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System size keeps growing......



 
 
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  #31  
Old June 18th 10, 01:34 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
William B. Lurie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 811
Default System size keeps growing......

Shenan Stanley wrote:
snip

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS - Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

Shenan, I have IE8- 8.0.600 18702
and Under General Tab I find no Temp Int Files.
Please advise
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  #32  
Old June 18th 10, 01:50 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Anthony Buckland
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 526
Default System size keeps growing......


"William B. Lurie" wrote in message
...
Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
... [big snip] ...
With 1 TB hard drives costing around $100 US why not get a bigger drive?

Roy, it's not a matter of money. The bigger the drive, the higher
the probability that the drive will crash (as they do, albeit
infrequently) and then I've lost even more. I remember the days
when 10 Megabytes was a large hard drive, and now my smallest one
8000 times that size. Call me old-fashioned. Tell me about a belt
and suspenders. I won't disagree.


I'd never rely on just _one_ of any backup medium.
My standard strategy: two removable drives, one in
day-to-day use, one "somewhere else", reasonably
frequently rotated, so that my maximum loss is no
more than a few days if no backup drive crashes,
or a longer, but still manageable period if one
backup drive crashes.

If the main and both backup drives were to crash, I'd still
be in serious trouble.


  #33  
Old June 18th 10, 01:50 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Anthony Buckland
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 526
Default System size keeps growing......


"William B. Lurie" wrote in message
...
Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
... [big snip] ...
With 1 TB hard drives costing around $100 US why not get a bigger drive?

Roy, it's not a matter of money. The bigger the drive, the higher
the probability that the drive will crash (as they do, albeit
infrequently) and then I've lost even more. I remember the days
when 10 Megabytes was a large hard drive, and now my smallest one
8000 times that size. Call me old-fashioned. Tell me about a belt
and suspenders. I won't disagree.


I'd never rely on just _one_ of any backup medium.
My standard strategy: two removable drives, one in
day-to-day use, one "somewhere else", reasonably
frequently rotated, so that my maximum loss is no
more than a few days if no backup drive crashes,
or a longer, but still manageable period if one
backup drive crashes.

If the main and both backup drives were to crash, I'd still
be in serious trouble.


  #34  
Old June 18th 10, 02:05 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Shenan Stanley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,523
Default System size keeps growing......

snipped

William B. Lurie wrote:
Shenan, I have IE8- 8.0.600 18702
and Under General Tab I find no Temp Int Files.
Please advise


"General Tab" -- section labeled "Browsing History" you'll notice it says,
"Delete Temporary Files, history, cookies..." Same thing when you get in -
delete all by whatever means necessary.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


  #35  
Old June 18th 10, 02:05 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Shenan Stanley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,523
Default System size keeps growing......

snipped

William B. Lurie wrote:
Shenan, I have IE8- 8.0.600 18702
and Under General Tab I find no Temp Int Files.
Please advise


"General Tab" -- section labeled "Browsing History" you'll notice it says,
"Delete Temporary Files, history, cookies..." Same thing when you get in -
delete all by whatever means necessary.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


  #36  
Old June 18th 10, 02:47 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
William B. Lurie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 811
Default System size keeps growing......


snipped


FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.

I'm still absorbing the rest of your advice.
  #37  
Old June 18th 10, 02:47 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
William B. Lurie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 811
Default System size keeps growing......



snipped


FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.

I'm still absorbing the rest of your advice.
  #38  
Old June 18th 10, 04:33 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Bruce Chambers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,208
Default System size keeps growing......

William B. Lurie wrote:
My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.



Assuming that by "Master system" you're referring to the contents of
WinXP's various system files....

If you're referring to the numerous "$NtUninstall...." folders
within your C:\Windows directory and are confident that you won't need
to uninstall either the most recent service pack or any of the
subsequent hot-fixes, you can safely delete those folders.

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page your friend has ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools
Internet Options General, Temporary Files Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start Control Panel Java
Temporary Internet Files Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start All Programs
Accessories System Tools System Restore System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start All Programs Accessories System Tools System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default,
this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard
drives, this is tremendously wasteful. It can be set to a lower limit
by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties,
and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more
reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
  #39  
Old June 18th 10, 04:33 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Bruce Chambers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,208
Default System size keeps growing......

William B. Lurie wrote:
My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.



