X300 Hard Drive is Full - What do I do?

Hi,

Sorry for the ignorant question, but my x300 still works great and the hard drive is 98% full. I have no videos, music or photos on it, very few documents, and a few programs (office, itunes, a few others). I wonder if all the ThinkVantage updates filled it up. I've looked at uninstall programs and can't see what's eating up the hard drive. When I use the ThinkVantage tool, about half of the drive is "unscanned."

Sorry for the naive question, but I'd love some help.

Thank you!

 

What is the rated capacity of your current hard drive?

 

Only 64gb, alas... Seems crazy to have bought something like that now.

 

Well, according to this thread (see post #9), it appears that you don't seem to have too many options.

 

Thank you. I had searched the forum without any luck on my own. I have no data to speak of on the computer, and I guess I can uninstall iTunes and whatever else I can find and make it the family travel computer. Seems a shame to ditch a computer that otherwise works so well. Live and learn, I guess, and assume the average life span of my next laptop will be about three years and budget accordingly. This was an expensive computer!

Thanks for the replies. Off to look at my options.

 

Check this thread for some ideas on what could be taking up the space. At the bottom of the first post in that thread is a tool that disk usage statistics viewer.

 

Are you using some Windows as operating system on it? If yes, install www.piriform.com/ccleaner for a first clean up of accumulated crap on your system.

You might also want to manually delete the folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download as it tends to accumulate lots of Windows updates over time, which one usually never requires twice. Here is how:

Start>Run
type cmd and press enter
type net stop wuauserv and press enter
cd C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
type rename Download Download.old and press enter
type net start wuauserv and press enter
type exit and press enter
then delete the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.old folder and empty your trash folder

 

It is possible to get a 128GB 1.8" SSD. Samsung makes some OEM models and there are parties selling them on Ebay.

In addition to the recommendations others have given, I'd look into that. NewEgg carries a few 1.8" models, but they aren't cheap.

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, SSD, Internal SSD, 1.8"

Lenovo X300 Hardware Maintenance Manual (which will show you how to do the swap)
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X300/pdf/HMM.pdf

 

Do you use Windows "hibernate"? If not, you can turn it off and recover a few gig of disk space. here's how

You could also turn off shadow copy and restore points to recover some more space although this is a bit riskier.

 

Download and run WinDirStat ( http://windirstat.info).

It will tell you exactly what is on your hard drive and whether any of the above suggestions will help.

 

Thank you. I'll take a look at these. I have Windows Vista, but don't remember which version. Sp.2, but not sure if basic, business or ultimate. I wonder if it's an accumulation of Windows or Lenovo updates. Will post back when I've run the software (on my phone at the moment). Thank you. You are collectively a tremendous resource.

 

Sounds like Rescue and Recovery making backups. Check in R&R for backups that you don't need and can delete.

 

I have Vista Business.

Just ran windirstat and I don't know what to do next. I'm not sure if there is a way to copy the info and picture here, but the largest segment is application extensions (.dll) with 11.4 GB or 27% of my hard drive, followed by system files at 6.7GB (16.7%), then applications at 4.6GB (11%), then in decreasing order, windows installer patch, windows installer package, an unspecified file at 1.3 GB and then smaller programs. Here is what I get when I click "send mail to owner:"


41.4 GB C:\
20.7 GB C:\Windows
6.6 GB C:\Program Files
6.2 GB C:\<Files>
4.7 GB C:\Users
1.6 GB C:\SWTOOLS
938.2 MB C:\ProgramData
532.2 MB C:\MSOCache
136.9 MB C:\Liping Ma Overseas Chinese
40.3 MB C:\DRIVERS
16.7 MB C:\Boot
3.7 MB C:\Brother
1.1 MB C:\SWShare
41.2 KB C:\Intel
1.2 KB C:\Icons
258 Bytes C:\$Recycle.Bin
154 Bytes C:\WTablet
45 Bytes C:\temp
0 C:\Documents and Settings
0 C:\PerfLogs
0 C:\preboot
0 C:\RRbackups
0 C:\System Volume Information
0 C:\tvtos
0 D:\

Also, there were no system restore points set (oops), but I did create one yesterday, figuring I'd better do that before fooling around with the computer.

