Reducing Size Of Windows Installation

[alexepascual]

I have been trying to reduce the size of installed files in my hard drive. With a lot of work I have managed to get it down to 15Gb. I figured that if I unistalled most programs I still would have like 10Gb left. I don't understand what is taking that much space.

I have XP with SP2 installed. I noticed that the dot net framework takes about 1GB of space, OK, I can live with that. There is nothing I can do anyway.

But I have noticed that there is a "DotNet Framework Hotfix KB886903" that takes another Gb. taking the total size of the framework to approx. 2GB. I wonder if there is any way to reduce this.

Even with this, I wonder if there is anything else kind of hidden that might be taking room in my drive. Would the swap file be counted when the drive size is reported? Right now I have virtual memory set to automatic.

Also, I got the impression that after removing programs, the "used" space reported was not going down as much as I expected from the reported size of the program in "Add-remove software".

All this has me puzzled.

I'll appreciate your suggestions.

-Alex-

[Jeremy]

Use nLite. I don't use NET Framework and it doesn't take up a GB...if you think so you're crazy.

[alexepascual]

OK Jeremy,

I looked on the web and the size of the .NET Framework is more like 100MB.

However, when I look at the size in Add-Remove Software, it says 988.00MB.

I don't understand that.

I'll look into nLite.

Thanks,

-Alex-

[Alanoll]

@Alex

PLEASE! Notice the difference between REPORT POST and ADD REPLY! REPORT POST gets a message sent to the Moderator thinking someone broke the rules. When it's just a simple message like what you've had, it's just plain annoying.

Please try to remember that in the future.

[bucketbuster]

nLite is pre-install, use XPLite instead.

Also, your pagefile and hibernationfile can take up a lot of space.

So can Sun's Java and your Drivercache and DLLcache folders.

[jeffshen]

right... first thing when reducing hard disk sizes... internet history, temporary files etcetc... then when you remove programmes, READ the last box, it usually tells you which files were not deleted, go and delete those, you should also clean out the registry because programmes always leaves registry keys behind... and dont install everything windows update bugs you to install, things suck as the .net framework are useless... unless someone can tell me precisely what it is for...

[Cartoonite]

... and dont install everything windows update bugs you to install, things suck as the .net framework are useless... unless someone can tell me precisely what it is for...

While your at it, you can take the flywheel out of your car. I don't know what it does, so it must be useless. Secondly, last time I checked, the .NET Framework is an optional update. I would hardly consider that as Windows Update "bugging" me to install it.

As to your size issue, alex, something definitely seems amiss. I'm not sure what size the .NET Framework should be, but my whole fresh install on my test system, including the Framework, page file (yes, it is included in disk usage, as far as i know) and many other programs is only just over 2 GB.

You may want to consider doing a fresh install and monitoring your program installs to see what is taking up space.

Also, before taking that step, you may just want to open up Windows Explorer and take a look at the C drive. See if you can find out where the files are that are using up all the space on the main partition.

Hope this helps.

[alexepascual]

Cartoonite: I have been suspecting that System Restore migh be taking space on my drive. The problem was that I didn't have access to the System Restore tab in order to disable it. I posted that problem on a different thread and someone posted a link to a site with steps to fix that. After I followed the steps and was able to disable System restore, my usage went from 13.4 to about 8.5GB. Big change! .

Also this morning I found two suspicious files directly in the C:\ drive (not in a directory) which were taking a total of 1GB. the names were ~cevts0 and ~cevts1 . I did a search in Google and found that they are related to a probably failed copy of an audio CD. So I deleted them.

Now at 8.5GB things look much better. I don't want to follow jeffshen's advice and remove the DotNet framework as I happen to know what it is used for and I think it is usefull to have it.

Jeffshen: The DotNet Framework is used by newer programs that are written using the newer technologies. Without going into details, if you buy or download one of these programs and you dont have the Framework it'l ask you to install it. If you don't want to install it, you'll won't be able to run the program. I am familiar with this because I myself wrote a program that uses the framework. ( I used Visual Studio .net). Thanks anyway for your advise.

Cartoonite: I realize that I may still have things that are taking too much space so I'll keep an eye open. But for the time being I am happy with the new size.

Thanks for your input and I certainly will keep in mind your fact that a fresh install takes about 2GB.

Thanks again,

-Alex-

[suryad]

I used nLite and my install CD went from a previous size of over 550 mb to 130 mb or so with SP2 streamlined into it. All I had to do was get the newer March updates/hotfixes and I was ready to go. I disabled System Restore as that takes up resources, set my pagefile to system managed, decreased the size of my Temporary Internet folder to a 100 mb from the previous few gigs...and it kept my machine compact.