Assuming that by "Master system" you're referring to the contents of
WinXP's various system files....

If you're referring to the numerous "$NtUninstall...." folders
within your C:\Windows directory and are confident that you won't need
to uninstall either the most recent service pack or any of the
subsequent hot-fixes, you can safely delete those folders.

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page your friend has ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools
Internet Options General, Temporary Files Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start Control Panel Java
Temporary Internet Files Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start All Programs
Accessories System Tools System Restore System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start All Programs Accessories System Tools System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default,
this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard
drives, this is tremendously wasteful. It can be set to a lower limit
by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties,
and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more
reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
  #40  
Old June 18th 10, 04:48 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Daave[_8_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,461
Default System size keeps growing......

William B. Lurie wrote:
snipped


FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.


As long as hiberbnation is enabled, there must be a sizeable
hiberfil.sys file. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hibernate. :-)

Even if you were to start Windows and not run any particular programs
(other than the ones that are configured to run at startup), what you
have loaded into memory is still quite sizeable!


  #41  
Old June 18th 10, 04:48 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Daave[_8_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,461
Default System size keeps growing......

William B. Lurie wrote:
snipped


FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.


As long as hiberbnation is enabled, there must be a sizeable
hiberfil.sys file. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hibernate. :-)

Even if you were to start Windows and not run any particular programs
(other than the ones that are configured to run at startup), what you
have loaded into memory is still quite sizeable!


  #42  
Old June 18th 10, 04:52 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Daave[_8_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,461
Default System size keeps growing......

William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.
In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind
of partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer
than they used to?


Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the
saved backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump
right back if I have to.


What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your
partition doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the
process and have it run in the background. As long as your hard
drive is large enough, a 20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to
you.
But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.


Yup, he's very thorough!

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.


I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.


To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.


Doesn't the Norton program have the ability to perform incremental
images automatically, behind the scenes? If so, the size of your system
is irrelevant as long as your hard drive is large enough.

Or do you always manually create full images? Hey, if this is how you
want to do things, it's your life. :-) At least, you have adequate and
reliable backups. :-)


  #43  
Old June 18th 10, 04:52 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Daave[_8_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,461
Default System size keeps growing......


William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.
In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind
of partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer
than they used to?


Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the
saved backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump
right back if I have to.


What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your
partition doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the
process and have it run in the background. As long as your hard
drive is large enough, a 20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to
you.
But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.


Yup, he's very thorough!

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.


I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.


To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.


Doesn't the Norton program have the ability to perform incremental
images automatically, behind the scenes? If so, the size of your system
is irrelevant as long as your hard drive is large enough.

Or do you always manually create full images? Hey, if this is how you
want to do things, it's your life. :-) At least, you have adequate and
reliable backups. :-)


  #44  
Old June 18th 10, 06:03 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
William B. Lurie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 811
Default System size keeps growing......

Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.
In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind
of partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer
than they used to?


Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the
saved backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump
right back if I have to.
What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your
partition doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the
process and have it run in the background. As long as your hard
drive is large enough, a 20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to
you.
But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.
Yup, he's very thorough!

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.
I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.


To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.


Doesn't the Norton program have the ability to perform incremental
images automatically, behind the scenes? If so, the size of your system
is irrelevant as long as your hard drive is large enough.

Or do you always manually create full images? Hey, if this is how you
want to do things, it's your life. :-) At least, you have adequate and
reliable backups. :-)


I found the incremental method too confusing; it may
be available, but as we said... I gotta do it ......MYYYY WAYYYY.
  #45  
Old June 18th 10, 06:03 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
William B. Lurie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 811
Default System size keeps growing......

Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.
In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind
of partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer
than they used to?


Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the
saved backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump
right back if I have to.
What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your
partition doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the
process and have it run in the background. As long as your hard
drive is large enough, a 20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to
you.
But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.
Yup, he's very thorough!

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.
I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.


To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.


Doesn't the Norton program have the ability to perform incremental
images automatically, behind the scenes? If so, the size of your system
is irrelevant as long as your hard drive is large enough.

Or do you always manually create full images? Hey, if this is how you
want to do things, it's your life. :-) At least, you have adequate and
reliable backups. :-)


I found the incremental method too confusing; it may
be available, but as we said... I gotta do it ......MYYYY WAYYYY.
 




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