TravelLite

Thank you for the quick replies, everyone!

Please can someone suggest how I can automatically shut down my computer at a preset time. The system is Windows XP Service Pack 2. The need arises because I want to record a programme during my absence using a TV card. Thank you

Thanks for your rapid reply, fizban2. Since I intend to install my programs (applications) in the same partition as the operating system, I will imitate you and use a 120GB partition. That will leave nearly 880GB free for my data partition, which should be more than enough for my present needs.

When installing previous versions of Windows (Win 98SE or XP) I would always create two partitions. The smaller boot partition contained the OS and programs, and the larger partition contained my data. Then I would use a utility such as Partimage under Linux to make a compressed image of the system partition from time to time, and especially before experimenting with some unfamiliar piece of software. This has saved the day more than once by enabling me to return everything to the exact previous state very quickly. Now I am building a new computer, and I would like to use a similar partition scheme. I have before me Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, 4GB of RAM and an empty 1TB hard drive. Please could someone give me advice on how large I should make the system partition? The screen message says "The recommended free space for installation is 24034MB". If I round that up to 25GB, will most of that space be used by the system, and will there still be room for me to install my programs? What about the size of the pagefile - can I set it manually, or is it best just to let Vista decide? Is there anything else I should consider at this stage? Thank you for any help.

Thank you, Sonic. Deleting those folders gave me back about 500MB. I wonder where the other 2MB went. Is there anything else that can be deleted safely? For example there is C:\WINDOWS\$hf_mig$ at 472MB.

Hi, This is my first post. I allowed my Windows XP Home Edition to be updated to SP3 online. The free disc space fell from 4.1GB to 2.6GB - a loss of 2.5GB. Since the download only took a few minutes, I cannot believe that I downloaded 2.5GB. My guess is that the upgrade process must have made a backup of the existing system first. For various reasons I cannot replace or add new disc drives to this computer. Can I delete anything to reclaim this lost disc space? Thanks.