Cleaning up and Speeding up my MK1 CF-19

So while I am tackling the issues with my MK5, might be time to give some thought to my MK1 too. First problem, what on earth is eating up all my HDD space?! I have a 100gb (well 91gb according to Windows) drive and only about 14gb left on it. But I can't account for the "space eaters" looking at individual folder sizes like "Programs", "Windows" and the like.

Space: In OSX I use a program called Disk Inventory X. It goes through and gives a graphical depiction with little boxes of every file on the machine. Big boxes mean big file size. Is there something along these lines (and also free) you guys can recommend for Windows?

Speed: This MK1 is near unusable. But it does what its needed for pretty well, other than super poor boot up times. I am looking for some ideas for near free solutions to this. I have some mpcie adapters that plug into the WWAN card slot. I have proven this idea works good and allows me to turn the card on/off in bios. The nice thing about this is I could boot up into linux and I think even get my most important software I need for tuning, installed. This also lets me do a hidden, or seamless dual boot and leave the existing drive unmolested and alone. This machine is NOT easy to get running properly on W7.

Another option is to actually put a small SSD drive into it. But to do that, I have to clean up whatever is stealing all my space. And ideally I need to do this without risking the data and setup on the existing drive....

Minimal time, effort, risk, and expense will be the ultimate winners for this plan. Any ideas?!

 

format c:

 

Try this handy program

http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/



or this

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

 

Lol um I do actually need to save what is on there!!! Burning that drive and starting fresh would take MUCH more motivation than I have...

WinDirStat 1.1.2.80 actually looks just like DiskInventoryX, so I just finished installing that on the MK1. It is even slower on this pc than it is on my MacBook. Not sure it was worth the effort though and still a little uncertain of the data its telling me.

According to it, I only have 41gb of data used on the C: drive.

I will give those programs a shot Shawn!

 

Program called spacesniffer, you will find it is a Windows glitch that is writing temp files and filling up the drive.
http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

And the only thing that will make it run any better is a small SSD, that's what I do on Mk2's and it really makes a difference. I also did a ssd on a core solo 1.2 Motion Computing tablet, it was pretty much unusable with the 4200rpm zif drive but it was NIB so, yep.

 

Did you go into "my computer" and right click on C drive, properties, disk clean up ? That should free up some space. Also do you have a folder called "Window old". Think that's what it's called.

 

I am going to try out all three of the above program suggestions here shortly!

Disk Cleanup is sure taking a LONG time for only 201mb.... Weird, it ran, then it found 1.2gb more (and I didn't tell it to run again). Pretty sure Windows is actually a virus we have been (mostly) convinced is useful.

I am now doing a disk defrag too and seeing if that makes a difference. It has been a while since I did one. It's scheduled for 1am on Wednesdays, but I almost never leave it on or plugged in.

Well if I can get the installed junk down to a reasonable amount, say 40-50gb, then a 64gb SSD might be manageable and affordable solution for this. I wonder if I can use the express card slots for some extra space? Yep! Sure can! And there are cheap SanDisk "flashback" adapters available. What other cool goodies can I put in these slots? They never get utilized... USB 3.0 might be useful. My primary backup drive is 3.0.

 

Thanks guys for the direction, SUPER helpful so far!

Okay the culprit is "System Volume Information." It is running rampart and has eaten up 48gb of space!!!! Seems deleting it outright is a bad idea though. I need a "safe" solution for dumping most of this. Windows is only taking up 19gb, and users 11gb.

EDIT: Nevermind that was easy enough. I finally used the right magic Google search combo!

So any basic guidelines for how much space I should set the slider for? I put it at 10% so it can't exceed 9.32gb.

I also noticed almost 5gb in my pictures folder. Funny, cause I can't even remember the last time pictures were stored on this beyond some basic ones for backgrounds!!! So seems I need to dig through those and delete or relocate. And a couple programs I can eliminate like Adobe Lightroom. Although oddly that doesn't show up in my "uninstall programs" list.

 

That is the temp files, it usually writes them at 100mb each and never stops, it is a glitch I found a month ago on a customers laptop, 500gb of temp files.

 

If you go with a 64GB SSD... You will hate yourself later when you get to 50GB+ and you have to start picking and choosing what you want to keep. The cost difference are negligible between the 64GB and the 120GB or 128GB drives. I would get at least a 120GB SSD!

 

For the MK1, I snagged a 90gb Kingston last night. It was cheap! That guy now has only 41gb on the drive. And it is fully loaded with everything needed and used JUST for tuning my car. I grabbed a 160gb drive for the MK5, I actually put stuff onto that one.

 

So what is the verdict on performance with the SSD?

 

I am waiting for it off of eBay, so it will be a few days or weeks! But the cleanup seemed to do wonders at least! I don't do much that is intensive with it, but I will try beating on it for a couple days once the SSD is installed.

My MK5 has to be fixed first as its HDD locked up HARD after I decided to use it as a jackhammer. Fell of the workbench and chipped the concrete floor. Didn't leave a mark on the case, but it was a hard hit and drive stopped screaming...

I am actually building another MK5 tonight for a friend/coworker. I have an image I made here that should have it running pretty quickly once I get to the software side of it!

