[smaulpaul]

hey all! just googled pc forums and this site came up. its amazing!!!! going to be up all night reading some tips and stuff cos this is one huge forum.

I live in west yorkshire currently, soon to be the dales when the house completes. Beginner at pc's and am a financial recruitment consultant during the day.

good to be here! will be doing more reading than posting though!

got a bit of a problem that I could do with some help with:


my system is grinding to a halt.

i have 80gb hard drive but only 9gb left.

i am going to back up my music and pictures but they only add up to 4gb which means I am still losing masses of space.

is there anyway I can search to clear more hard drive space?? where do all the move clips go when you stream them??

this is wierd - i dont have 70gb worth of rubbish on my system.

any advice greatly appreciated!!!

thanks!

[Mulderator]

Moved this here--guessing you have XP but it doesn't matter really for your question. What I would do is use the Search feature in the Start menu, and search for all files larger than 1MB. You can then delete all the ones you don't need. That will probably free up a lot of space right there. Also, in IE explorer, go to tools, Internet Options and delete cookies and files. Also, in Accessories, System Tools, there is a "Disk Cleanup" option as well.

[smaulpaul]

thanks! just done a search (which is still going)

I can sift through the big ones. there is loads of tmp files in:

c/documents and settings/me/local settings/temp

some of them are 1,800,000 kb in size. is that 1.8gig??? if so thats prob where my problem is.

is it same to remove these. they are all audio12454.tmp and audio####.tmp files.

thanks

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by smaulpaul

thanks! just done a search (which is still going)

I can sift through the big ones. there is loads of tmp files in:

c/documents and settings/me/local settings/temp

some of them are 1,800,000 kb in size. is that 1.8gig??? if so thats prob where my problem is.

is it same to remove these. they are all audio12454.tmp and audio####.tmp files.

thanks

Yes, it is safe to remove any file that has the "tmp" extension. But do the IE Explorer, "Delete Files" and "Delete Cookies" first as that will get rid of a lot of temporary files. Then remove the other ones manually.

[AcaCandy]

Do a search for *.tmp and delete everything.

With the low price of new drives, maybe it's time to get a larger one?

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Do a search for *.tmp and delete everything.

With the low price of new drives, maybe it's time to get a larger one?

Actually, not a larger one, but a second one (keep the first one and just buy a second drive). Everyone and I do mean everyone should have two drives since the cost is relatively cheap. The second drive can be used to store media files, etc. and to back up important data files. You can backup the media files to CD or even one DVD if you have a DVD burner.

[AcaCandy]

Well, if he/she got a larger one, the original one would be the second one

I have so many drives I can't keep track of them

[smaulpaul]

I will consider a second drive.

is an external one better or just an extra one in my machine.

have cleared my temp files and cookies out of IE and am just about to manually clear my .tmp files.

really appreciate the help

[WhitPhil]

It's safe to remove any file with a TMP extension, but you can also remove all files and folders that are currently living in the \TEMP folder.

As well, the IE browser cache defaults to a percentage of the drive, so after Deleting files in IE (Tools > Internet Options > Delete files > Select Offline Content), select the Settings button and change the value for the Amount of disk to use, to a number in the 10-20MB range.

System Restore also allocates a percentage of the drive.

You can review/modify these by running
MSCONFIG > Launch System Restore > System Restore Settings
Then select each partition on your system with restore active, Settings Button.

Something in the 700MB range is most likely adequate.

After doing all the deletes, remember to empty the Recycle bin.

[smaulpaul]

I now have 43.5gb free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks a lot everyone! this is well appreciated! going to bookmark this site and spread the word

one little problem - pc still seems a bit slow. should I re-start?

thanks again!

[AcaCandy]

Restart and post a startup list, via start, run, type msinfo32 and hit enter, go to software, startups, edit, select all, edit, copy and come back and paste.

[smaulpaul]

ah - I know how to do a start up list - will do and be back in a while

thanks

[smaulpaul]

here you go:

AVG7_CC c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgcc.exe /startup All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AVG7_EMC c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgemc.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AVG7_Run c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgw.exe /runonce NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM HKU\S-1-5-18\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AVG7_Run c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgw.exe /runonce NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE HKU\S-1-5-19\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AVG7_Run c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgw.exe /runonce NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE HKU\S-1-5-20\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AVG7_Run c:\progra~1\grisoft\avgfre~1\avgw.exe /runonce .DEFAULT HKU\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
CTDVDDet c:\program files\creative\sbaudigy2\dvdaudio\ctdvddet.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
CTFMON.EXE c:\windows\system32\ctfmon.exe NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM HKU\S-1-5-18\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
CTFMON.EXE c:\windows\system32\ctfmon.exe .DEFAULT HKU\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
CTSysVol c:\program files\creative\sbaudigy2\surround mixer\ctsysvol.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
LXBLKsk c:\progra~1\lexmark\photoc~1\lxblksk.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
McAfee Guardian "c:\program files\mcafee\mcafee shared components\guardian\cmgrdian.exe" /su All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
MediaFace Integration c:\program files\fellowes\mediaface 4.0\sethook.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
MemoryCardManager c:\program files\lexmark\lexmark photo center\memorycardmanager.exe -startup All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
NvMediaCenter rundll32.exe c:\windows\system32\nvmctray.dll,nvtaskbarinit NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM HKU\S-1-5-18\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
NvMediaCenter rundll32.exe c:\windows\system32\nvmctray.dll,nvtaskbarinit .DEFAULT HKU\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
PopUpStopperFreeEdition "c:\program files\panicware\pop-up stopper free edition\psfree.exe" OWNER-IPX9M6L14\Advent HKU\S-1-5-21-400550780-1914450345-1709162666-1006\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Power Scan c:\program files\power scan\powerscan.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
QuickTime Task "c:\program files\quicktime\qttask.exe" -atboottime All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
RoxioEngineUtility "c:\program files\common files\roxio shared\system\engutil.exe" All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
SunJavaUpdateSched c:\program files\java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\jusched.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
TkBellExe "c:\program files\common files\real\update_ob\realsched.exe" -osboot All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
WeatherCast "c:\program files\weathercast\weather.exe" /q OWNER-IPX9M6L14\Advent HKU\S-1-5-21-400550780-1914450345-1709162666-1006\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
WhenUSave "c:\progra~1\save\save.exe" All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
WhenUSearch "c:\program files\whenusearch\search.exe" All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
desktop desktop.ini NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM Startup
desktop desktop.ini OWNER-IPX9M6L14\Advent Startup
desktop desktop.ini .DEFAULT Startup
desktop desktop.ini All Users Common Startup
iTunesHelper c:\program files\itunes\ituneshelper.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


hope that makes sense and is the right one!

[AcaCandy]

Hmm.....could you download hijack this, scan your computer and post a scan log.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html

Also in add/remove programs, if there is an uninstall for powerscan, uninstall it.


And yes, that was the right one

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Well, if he/she got a larger one, the original one would be the second one

Actually, the 80 Gigs is plenty for the main drive--anything bigger is a waste, IMO. The second and/or third drives should be the bigger ones because today, the only reason you would need drives that big is to store media files--specifically video files and the video files should have their own separate dedicated drive if you are going to do any video editing (and everyone will eventually as the technology becomes easier). I can't imagine filling up 80 Gigs with anything other than media files.

My main drive is an 80 Gig, my backup is also 80 Gigs and my 3rd drive is 200 Gigs which is dedicated to video files. I have lots of programs on the main drive and I still have plenty of room even with photos and MPegs stored on that drive.