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-

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-

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-

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-

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?

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?

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....

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....

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....

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-