 

HOLY CRAP! I just finished the SSD install in my MK5, and it is night and day difference in boot times! The MK1 here is REALLY the computer that needs this speed!!! It is the computer I need to have almost instant boot up times with. When I am grabbing it, it is usually a small crisis. Needing to figure out why my car is doing something specific.

Problem here is the whole setting up drivers deal. As the old hands here know, drivers were not offered for W7 (I am guessing they still aren't). The 2-3 times I have had to do it, it took days of beating my head into walls to get the right magical order of the wrong drivers to make it work. The info is buried in several threads, including my old thread. But not easy to follow either.... Well at least my old thread was only 6 pages long...

I will try the "long game" approach with getting the MK1 online from scratch, but I am leaving the original platter drive intact. I did see some new software tools specifically for transferring from platter to SSD drives. I may explore that as an alternative, if the long game takes too long, or comes up against too many obstacles.

I have a nagging thought that somebody made a W7 installer DVD with the Panasonic drivers setup and slipstreamed into it for the MK1....

I still want to grab a spare caddy for the swap, but not sure that, and another power adapter I really need, are both in the immediate budget. In the meanwhile, I am going to see what oddities I have on hand for the MK1...

 

I need to look but I think I have the Mk1 Vista restore disk, then go and upgrade to Win 7. I also have a Mk2 win 7 acronis .tib image. Did that trick a bunch of times with CF-30Mk1's to get win 7.

 

I will see if istill have my driver folder with me at work. Should have the windows 7 drivers for a Mk1 with me.

 

Well, I haven't proceeded with this project yet... I really need to get this done!

I have a few problems to solve before moving forward. The first problem is I have a lot of software on it that is not easy to find or setup again. Might just be something I just have to deal with though. The most important software I have backups for at least.

The second problem is the actual setup of W7 on it and getting all the drivers working again. This is not a simple problem and my motivation for spending 3-4 weeks AGAIN dealing with it just isn't there. This was a big deal on the initial install, and why I have not done a clean W7 install in 5yrs. My attention span to get this done will be more like 2-3 evenings, TOPS.

And third, lets not even talk about getting W7 running "legitimately" on it. I don't remember what my solution was for that last time, but it has run legally without issues for 5yrs now. However I solved it, it was done effectively.

The only reasonable solution for the above problems, is to just clone the drive over... I have gone through and done a pretty thorough cleanup on it a few times now. It is at a point where I have room to clone it to the 90gb drive. I have been told before that this is not the most optimal way to do it, but in this situation, it is likely the ONLY way it will happen.

Either I do a cleanup and tuneup then clone the drive over to the SSD, or it just sits again and nothing happens.

You guys have been super helpful so far! Shawn sent me an XP Recovery disc, and I also got downloads for a W7 image. Still, those miss all the needed bullets to get this done.

So, can I get Acronis to do this clone job "well enough"? Is there a way to optimize the SSD drive before or after the clone job? My goal here is to get the new drive fully operational without costing me the ability to swap the other drive back in in the meantime. I simply do not want to risk my data on the original drive, before I have the new SSD in there fully online.

I suspect that anything I do could jeopardize my W7 install. But if that is the only issue once the swap is finished, hopefully, a simple a call to Microsoft fixes that.

 

Let me add a quick thought. This machine still works "well enough" for what I usually use it for. Mostly it is just used to tune my car, and other diagnostic stuff like running a Hantek oscilloscope.

The only real reason to bother with it any more is so that when it is sitting on my toolbox at work, I can use it on the internet. Right now, browsing is impossibly slow.

The future plans may include using it to control a CNC router setup. And toying with the idea of a software radio setup.

It is not worth weeks of effort or much additional cost to accomplish this. As is, I kinda need to grab a cheap parts machine to freshen up some of the broken plastics and to have a spare HDD caddy to do the swap nicely. But again justifying more than $40-50 for that is pretty hard to do.

Worst case scenario, it gets a Linux Mint (or similar) install on the hidden thumbdrive plugged into the WWAN card slot.

 

I have hit a couple snags. First, my copy of Acronis I paid money for, seems to have been a trial that is now expired. Or perhaps it is not the copy I paid for. Not sure there, but either way I currently can't make use of Acronis to clone the drive over to SSD. So that part of the project is temporarily on hold until I can sort something out.

Second, I sock at this whole software hacking aspect of things. And more specifically anything that has to do with partitioning. Very specifically, trying to install linux mint. It was supposed to be a very simple "fully guided" install. Yeah, whatever.

So, I started a new thread here; "Installing Linux Mint on MK1 CF-19" as this really deserves its own thread where it could be useful to others and easier to find.

 

Once Acronis is installed and registered, You can make the usb or cd boot disk.
I made the bootable usb stick and just boot it. Then I can clone whatever I want.

 

I thought that was what I had done! I paid for a copy, registered it and all that! I installed it and made a boot USB. But I had issues even back then. Well, whatever the case, I need to go get another copy or try to figure out where my activation code went off to and make sure it wasn't just a package that expired.

And let me say this Linux Mint is working pretty awesome and has breathed new life into the machine! Even running it off a thumbdrive plugged into a likely less than ideal PCIe adapter card stuffed into the WWAN slot, pretty speed!!!