Freeing up space .zip and .exe files
 

I've liberated a bunch of memory on my "C" drive today. Went though:

C\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES

C\MY DOWNLOAD FILES

..........eliminated of a bunch of .zip and .exe files.

So far, so good.

My thinking was like this: all the improtant functional stuff in is the C\PROGRAM FILES folder anyway.

However when I look into the PROGRAM FILE folders, there are many more .zip and .exe files, do I still need these?

I've made copies on to CD of everything I've deleted just in case I go too far and screw something up. I would certainly take the same precautions when dealing with "program files", all software is legal and in disk form already - don't want to reload and update anything I don't have to.

Question recap:
Do I need to retain the .zip and .exe files in the PROGRAM FILES folder?

NOTE: I'm not a computer guy by nature, pretty much a I.T. novice. I think I've freed up 25% of my C drive already, pretty happy with this progress and willing to leave well enough alone.

*pick myself up off floor*

Ummmmm....YES, you need those files. Those .exe files ARE the program files. Randomly deleting files to free disk space is a very poor idea.

Open control panel--->add remove programs.

Look for application you are no using and delete them. The method you are using now could actually result in more data being orphaned on the drive because uninstall process is never run.

Okay, I'm not going to touch anything in the PROGRAM FILES folder.

Most of the .zip folders I got rid of were for old project files (AutoCad) that have been saved to CD's already. Think of it as cleaning up old e-mails.

The major space savings I found were 100 large AutoCad files in which copies, backups and log files were put into a temporary folder when a guy I hired took it upon himself to reset AutoCad. His computer started to save copies in all the wrong places. I thought I had cleaned up the mess three years ago.

Kach,

How old is the computer? How long have you been using it as it is now?

I format my "C" drive at least every year, usually a bit sooner. So much crap builds up on the drive that cleaning it the way you are doing it takes longer than stripping and reinstalling the OS and programs you use. I as well either partition the HD or use two hard drives in the computer. All data possible is on the "D" drive so that when I format "C" I do not have to back up anything.

As well, I back up my entire system on a regular schedule, either throught the network on a second desktop, laptop or USB 250 gig stand alone drive. The day you do not backup, something will puke and it will take weeks to restore everything.

Joe A

Edit, remember that when you delete files, nothing happens until you empty the recycle bin. After doing this, then defrag the puppy and get it back up to speed.

Jeez Joe....the day they force you out of the pilots seat, give me a call. We can always use more support techs. You know more than half of the 21 year old dorks who call themselves 'technicians'

Five years old, Windows 98 SE.

I keep the largest data files (AutoCad) on the "D" drive - about 90% open free space - everything is backed up on CD's. I want to get one of those back up drives soon - which is why I've backed up to CD's and have been tweaking the avaliable space - just to get a requirements benchmark.

Some Word and picture files, along with "Program files" are on the "C" drive which is now 70% open free space. I'm not sure but I think it was only 30% free space before I started - wish I had checked first instead of in the middle of things.

As I said I'm not going to give fate any temptation - leaving the .exe's alone in the PROGRAM FILES area. However, I'm confused why I have .zip files there. I think that before I created a special folder for downloads and temporary files I put everything in the PROGRAM FILES area not knowing any better. I'm not sure because that would of been 3-1/2 to 5 years ago. The human side of me is also growning short on memory - not much to upgrade there.;)

Alot of stuff that you may have downloaded over the past 5 yrs probably came in the .zip format; alot (most?) of these will "unzip" their setup and data files into a new folder automatically, and from there you'll use the data or run the setup.exe or whatever.
The orig. compressed download (.zip) will stay wherever you downloaded it to unless you manually delete it.

HD,

I actually would love to do that. Not going to really tell everyone how much of an old fart I am, but I my first computer training was in 1973 on an IBM 360! We used COBOL and FORTRAN, with programming cards and jumper wires... Computer took up an entire room...

I build computers in my spare time and do all the setups and networking for the people I work with. Stripping a hard drive and reinstalling the OS and programs is a set fee... one large bottle of Gran Marnier! :)

Take care,

Joe

Edit, considering your Pelican name, thought I would tell you of a flight I had a few years ago. Went down to Cabo San Lucas to pick a client up. Did not know the gent. Got him and his family on board and flew to San Diego to clear Customs, then were to continue to San Jose.

While waiting for them to arrive at the airplane we talked a bit and I asked him what business he was in. He said hard drive technology. Did not push him much but he then said that he was one of the people who developed the hard drive. His name was Finnis Connor, the owner of Seagate and Connor hard drive companies... Customs came shortly afterward and we ended our conversation. Nice guy and would have loved to have spent some time talking tech stuff with him!

Kach,

To tell the truth, if the computer is this old its just a matter of time. Five years on the orginal load of W98 is a very long time. Everyone is correct that it can be very dangerous working in the Program Files section. Only the registry is worse and neither are for the faint of heart.

Personally I would like to see you do what Zeke just did recently, and find a deal on a newer unit. Keep the one you have today and network the two together. Costs less than $50 to do this. You could then backup all your important data on the old unit. You can find good deals on them for $4-500 or so if you keep your eyes open.

