IMMEDIATELY reboot. This should now automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart. Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder, System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to your preferred setting. Most people find that a setting of 200-300MB is sufficient to hold 10-15 days worth of restore points, unless you are doing a lot of installs/uninstalls, or installing large applications (such as Office). see how much room that creates on your system.... Are you using (or have you EVER used) Norton products on that system? |
#7
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
So nothing unusual there at all and not necessarily the cause of the
problem since it would appear to be working as intended. 200MB being the minimum space that can be allocated to the store. However given that only 72MB of that is in the Archive folder it might appear that cabbing is not working and that it is the _RETORE\TEMP folder that is growing and thus FIFO isn't kicking in since that primarily works on the Archive folder. The reason could be as simple as not letting the machine idle for any length of time and switching it off when the user has finished whatever they were doing. Since the user upgraded from Win95 it might help to know their reasons for going to Win Me rather than say Win98SE given the limitations of their system. -- Mike Maltby Noel Paton wrote: He's already stated that, Mike.... |
#8
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
The unusual thing is that SR is still apparently working with only 100 MB
free-space - hopefully we'll find out more later. -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "Mike M" wrote in message ... So nothing unusual there at all and not necessarily the cause of the problem since it would appear to be working as intended. 200MB being the minimum space that can be allocated to the store. However given that only 72MB of that is in the Archive folder it might appear that cabbing is not working and that it is the _RETORE\TEMP folder that is growing and thus FIFO isn't kicking in since that primarily works on the Archive folder. The reason could be as simple as not letting the machine idle for any length of time and switching it off when the user has finished whatever they were doing. Since the user upgraded from Win95 it might help to know their reasons for going to Win Me rather than say Win98SE given the limitations of their system. -- Mike Maltby Noel Paton wrote: He's already stated that, Mike.... |
#9
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
Dear Mike and Noel,
Firstly, Noel's question as to why SR was still working down at a free space of 105 megabytes: well, as it happens, yesterday while I was in panic mode, posting away, and looking over the _Restore folder, the newsgroup, and the Help files, somehow or other, without me actually doing anything I recall, the free space jumped to 213 megabytes, and Windows ME stopped acting like a ruptured turtle, and was back to being an ordinary turtle. Maybe the free fall in my displayed free space was just some weird quirk relating to the fact that the computer was closing in on the 200 megabyte minimum for System Restore? It is by the way absolutely true, if this is relevant, that I never let the machine idle, and turn it off when I am not using it, to save electricity. Is this a bad practice with ME? The reason I went to Windows ME was very simple: the guy who did the upgrade said it was the best configuration for my system, and I took his word for it. Now I am stuck with it, unless I want to wipe the hard disc again and start from scratch again, a very painful process I would greatly like to avoid if at all possible. He also by the way mentioned that he had planned to swap in a 64 meg RAM chip he thought he had lying around, but it turned out he didn't have one after all and he says they are extremely hard to get hold of these days, at least ones that could be stuck into my 200MMX computer. He thinks the only problem with the 32 meg RAM is that it'll make Windows ME run slow. Is he right on both or either counts? (Count 1: 32 meg of RAM will work OK for Windows ME, albeit slowly sometimes) (Count 2: getting a 64 or better RAM chip to put in for my antique would be tough) Lastly, the *solution* I adopted, which seems to have worked nicely thus far, was to follow somebody's advice from another thread and simply disable System Restore. I did this, and now my free disc space is above 400 meg again. I suspect I don't need System Restore, for the simple reason that, with only 400 megs to play around with, I probably won't want to to ever put in anything really fancy and therefore dangerous, and using half my available space, at least 200 megabytes, for SR seems riskier to me than the risk I take by not having it installed. *Are* there any longterm bad consequences from not having SR enabled? Thanks for your assistance, and if you can continue answering my numerous queries, I would appreciate it. -puzzled- "Mike M" wrote: So nothing unusual there at all and not necessarily the cause of the problem since it would appear to be working as intended. 200MB being the minimum space that can be allocated to the store. However given that only 72MB of that is in the Archive folder it might appear that cabbing is not working and that it is the _RETORE\TEMP folder that is growing and thus FIFO isn't kicking in since that primarily works on the Archive folder. The reason could be as simple as not letting the machine idle for any length of time and switching it off when the user has finished whatever they were doing. Since the user upgraded from Win95 it might help to know their reasons for going to Win Me rather than say Win98SE given the limitations of their system. -- Mike Maltby Noel Paton wrote: He's already stated that, Mike.... |
#10
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Scary hard disk space problem--running out of space
And, oh yes, I've never used anything from Norton on this computer.
