nirmalan Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 I did a clean install of Windows XP along with SP2 yesterday and found that the windows folder after installation was taking up far too much space. Its taking up aproximately 2.9 GBs of space. Is it normal for a Windows XP installation with SP2 to take up this much space? Or are there some redundant files i can delete to lessen the space? Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tak Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 I did a clean install of Windows XP along with SP2 yesterday and found that the windows folder after installation was taking up far too much space. Its taking up aproximately 2.9 GBs of space. Is it normal for a Windows XP installation with SP2 to take up this much space? Or are there some redundant files i can delete to lessen the space?nLite is your friend.I don't remember my old installation being ~3GB. Seems a bit excessive. Did you do XP --> +SP2 patch, or XP+SP2 integrated installation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nirmalan Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 I installed XP SP1 and then updated to SP2 via Windows Update V5. I have heard of N-Lite, but i don't want to have to go through creating a new ISO, unless im sure that i can't fix my current installation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prathapml Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 The backed-up files could have swollen it up by this much. BTW, its not odd to have that folder so big. The problem is if it starts slowing down your normal operations.You can clear out the folder that starts with "$" - and some more too.A better option is to merge the SP2 into your CD, then install from there. Its clean, and you have SP2 pre-integrated - occupies in total something like 1059 MB (not 2.x GB like you have now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nirmalan Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 I can't find any folders that begin with $, but i have found that the 2 biggest folders in my windows folder are "SoftwareDistribution" and "ServicePackFiles". They take up about 500 MBs each. Can i delete these 2 folders? I am begining to consider using N-Lite and merging SP2, it does seem simpler. but, i would like to fix my current installation if i can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N1K Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 In folder options check "show hidden files and folders" radio button..You should see several hidden folders starting with the $ sign...Those folders contain uninstall information for the patches you've installed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 Buy a bigger hard drive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tak Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 Buy a bigger hard drive... And what of those people, those of us on mobile solutions, unable to buy a bigger drive?ServicePackFiles should be safe to delete. This KB article at Microsoft is intended for Windows 2000, but it should still apply in your case.I don't recall if the SoftwareDistribution folder is entirely safe to delete without adverse side-effects. Just delete the "downloads" folder within SoftwareDistribution, and you should free up some space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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