Problem with your current computer is that if the unit is this old, the power supply has seen better days, as has the hard drive. MTBF (failure time) on the older drives is not what it is today, and its just a matter of time. My flight attendent just lost the hard drive on her personal desktop last week. It was 4 years old and died without warning when she tried to turn it on one morning, and she lost some data that was not backed up. As well I have seen power supplies fail on older units (have lost 3 myself, and other friends the same) and putting too much money in an older computer may not be worth it in the long run.

Now, if you really want to keep the old computer, lets spend $125 or so on it in a tuneup. Get a good deal locally or on the internet on a new 30 or 40 gig hard drive, and I would look for a 7200 rpm version. Your current hard drive is probably 5 gig at max and if you are lucky its 3500 rpm. This means that a new drive would access data 3 times faster, and hold a lot more information. Put the new drive in your computer as the "C" drive, and set the jumpers on your old "C or D" drive as the "D" drive, whichever one you want to keep in the computer.

Next, check and see how much RAM you have installed. Am betting its 128k, possibly 256k. See what kind of motherboard you have installed and try to find out if it will accept 512k. The BIOS on your motherboard may not accept 512 but would hope it could. More RAM means that programs can run off of the RAM and not the hard drive, making it faster.

After doing this, please look into upgrading to W2000 or XP. I do not like XP as much as it does so many things in the background, but it will run older versions of programs, something that W2000 may not. That said, W2000 is the upgraded version of W/NT and you almost never see a crash or "BSOD" (blue screen of death, meaning a system crash) with this OS.

None of this is rocket science and glad to help if you need it. There are a lot of us on the forum with descent experience in this area.

Joe

YIKES!!! Yes, FDISK, format and reload. The entire Windows 9X family was famous for needing this type of annual maintenance.

Also, let me further emphasize the good advice Joe gave about a tune up. Since you have Windows 98, you are limited to the amount of memory it can effectively access. I can't remember if it is 128 or 256 mb. Anything beyond that won't buy you much performance. The hard drive is where you can see noticeable improvement. I haven't seen a 7,200 RPM drive under 80 Gb but they are worth every penny. And if you do buy a newer laptop in the future, it will probably be a better drive than what comes with it.

Thanks for the input Joeaksa, HardDrive, 928ram and Halm. I'm printing off this thread and sticking it on the wall, it's given me a lot to think about.

First off, I think I was off in my first guess - too optismistic, probably no where near 25% space saved. The last thing I did saved me only 2% and I thought it was a lot of luggage I got rid of.

I think I'm in good shape now:

70% free memory space on "C-Drive"

Over 90% free memory space on "D-Drive"

............and RAM at 58% free.

Over five years I've had the mother board changed out twice (failures long time ago) with a memory upgrade last time - and I think a matching powersupply (must check old invoice). This was one tier down from top of the line when I purchased it - I'm sure the entry stuff is more advanced now.

Is it time to upgrade or replace this computer?

C:
3.24 GB used
4.67 GB free
7.91 GB capacity

D:
1.22 GB used
19.3 GB free
20.5 GB capacity

AMD Athlon XP 1800 + 256.0 MB.................and RAM at 58% free.

Note; I'm not a "gamer" and never intend to be.

However with things like AD-Aware, Spybot (search and destroy), Trend Micro PC-Cillin able to run in the background; the world is a little different place than when I first purchased this computer.

I'm open to more suggestions, however if it ain't broke don't fix it comes to mind.

Then again from what I've been reading I'm on borrowed time already.

Kach,

Another reason to upgrade is that Microsoft has stopped all support of W98. That means that if the hackers and virus pukes find another hole in the OS Microsoft will not make a patch or fix for it. You are on your own from here on out with W98.

Not a good situation but MS does not care. Its their way of forcing us to move on and while I do not like it, being with a OS that is more current is more secure.

Halm, thanks for reminding us about the memory issue. Been a few years since I worked with W98 and had forgotten about that!

Joe

Kach,

From what you posted above, I would look at replacing the "C" drive. Its old, slow and small. The newer ones are faster, more room and important is that the cache is much larger, which speeds data throughput. The MB and power supply have been replaced and you might get another year or two out of them.

The 1800 Athleon is not a bad chip and with a fast "C" drive, more RAM and an OS that can use it, believe you would be very happy. You will see more of a performance gain with a faster hard drive and RAM, not the main chip unless you are doing a lot of gaming or complex math processes.

You could get by with a new hard drive, some RAM and W2000 or XP. Buy the software (or better borrow a copy) cheaply and the rest should cost more than $100 to $150. Will make a big difference.

Joe

almost certain that win98se cannot run anything beyond 128 megs of ram..
ryan

Kach,

It is time to replace the computer. You can always mount your old hard drive in the the new one, or put it in an external drive enclosure to get the data off.

Windows 98 is not secure. If you are using your credit card online AT ALL, you should not be doing it from a Windows 98 box.

If you need to free space, and are not a techie, you could do worse than use crap cleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/). Avoid doing anything with the registry though.

I have one customer that had 500+M worth of temporary files hidden away.

yup..keep the old hard drive and just install it as a second drive in a new desktop..
ryan

Kach,
Watch the Dell Factory Outlet (http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb&DGVCode=IR) and Hot Deals on the Small Business page (http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd). There are always some great deals if you will wait a few days for them to pop up.

Yeah, Anything running Win 98 should be put to pasture or used for some specific purpose (some sort of server) that's not terribly important.

You can get a new PC for $500 that'll run circles around the old one. I just bought a 160Gig drive for $50 about a week ago.