If I were to re-enable System Restore, I assume the below procedure would be a good idea, but, as I explained in the other post, I don't think it would be, unless there are factors I'm unaware of? -puzzled- "Noel Paton" wrote: Let's try a reset of System Restore.... To Reset System Restore - System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and IMMEDIATELY reboot. This will flush you restore folder and erase all checkpoints, then, System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and uncheck "Disable System Restore", Apply, OK, and again IMMEDIATELY reboot. This should now automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart. Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder, System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to your preferred setting. Most people find that a setting of 200-300MB is sufficient to hold 10-15 days worth of restore points, unless you are doing a lot of installs/uninstalls, or installing large applications (such as Office). see how much room that creates on your system.... Are you using (or have you EVER used) Norton products on that system? -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Der Noel, Ha! Wish my upgrader had told me that. But anyway, it is no comfort to hearmy system is behaving exactly how it should. *Should* it be slowly but steadily wiping out my hard disk space? Is that the way Windows ME works? I'm already down to 100MB of free hard disk space. If System Restore stopped working a couple hundred megabytes ago, then what is happening to me? I've religiously done all the standards things to prevent this. I repeat, halp, halp! BTW, if I were to get the guy to upgrade my RAM to 64, would this somehow solve this problem? Meanwhile, what other bad things will happen to me if I don't? Eek! -puzzled- "Noel Paton" wrote: 32MB of RAM is really below usable limits for Win ME - I'd never consider using ME in a system with less than 64MB. Other than that, your system is behaving exactly as it should - System Restore can be limited to 200MB using the options in System Properties|Performance|File System - it will, in any case, switch itself off when/if the free space drops below 300MB. HTH -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "puzzled" wrote in message ... Dear everyone, I have an antique--a 200MMX with 32 megs of RAM and a hard disk with 1.96GB. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME (as far as I can go) mostly in order to have DSL. I have since gotten all the standard ME updates, bells and whistles, and upgraded to IE and OE 6. I do not go in for heavy-memory stuff like photos and music, this is a very practical computer. Before upgrade, I had, in the 7 years I'd owned this computer, only managed to use about 1.2 or so gig of memory. After the upgrade, I still had some 400-500 meg free, which I thought was just fine. But--the memory is being eaten up, by nothing I can figure out, at at least 4-5 megs a day! In the month since the upgrade, my free hard disk space has gone down to about 100 meg, and at this rate, I should run out in a couple of weeks. I have pretty good antivirus protection (EZ Antivirus) and spyware protection (SpyBotS&D) so I don't think that's the problem. Reading this newsgroup, I gather that a possible problem is something called "System Restore," which I am not familiar with. Indeed, the _Restore folder (which is directly on the C drive on this computer, not under C:/Windows, if this makes any difference) is up to over 200 megs, which on this computer is dangerous. There are 5 file folders and 118 files. When I Explore it under explore, I find less than half that, with the biggest piece being 72 megs in C:\_Restore\Archive. Also, I saw stuff about V:\Windows\Temp, which has some 30 megs in it on this computer. I saw a recommendation about cleaning it out on one thread. On this computer, it has a bunch of subfolders, several of which (e.g. Cookies) sound like something I'd better not just dump in the recycle. I haven't had any errors or blue screens yet, but surely bad things will happen when I run out of room. Explorer is running extremely slowly, which may be just my tiny RAM but which I'm afraid has to do with this problem. Anyway, like I said, Halp! Halp! -puzzled- |
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