Windows 8 refresh

[vadersoul]

My windows 8 is stuck in a reboot cycle, i have done everything possible to sort it including resetting the dism settings, safe boot (which doesnt work) repair.. the only option now is to refresh

However when I go to refresh it tells me I don't have enough space.

My build that I did myself involved creating a small c: partition for windows (i cant remember the exact numbers but about 6GB or something similar, enough to run) and the rest of my apps, documents, files point to an A: that holds the rest on my 500GB drive

... but now the problem is that stuck using only a dos prompt I can't easily find what files I need to be deleting to get the refresh working and more-over there is no advice on how much space I need to free up either (the error message neglects to share this)

So my options currently are :
> Just do a fresh install, I would lose some customization and program file installs that I have under C: - I can of course copy this over by dos prompt to my A: and peruse through later to figure out what I need to reinstall
> Refresh --which needs me to clear some space out before apparently.

I would welcome any advice on how much space I need to clear out, if there are any big juicy files that i can just wipe since the refresh will rebuild them anyway.

Some research I have found suggests that if i do a simple DIR command with the operator /O:S and /S to sort by size and look through sub-dir's... aiming to find a big chunky 500MB file that is sitting there doing nothing that i can bin off

Any advice? (P.S. I really dont want to mess around with a reinstall)

 

[IrvSp]

6GB's? Way too small I think? A lot of 'temp' and system files can be put on C: that you can't change? 60GB's, maybe, but not 6GB's.

Also A: is for DISKETTE DRIVES (so is B, at least in older Windows versions. It seems that Disk Manager allows A as a choice, but I'm not sure it is valid?

If you set the 500GB as A: during the install and then hit the re-boot, that could be the problem?

You might be able to boot the install DVD and go to a command prompt there and run Disk Manager (or get some 3rd party boot disk and use its version) but if A: is embedded in the C: you could be out of luck and a clean new install is in order?

The problem with the refresh is probably SPACE on C:. You might be able to enlarge the C: partition to something reasonable and then the refresh would work. You can DELETE and TEMP files in the various TEMP folders I guess, space gained might not be enough though.

If you run CHKDSK on the C: you can see the disk size though as well as free space.

 

[vadersoul]

6GB's? Way too small I think? A lot of 'temp' and system files can be put on C: that you can't change? 60GB's, maybe, but not 6GB's.

I know it is small, the amount of times i have had to refresh my browser cache because it hit the limit is silly.. and i rarely bump into capacity issues with my storage drive so i definetely didn't think it through lol --- i wonder if it might be easier just to get this issue sorted and then repartition and reinstall on a more planned out arrangement.. 60GB is way too big though, thats just silly 😉

Also A: is for DISKETTE DRIVES (so is B, at least in older Windows versions. It seems that Disk Manager allows A as a choice, but I'm not sure it is valid?

A works fine for me, yes i know it used to be for floppys as was B so its fine and valid nowadays

If you set the 500GB as A: during the install and then hit the re-boot, that could be the problem?

I can't see this, most bios nowadays recognize USB and non-floppy builds

You might be able to boot the install DVD and go to a command prompt there and run Disk Manager (or get some 3rd party boot disk and use its version) but if A: is embedded in the C: you could be out of luck and a clean new install is in order?

A bit of subject here... this isnt really going to be an issue and not what i was concerned about

The problem with the refresh is probably SPACE on C:. You might be able to enlarge the C: partition to something reasonable and then the refresh would work. You can DELETE and TEMP files in the various TEMP folders I guess, space gained might not be enough though.

If you run CHKDSK on the C: you can see the disk size though as well as free space.

My concern is less on seeing what the space is, its finding any bloated files or directories and getting rid of them.

Ideally, if it says DIR_123 has 1GB of space being taken up or FILE_345 has 200MB of space being taken up, I can make a judgement call as to force deleting those or copying them out so I can get down to the number I need.

Only problem is, i dont know how much i need


The alternative option is to install fresh to my A: and either leave my small C: for random storage or repartition later down the line to bring it into the main drive or repartion C: to be a bit bigger and install windows back to there

Damn me, if i had only set system restore on my install i wouldnt have had to deal with this stupid windows update rubbish

 

[IrvSp]

Why not just enlarge the partition and then it should work. 3rd party boot disks, like Puppy Linux (http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm) should allow you to do this?

 

[vadersoul]

I was wrong about the system disk size, was 40GB in the end.
So I spent about 2 hours combing through command prompt values to strip out data and in the end, it still wasn't enough.

Only solution was a fresh install - feels nice and clean now and aside from some bookmarks, i really didn't loose anything important