Hey guys? Hamstergirl has hard drive questions....

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Hey guys? Hamstergirl has hard drive questions....

(17 posts) (14 voices)

Started 14 years ago by hamstergirl
Latest reply from midori

hamstergirl
Member

Okay, let's take care of the hello part -

Hello!

There. Done. Naw, just kidding, but let's get the hard drive question out of the way...

When I first came here, 2+ years ago, my comp had a whopping 10g of memory...O.o After getting a new machine with 450g AND a Seagate external hard drive with 500g, you could probably hears my cackles of glee every time I dl'd another GOTD program...no WAY could I ever use all that memory up...or could I? Well, get involved with 3D programs and content, and just watch that little blue disk fill up...

Having that Seagate hd has saved my butt after a crash several times (and 3 machines) over. If its a program I can reinstall from a disk, it gets put on the C drive - everything else - like all my 3D content - goes to the Seagate.

Here's what I need to know - Whenever I dl'd a program from GOTD, I would install it directly to the external hd - I have more than a few giveaway's that kept working after having to reformat a machine - I would just unplug the Seagate, reinstall the OS, plug the Seagate back in, and hope for the best. Some progs survived, some reverted back to a trial, and others.....uh, well SOOL pretty much covers those, LOL.

I need to get all those dead dogs off my hd - I've got a LOT of them....can I just delete them? Or do I have to uninstall them? Naturally, none of them appear in the main Programs & Features list - some of these old progs go back to my original 10G XP machine - but many do have an "uninstall.exe" in their system's directories. If it makes any difference, I'm running Vista HP 64 bit.

Also, how many gigs of space does one need to leave empty on a hd? You can't just fill it up completely...right? *sigh*...there are times when I wish I had never even heard the word "computer", LOL....

As for me....well, I still come by - somebody's got to keep tabs on you guys, LOL - I just don't post often. Whenever I get into something, I go overboard...Daz Studio and Poser is my current obsession, and its all I can do to keep up with that forum - how some of you stay active in multiple forums, still escapes me, heh heh...And, if anyone is interested, you can see my gallery at DA - just clickie under my name here... I wish I could say I'm doing well, but...I'm not. I just lost my roommate - and best friend - to cancer about 10 days ago. We've been friends for 25 years, and roomies for the last 5...and I miss her terribly.....

Okay, enough of that...I would appreciate any help anyone can give me - thanks,
hamstergirl

Posted 14 years ago #
giveawayfan
Member

Let go and delete them. They are stray, no use any longer. Cheers from IT Tech.

Posted 14 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

You should use the uninstall feature whenever possible.

Others may require more digging to get rid of since they obviously had left over entries on your pre-reformatted drive. I'm feeling way too lightheaded and in too much pain to get into great detail, but I would definitely use Revo Uninstaller to try to get rid of all traces of the programs.

Sorry to hear about your friend. I just found out that there is a 99% chance my father has cancer. Hopefully, his will be treatable and I won't have to go through the pain and heartache that you did.

Wishing you well from Oz,
AH

Posted 14 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

Hi hamstergirl, nice to see you again.
I'm truly sorry to hear that your friend lost her fight against cancer. Though you miss her terribly now, that wonderful long friendship will be a part of your life forever. Take care of you!

To your question,(like giveawayfan wrote before) just delete the useless programme-files from your external drive, after you made a reformat nothing of them is left on your C: drive. You can be sure the next re-run will come soon on GOTD.

Have a good day or night

graylox

Posted 14 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

Sorry, haven't seen wizzard's post. He is right, when you have broken programmes on the C: drive you have to uninstall them. Even for deleting from the external drive, the Revo Hunter Mode is the best method to delete all remains.

graylox

Posted 14 years ago #
notblocklox
retired

wizz best wishes to your dad and you.

Posted 14 years ago #
copmom
Member

hi hamstergirl.. glad to see you posting, but sad about your friend. I'd always been told a rule of thumb is to not let your hard drive get any lower than 10% of it's capacity. And yes, Revo uninstaller works wonders getting rid of all the drips and drabs left over even after using a programs uninstall.

Posted 14 years ago #
clobermier
Member

Hi, Hamstergirl,

I remember many of your posts from the past, because you led me to some very cool art programs. Like the others have already said, I'd use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of the bulk of old programs you don't use or want, or even just uninstall if the program has that option and Revo doesn't see it.

I'm sorry about your roommate. My mom just died on February 19th of this year from a rare form of cancer, and I don't know that the pain and grief will ever truly ease up the way people say it will. I will always miss her, that's for sure. My heart goes out to you.

Cindy O.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Hi Hamstergirl, nice to see you, though I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. And to Wizzard, I keep my fingers crossed that it's been caught early.

As for your questions, I'd firstly use all the uninstallers that are still present in the programs you definitely want to lose, then I'd find a decent freeware program and clean out your registry of any orphan keys, then defragment it before backing it up. One way to do this without using a proprietary program is to enter the registry via the regedit command and back up the software hives from both the Current User and Local Machine; though if you can find a freeware registry editor that will also back up your registry I’d go for that as it’s less messy. Once that’s done I’d ensure all the programs you want to keep are backed up before wiping your Hard Drive fully via a complete format.

