Windows Update backup files

[engineer]

I have an notebook computer that 27.9GB harddrive. I was trying to figure
out why I have lost so much harddrive space when I have very little installed
on the machine. I have determined that the Service packs and Hotfixes
backups are using 30% of the harddrive and need to determine how to safely
remove these backups since the system is stable and running with little
glitches. The only glitch I have with Windows XP Home SP2 on this notebook
is a reboot glitch. It crashes when I do a restart, still working on what is
actually causing that. But the main concern is I am running out of hard
drive space and very little is installed.

--
ECE-CSSE engineer
Network+ Certified

[Bill James]

Well 30% would be about 10 GB and the updates and service pack are not nearly that big. I would not delete the service pack folder since Windows will need that if files become corrupted (SFC), but you can delete the updates ($NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$) files from the Windows directory if you are sure you will not need to uninstall. Best policy is to leave the last 30 to 90 days of update uninstalls. That will probably only be a couple hundred MB at best.

--

Bill James


"engineer" > wrote in message ...
>
> I have an notebook computer that 27.9GB harddrive. I was trying to figure
> out why I have lost so much harddrive space when I have very little installed
> on the machine. I have determined that the Service packs and Hotfixes
> backups are using 30% of the harddrive and need to determine how to safely
> remove these backups since the system is stable and running with little
> glitches. The only glitch I have with Windows XP Home SP2 on this notebook
> is a reboot glitch. It crashes when I do a restart, still working on what is
> actually causing that. But the main concern is I am running out of hard
> drive space and very little is installed.
>
> --
> ECE-CSSE engineer
> Network+ Certified

[Nepatsfan]

"engineer" > wrote in
message

> I have an notebook computer that 27.9GB harddrive. I was
> trying to figure out why I have lost so much harddrive space
> when I have very little installed on the machine. I have
> determined that the Service packs and Hotfixes backups are
> using 30% of the harddrive and need to determine how to
> safely remove these backups since the system is stable and
> running with little glitches. The only glitch I have with
> Windows XP Home SP2 on this notebook is a reboot glitch. It
> crashes when I do a restart, still working on what is
> actually causing that. But the main concern is I am running
> out of hard drive space and very little is installed.
>
> --
> ECE-CSSE engineer
> Network+ Certified

As long as you're satisfied that you will not have to uninstall
any of the updates, you can delete any of the folders that are
named similar to $NtUninstallKBXXXXXX$ as well as
$NtServicePackUninstall$. Once you delete the folders, go to
Add or Remove Programs. Make sure the "Show updates" box is
checked. Click on the updates whose folders you deleted. You'll
be asked if you want to remove the entry from the list.

Note: Do not delete the $hf_mig$ folder. Windows Update uses
this folder during future updates.

For an automated solution to this issue, take a look here,

Courtesy of Doug Knox, MS-MVP

Remove Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs Registry
entries
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

Two areas to look at to regain hard drive space are System
Restore and Internet Explorer.

System Restore initially claims 12% of your hard drive space.
Go to Control Panel -> System -> System Restore and change this
to around 5%. This should give you at least two weeks of
restore points.

For Internet Explorer, go to Control Panel -> Internet Options.
For IE6, look on the General page in the Temporary Internet
files box and click on the Settings button. For IE7, click on
the Settings button in the Browsing History section of the
General page. In both version, set the amount of disk space to
use to less than 100MB.

Good luck

Nepatsfan