where did all that space go?

i recently installed win 7 ultimate on my laptop. But then i saw that i only have 15gb of HD space left. after installing win 7.
the only other things i have added is FF, Chrome, some folders of school and work stuff, MSN ,AIM and some windows update

this maybe a dumb question, but i am no computer expert, so my question is, is there a way to tell what is using up all the HD space? There is no music, or anything like that in the computer.

i dont know if this belongs in this section, so please move it if it is in the wrong place.

thanks in advance

 

You haven't said how big the hard drive is.

 

LOL, wow i am dumb

anyways the HD is 150gb

 

whoa
download a copy of spacemonger

Download

install, run..it will give you a visual representation of where all the space is going.

 

If you right-click any folder and choose "Properties" it will tell you how much space that particular folder is taking.

 

thanks, i will give that a try when i get home.

any other suggestions?

 

Try windirstat

 

Did you get rid of the windows.old file (On root of C:\)?

 

i am no computer expert, can you explain this in more details

thanks

 

Have you checked how much space has been taken by your restore points?

Right Click on Computer -> Properties -> System Protection -> Configure -> Space Taken->

Then delete if you want or you can install CCleaner and pick and choose which restore points you want to get rid of.

 

I believe that is wher the old windows installation file goes into if you did not forat the hard disk before installing windows. It is on the same drive you installed windows on.

 

lol thanks, after using windirstat. i found the windows.old

so now my questions is can i bring stuff over from the old "windows"?
like programs such as office and such?
(recently moved so alot of things are still in )

and after that do i just delet windows.old to get rid of it? if not, how to i get rid of it

thanks for all the help everyone =D

 

You can delete the windows.old at any time. But anything you delete cannot be copied back. I don't think you can reinstall software from windows.old unless its a setup file, or you could copy the entire directory to the new program files, and make shortcuts on your desktop. Hope this helped

 

That won't work very well, there are going to be registry entries missing in the majority of cases

 

Also check system restore points. If your computer is running fine, then delete the old restore points...

 

Keep in mind also that Windows 7 does not reformat your HD when you install it unless you tell it to do so in the advanced section.

Windows.old does not contain all the data you had on your HD before the Windows 7 install. What that means is that any files, partitions, etc. you had on your HD before the install are still there, which can be a good thing if you want all of them.

I would assume that you were somewhat short of HD space before your Windows 7 install, is that correct?

You might consider doing a clean install of Windows 7 with a HD format and start from scratch if you have a lot of files / programs you don't use.

 

It won't help. Except for apps that don't have any registry entries.

Gary

 

I would go into windows.old and get all the files that you need. Then delete the windows.old file.

 

i just deleted the windows.old folder. i will reinstall the programs
thanks for all the help everyone

 

I hope you didn't just delete it though

To remove the Windows.old folder, you should:
1. Click Start , click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click System Tools.
2. Click Disk Cleanup.
3. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, click Files from all users on this computer.

Note If the User Account Control dialog box appears, type the administrator password, and then click OK. Otherwise, click Continue.

4. In the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK. Wait while the system scans the computer for unnecessary files.

5. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then look for the Previous Windows installations check box.

6. If you find the Previous Windows installations check box, click to select it, and then click OK.

If you do not find this check box, go to step 7.

7. When you are prompted to confirm the removal of files, click Delete Files.

8. Wait while the system removes the files. You have now removed the Windows.old folder.

When you just delete it (or Shift delete it) Windows still thinks its there, kinda like deleting a program by moving it to the trash bin rather than uninstalling it. it probably won't cause much problems unless you're heavy into registry manipulation and all that, but that's the proper way to remove it for future reference.

 

Windows.old is an orphaned folder. So deleting it manual is safe. Nothing in the new OS is linked to any object in that folder.