I'd back up everything you want to keep (on both DVD and the external) and format the disc. Get rid of all that crud and start afresh. I'd then transfer everything you want to keep on the exteral and the fomat that. You can then transfer the files you moved over to your computer back to the external drive.

There's nothing more pleasurable to a computer nurd than getting rid of all that crud and ending up with a clean HDD ready to start re filling. (hands wringing, lol) That’s just my way though. I’m sure others would find easier routes to housekeeping your computer. There are loads of great programs some free that will give you a full back up of your computer. I bought Acronis Tru Image when it was on special offer over the Christmas period and still haven’t bothered using it. Once I’ve completed my format and reinstallation of all my favorite (and essential programs I’m definitely going to use acronis to get an image. That’ll make it easier to recover my system if I need to restore again.

I hope I’ve been of some help to you. :)

I know what you mean about devoting time to only one forum. I was an administrator on one Battlefield fan site and moderator on two others, and was about to take up a post on one of the biggest BF2 sites when I discovered the giveaway forums. I’m no longer admin or moderator on any of those sites, simply because I couldn’t devote the time I used to, once discovering this site. It’s hard to forum jump (IMO)

As for the amount of disc Space you need to leave clean on a hard drive. Phil from the comments section only today said you should leave at least a fifth of your HDD empty. I personally don’t agree with that inflated figure unless you have a very small HDD, which you don’t. Imagine leaving 100Gb empty on a 500Gb HDD; Ludicrous. I usually leave several Gigs, which covers any space windows requires for file transfers, paging, defragging etc.

Posted 14 years ago #
delenn13
Minbari Ambassador

Sorry to hear about your friend, Hamstergirl. You too, wizz. Good luck.

Most things have already been discussed and it's good advice. I can only add to the fact as the wrascally Wabbit said..Back up your Registry. I use ERUNT-The Emergency Recovery Utility NT I have never used NTREGOPT(the Optimizer) but Erunt has saved my butt a few times. And the best thing..it's free.

Best of luck and I hope the exercise wheel in your little cage is soon spinning happily.

Posted 14 years ago #
Archangel
Member

Hey there Hamstergirl. Its been a very long time!! Uninstall them. Then go back and make for sure all the empty folders are gone.

Posted 14 years ago #
Buckleysmom
Member

Wow Hamstergirl! Another blast from the past! Good to see you again. My sympathies on the loss of your dear friend. You're in my prayers.

Like Copmom I too use Revo Uninstaller....it's fantastic and I've never had one single problem with it. Plus it's free....can't beat that price.

Again, good to see you back.......stick around!

HUGS
BK

Posted 14 years ago #
ldahl
Member

Hi HG! So sorry to hear about your friend. Hang in there and keep the wheel turning.
LD

Posted 14 years ago #
watcher13
Member

Can't disagree with the good advice here. Will add my vote for Revo and Erunt. Some other thoughts occur to me. As you may know, not all files associated with a program are in the program's folder. In XP, there's a folder in C: called Documents and Settings, and in Vista there's one called Program Data. There's also one for every user in C:\Users in Vista called AppData. Check those for folders dedicated to the programs you've dumped and you can delete those, too. Of course, that will create more dead keys in your registry. But, whatta you gonna do? If Windows kept itself clean, now THAT would be a newstory. A real man bites dog! I'm assuming you already delete anything on your system with the extension .tmp. Obviously, temporary files.

As to how much space on your hard drive, if you get below the standard size of your page file - your virtual memory size - well, by that time, you've probably already crashed. I've seen recommendations of at least 3 times the page file, but I'd be concerned long before that. For example, my system recommends about 1.3 gigs. So, if I got under 5 gigs, crashes are just around the corner. Me, I'd start getting worried if I got under 5 times the size. So, if I were anywhere near 5 gigs, I'd be cleaning like crazy. Of course, crashes aren't guaranteed. Windows can adjust the page file down, but, sooner or later, it won't be able to compensate anymore, and you just won't be able to run without very frequent slowdowns and crashes. So taking you're page file size into account is the absolute, emergency minimum you should even contemplate.

Posted 14 years ago #
Archangel
Member

While were on the Registry Subject (thanks watcher13) IMO "RegCure" is one of the best registry cleaners whether your a beginner or expert.

Oh hamstergirl I too am sorry for the loss of your friend. I lost an old partner late last year myself and know how it feels. Keep that furry little chin up, I know you can do it.

Jay
Archangel

Posted 14 years ago #
LeKanaw
Member

Hello HG

Wow, it has been quite some time. We missed you!!! Very glad to hear from you again.
Cant help you •at all• w your tech problems as compared w the ppl 'round here, I know absolutely nothing!!

Just wanted to say I'm very sorry about your friend.
Its always tough to lose someone we love. Most often it keeps on being hard to deal w the loss for a very long time. Only time eases the pain a little. I've found that keeping busy has helped me.

Hope to see u around more often.
Peace
Mangoette

Posted 14 years ago #
midori
Member

Hi, hamstergirl... I'm pretty new here, and I'm sure others have answered your technical questions. I just wanted to give you my heartfelt "hang in there" wishes on the loss of your friend. My sis is going through her second trial of cancer right now, but my hopes are high. Some of us can beat it longer than others, and often win. My true condolences, and cherish what has past between you. It's always a part of you. And wizz, I hope this is an early catch. Miracles can happen when it is. Best to you, my friend.

Posted 14 years ago #

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