Currently I have Adobe Acrobat 7, NetBeans, Java 1.50 Update 2 SDK, Windows Media 10, Winamp, PowerDVD 6, Nero 6.6, Spybpt, Spy Doctor, System Mechanic, JEdit, Trillian...etc...etc(just to give an idea) and am using around 4.73 gb of hdd space.

As for the .NET framework I dont have it and I dont need it because I dont use the ATI Catalyst Control Center anyway...instead I use Omegas...and I dont develop .NET apps so you can remove it without any qualms if you want...but first make sure you dont have apps that need the framework.

[alexepascual]

I have read other threads about a streamlined installation CD but I don't understand why you might need that. I understand that after many updates there might be some redundancies and it might be possible to elimninate those from your system. But why do that on a CD instead of making the changes directly in the hard drive?. Is this concept unique to nLite? Maybe I don't understand this stuff because I never used nLite.

Bucketbuster in a previous post suggests using XPlite instead of nLite for an already installed system.

Now, I understand that If I wanted to install XP on a new computer, having a CD with a smaller windows that includes all updates might be handy. But, wouldn't the installation program want to do some activation over the web to check that I am not installing the same op system on a different machine?

Suryad: I'll check the size of my Temporary Internet folder as you suggest. That might still be eating up some space on my drive. Thanks for your advice.

[boooggy]

try also to use this program Ccleaner.

CCleaner Link

[alexepascual]

Does any body know this:

What about the windows updates?

Under my Windows folder there are a bunch of files that start like.. $NtUninstall.. These are like 500MB. I wonder if I can delete them or if there is a better procedure to remove them.

Would I also have copies of the original update that I can copy to a CD?

Boooggy:

Thanks for your suggestion. A lot of the files cCleaner cleans I clean directly from windows. On the other hand I am affraid it might clean things I don't want to clean. Now, cleaning a few unused shortcuts or other files here and there might not represent a substantial gain (Gigabites) in hard drive space. I am not trying to squeeze the size all I can, I am just trying to get read of the biggest offenders.

I may use cCleanin the future, but right now I think I'll continue cleaning a few things by hand.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway.

-Alex-

[benyahuda0]

Alex I checked both of the XP installations on my computer and found that on the main installation (where most of my work gets done) the .NET Framework uses 170,652 KB This is the .NET SDK.

On the other installation which I use for testing software the .NET Framework (no SDK) comes in at 8,151 KB. This installation consumes 9.975 GB in total. It also has WinFX, Avalon and Indigo from the March CTP installed.

Your 8.5 GB install is probably about right for an XP installation that sees some development work etc.

As for the .NET Framework you are right, you probably should keep it. There is quite a bit of software that already requires .NET 1.1 and I use an HTML editor which requires .NET 2.0, I also use a graphics application which requires .NET 2.0.

[alexepascual]

benyahuda0:

You size for the framework seems too low. The framework I am talking about is the one people install in their machines just to run .net programs, and I don't think it includes the SDK. I would assume that Visual Studio.net installs the SDK, but I wouldn't know where to look for it.

From what I understand, the framework is a download of about 25MB but once installed it takes about 100MB on your hard drive.

On my machine, the size reported for the framework in Add/Remove programs is 988.00MB, which is apparently wrong. Could you check in your machine to see what size it shows?

How did you get your number for the size of the framework?

I also asked a question about the updates and I'll paste it here again as I didn't get any answers yet:

What about the windows updates?

Under my Windows folder there are a bunch of files that start like.. $NtUninstall.. These are like 500MB. I wonder if I can delete them or if there is a better procedure to remove them.

Would I also have copies of the original update that I can copy to a CD?

One more:

I found a folder in the root directory named winxpcd that apparently contains the files in the windows XP CD. I don't remember If I put it there or the windows installation did and I wonder if it is safe to delete it.

Thanks guys,

-Alex-

[Cartoonite]

I have all of those folders in my Windows directory as well, alex. While I'm unsure whether or not they are safe to delete, I believe their purpose is storing the files required for uninstalling hotfixes installed via Automatic Updates (possibly Windows Update as well).

In an effort to avoid this, I plan on manually installing all hotfixes (as they are released, since my install CD will have all fixes up to its creation date integrated on it already ) after my next reinstall, which will hopefully be soon, since I'm rapidly running out of space on my current hard drive.

Where are you taking the install size of the Framework from on your PC? Add/Remove Programs on mine has no size listing for it.