Recover disk space

[Thunderbolt 2864]

Hi,

I have an XP installation total of 4 GIGs on my primary hard drive. And when I go to properties, it views that I've used up 11 GIG. I know there are 2 hidden system files that equates to 3 GIGs, which equals to 7 GIGS. Is it possible to recover the extra 4 GIGS of disk space? I was just wondering.

I've emptied out the recycle bin, used the disk cleanup and nothing worked. Is there a solution to recover the extra 4 gig disk space?

Thanks.

[snafumaster]

When you ran the windows "disk cleanup" utility, did you click the "More Options" tab? On that tab, there are three options. The bottom one is to clear out all but the last system restore "restore point". If you are certain that you will not need to go back to an earlier point, you can clear that out and free up some significant space.

If you are indeed using system resore, you can also change the setting for the amount of hard drive space windows is alowed to use for restore points. This is found by right clicking "My Computer" and selecting "properties", then click the "System Restore" tab. On that tab, you should see a slider. On this desktop I am on now, it is set to 12%, which because of the size of this hard drive it adds up to 4.7Gb of space.

As for your restore partition, they are often protected from windows deletion. However, you should be able to use a third part partion utility or a boot disk and delete that partition. I wouldn't do it unless you have a comparable Windows Install CD or you could find yourself in a pickle down the road. Me personally, I do have licensed windows install CDs and it is one of the first things I do when I get a new machine. I actually go a step further and wipe out the entire hard drive and partion it and do MY own istall.

Hope that helps.

[Thunderbolt 2864]

Thanks for your help. That worked perfectly.