C:\windows folder on xp is > 50GB

[pdhulipala]

Hello,
I have XP Home edition on Toshiba satellite laptop. The Windows folder is now showing as 57.4GB out of hard drive capacity of 75 GB and the system has become very slow. I tried cleaning up with windows cleanup, cleaning up all restore points except the latest and all that. Still the size has reduced only marginally. Please advise how to fix this.

 

[ktownmike]

Hard drive usage is probably not the factor so I would look at more common problems. Do you have enough space to to run defrag? My easy ipos, turn off windows, and java automatic updates, turn off indexing, turn off fast user switching and in video adjust settings for best performance.

 

[pdhulipala]

Hard drive usage is probably not the factor so I would look at more common problems. Do you have enough space to to run defrag? My easy ipos, turn off windows, and java automatic updates, turn off indexing, turn off fast user switching and in video adjust settings for best performance.

I guess I have enough space for defrag. But how can I turn off auto updates, indexing etc. They would enable faster searches etc. Is there no other way to reduce the size of windows folder?

 

[Hawkeye22]

if you don't plan on ever uninstalling your windows updates, you can remove the updates uninstaller files. this program may make it a little easier on you. The updates are still installed, it only removes their uninstaller.

http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html

 

[Saga Lout]

That's a ridiculously high figure for the Windows folder. However long it takes, right each folder one at a time and look at Properties until you find the one which is overstuffed. In Vista or W7 my guess would be on Winsxs but XP doesn't have that folder. Empty the Software Distribution>Download folder - it won't hold much but every little helps.

 

[pdhulipala]

That's a ridiculously high figure for the Windows folder. However long it takes, right each folder one at a time and look at Properties until you find the one which is overstuffed. In Vista or W7 my guess would be on Winsxs but XP doesn't have that folder. Empty the Software Distribution>Download folder - it won't hold much but every little helps.

Hi Saga, There is a WinSxS folder in XP but that is only 88.9 MB. Software Distribution > Download folder is only 190 MB. I find that the System32 folder is 52GB. I am trying to avoid reloading of XP but I am not sure if there is another alternative.

 

[pdhulipala]

I was checking folder by folder. The Config folder under System32 is 50.8 GB.
Config/SystemProfile/LocalSettings/Temp is showing 50.7 GB. Since it is a temp folder, can I delete all the files in it without impacting anything? Please let me know.

 

[Saga Lout]

Definitely safe and adviseable to delete and keep a future eye on. Also, there's a folder in there of Temporary Internet Files which you can safely empty. I've seen this before and never worked out the reason behind it.

 

[johhny-marshal]

Hello,
I have XP Home edition on Toshiba satellite laptop. The Windows folder is now showing as 57.4GB out of hard drive capacity of 75 GB and the system has become very slow. I tried cleaning up with windows cleanup, cleaning up all restore points except the latest and all that. Still the size has reduced only marginally. Please advise how to fix this.

Right click C: drive and choose properties. In that window you will see the Disk Cleanup option. Click that and follow the instructions. It will show you the garbage files and many corrupted files. Select all check boxes and click OK. After that do it for the option System files.

 

[pdhulipala]

Definitely safe and adviseable to delete and keep a future eye on. Also, there's a folder in there of Temporary Internet Files which you can safely empty. I've seen this before and never worked out the reason behind it.

Thank you, Saga. I emptied the Temp folder and the space is now reclaimed. System is working fine, though it is still a little slow. I defragmented the drive and deleted all temporary files. It might be slow because the laptop itself is old.

 

[pdhulipala]

Best answer selected by pdhulipala.