Please can anyone help ??

[tickover]

Hi All names Terry 78 yrs from Plymouth UK. Have just been given a used Laptop by the family [my first attempt at computing] and hope to store my Aircraft photos on it [ one day HI] Its a HP Compaq nx 6110 with win 7, 2gb Ram ,and 37.2gb of memory i am told

Now to my problem,Local disk C: with the 37.2 gb is almost full ,it says i have only 9gb free space, there is nothing else on the Laptop,no programs etc , so surely win 7 does not use all the rest of the drive namely 37.2 minus 9 ==28.2gb, or am i looking at it to simply???

i have the win7 disk and key number , do i start again or physically remove the drive and replace? any help much appreciated Regards Terry [tickover]

[KenB]

Hi Terry and welcome to ExTS.

 

78 year old ........starbuck [ Admin here ] isn't far behind you :)

 

I assume that your family upgraded that laptop ? With a hard drive that size I suspect it originally had XP on it.

 

there is nothing else on the Laptop,no programs etc

No - Win 7 will not take up 28GB on installation - but other things may.

Microsoft Updates can take up some space

AntiVirus logs - especially Norton or McAfee

 

1. If you are going to use this for internet use ......you DO have an AntiVirus running ? [ Which one ? ]

 

2. Let's take a look and see if we can get rid of some unnecessary files etc.

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup

Follow the prompts here and let me know how much free space you have after this.

 

3. Download TFC from here:

click here

 

Install and run it. It will help you clear out temp files that aren't needed.

 

4. Click on the Recycle Bin [ Desktop ]

File > Empty Recycle Bin

 

Let us know how much free space there is now.

 

5. Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features

This will tell you what programs are installed.

It is possible to remove them to create space - but you MUST know what it is you are removing first.

 

====================

 

Just as an add-on ..... it is possible to get an external hard drive that plugs into the USB port of the laptop.

If you are storing photos then you really need them backed up in 2 places ......just in case.

External drives are quite cheap .....

 

click here

[Starbuck]

78 year old ........starbuck [ Admin here ] isn't far behind you

I don't look a day over 21:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/old_man.jpg

 

Ken is actually correct ( for a change :) )

I don't have anything installed on my Win7 system that i don't really need ( just the bare essentials) but i've still used 46GB of hard drive space.

SP1 for Win7 is not a small download.... so this will eat into your space.

As will all the MS updates.

I think you may well struggle keeping Win7 up to date with that hard drive.

 

Have just updated MBAM and the new definitions total over 6MB.... and that's just one program.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Starbuck

[Plastic Nev]

To add to good advice so far, you mention the possibility of replacing the drive. It is quite possible to do do so and fit a much larger one, therefore giving more space.

 

You can then use that Windows 7 disk to install Windows 7 onto the new drive.

 

That though will mean any existing stuff on the old drive may be lost. However it can be copied over to the new drive as one complete move, including the Windows 7 operating system as well.

 

To do so the easiest way, is to first create a copy of the existing drive, which will require an external hard drive to put it on, but that is something you could borrow for this.

Next is the physical removal of the old and fitting the new, then installing the copy onto it off the external drive.

 

all of that will require using what is called Imaging software to first create the copy, and then transfer the copy to the new drive.

 

If you fancy having a go at that, myself and Ken plus Starbuck, can assist as we all use an imaging software called Macrium Reflect, which is a free program ideal for doing that job.

 

Nev.

[rach8890]

have you tried to free up your disk space by going to all programms accessories system tools and disk cleanup

[KenB]

have you tried to free up your disk space by going to all programms accessories system tools and disk cleanup

 

Isn't that what I wrote in post #2 ?

2. Let's take a look and see if we can get rid of some unnecessary files etc.

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup

Follow the prompts here and let me know how much free space you have after this.