Now, I'll try the cleaner software to see if I have old Windows installations that can be removed. I don't see anything obvious here, but let me know if you do.

Thanks!

 

I'd delete hibernation files if applicable and replace large software like Acrobat Reader with some smaller alternatives like Foxit Reader.

Still, getting a bigger drive will be worth it if you intend to keep it for a couple of years

 

RRbackups has certain permissions set on it that prevent it from being enumerated. If you take ownership of it, you'll find that it accounts for the missing space.

 

Just wanted to say thanks again for all of your help. After running cccleaner, my hard drive went from 98% to 85% and my Windows experience score increased from 2.4 to 3.1. One weird thing, looking at my system, is that I seem to have only 3GB RAM. Not sure why it's an odd number.

Also, looking more closely at the WinDirStat stats, I see that 50% of my program space is Lenovo programs (not a big deal, considering that my total program files equal only 6GB). I guess that's all those updates I'm continuously notified about and downloading. Finally, Windows takes up 20GB, but downloaded installations are only 1/3GB. Seems to me the main problem is that the hard drive is simply too small. (I've got to wonder why Apple is selling the 11" base Air with only 64GB - how does one manage that in this day and age, as the operating software appears to be what's eaten up my hard drive?)

In any event, my computer is operational, thanks to all of your help. I think it's time for me to look for a new computer. My son has been asking for a laptop. Maybe this will be his "new" laptop for now.

Thank you!

 

I suppose the assumption is that (1) you are always connected to "the grid" and (2) as a consequence of which you use "cloud-centric" storage solutions.

 

After all that, I think I'm going to take advantage of the Cyber Monday sale on the SPP site and buy the X220. I'll have to research here to learn how to better maintain my various software upgrades, and how to set it up better to begin with.

 

windows has a bloat issue after a while, you can see here: https://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&ix=c2&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=large+windows+folder
i read about it a bit a while ago, it does something like make copies (maybe not even copies?) of a bunch of stuff that's not really necessary.

apple probably assumes their base macbook air will be used for web browsing and other basic things since it's probably a supplement to a main computer as opposed to a replacement.

edit: this is the main culprit probably: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-to-free/450e0396-6ba6-4078-8ca0-b16bf4e22ccf

 

Thank you for this. I actually went to the apple store today to take a look. They promise that their OS does not continue to grow and that their computers never lose speed. Not so sure of that, as their demos did not have flash, and whatever else the consumer would add. I'll have to read that thread re: the creeping Windows software, but in my case, it appears that Lenovo took up more space than Windows. I'm going to have to figure out what I load from Lenovo versus what I don't. I can see that Lenovo is the culprit because today I downloaded their updates to Think Vantage and my hard drive went back up to 90% full again. Just ran cccleaner and WinDirStat again, and I take back what I said about Lenovo. Windows is 48% of my hard drive at 19GB and Lenovo is 3.6GB (53% of my program files, so you know I don't have much on there).

I'll read through that tomorrow and see if I can free up space. I just ordered the X220, but am very nervous that I won't be happy with the smaller screen. I loved those MacBook Airs, but wanted something very sturdy.

Thanks for the link.

 

Personally, I think if you like your X300 aside from the disk space, that is, it performs the way you want, spending money on a 128GB SSD is a great option, as is upgrading to Windows 7. I think the X300 and X301 are great ThinkPads, and if you don't need more processing power, why switch?

Windows 7 supports TRIM; Windows Vista does not. So performance would be kept higher. Doing a clean install of Windows 7 would also mean you could decide which Lenovo software you want and what you don't.

As for the Macbook Air, PC or Mac, there is no system that does not degrade in performance over time. Not OSX, not Linux, not Windows.

Finally, as a temporary stopgap, also try running COMPCLN from a command-prompt window. In Vista, this will remove any backed-up files from Service Pack installs; since you probably don't wish to uninstall these service packs, the files are no longer needed.