I have an extremely old home computer running Windows XP and I only have 15 gigabytes of hard drive space and no matter what I do, I can't free up any more space that 150 megabytes. I've tried powerful uninstallers, antiviruses and even whole PC care suites but those did little to free up my hard drive. And now my only option is wiping the hard drive. I got my PC used so I have nothing except the PC itself, no documentation or CDs. I need to erase everything on my hard drive except for Windows, preferably to factory default. Are there any FREE Windows utilities that can do this? Thanks in advance!
EDIT: In other words, I want to erase everything except what Windows needs to run, including installed programs, personal data, etc. I don't care if the data is erased securely, I just need to free up hard drive space.
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Good that you changed the title. Wiping a disk means you delete _everything_ on the hard drive.
To free up space run XP's Disk Cleanup app. Then reduce the size of IE's cache, the size of the System Restore area and the size of the Swap file. Then check the folders of Documents and Settings and see if there are any personal files you can delete. Then go into XP's Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs and uninstall apps that you don't want or need. Then reboot and run XP's Disk Defrag.
Then find an antivirus app that runs on XP and install that since Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.
hth
Ed
I've done everything you said multiple times. I'm pretty sure that I cleaned everything out that I can but I still have a tiny bit of free space.
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
At a guess, while programs have been uninstalled they have left data behind?
I would use a program to look at size of folders(and file) to see what is using up all the drive space and then look at those folders/files and see what can be deleted.
I'd recommend TreeSize Free and WinDirStat (both have portable apps versions) to look for large folders/files. They do the same thing but have different ways of displaying so try them both and see which suits you best.
TreeSize Free Portable https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/treesize-free-portable
WinDirStat Portable https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/windirstat_portable
good luck
ps: Question for people reading.
As the OP has none of the origin install disks, is there a way to:
> get the Windows XP registration details
> download a legitimate XP(SP3) install file/disk
> and re-install from scratch?
I didn't know there were so many files left behind! Using WinDirStat I freed up several gigabytes!
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
I like SpaceSniffer to get a nice overview of the contens of my drives:
http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/
Thank you for mentioning SpaceSniffer
I don't know how I forgot about it, I use SpaceSniffer occasionally
There is even a PortableApp version in the Development Forums
https://portableapps.com/node/38123
Maybe add a second HDD?
Don't be a pin-head!