finding unused disc space

**pmarc** · August 31st, 2011, 03:38 PM

Right-clicking my c:/ drive shows 83 % is being used. But I only have 150mb of programs!?

This is confirmed inspecting ADD/REMOVE software in CTRL PANEL. And chkdsk says the same.

It's a 20gb HD and I just can not find where the rest of the data is.

**Niclo Iste** · August 31st, 2011, 04:44 PM

I would hazard a guess that it's mostly windows with a slight touch of temporary files using the rest.

A 20GB drive is pretty small by todays standards not to mention windows xp with all the updates and service packs will eat up roughly 10+ GB depending on what you have configured.

**pmarc** · August 31st, 2011, 05:15 PM

Hey, NICLO - I didn't want to bog you down with yet another issue. But thanx.

Actually, I downloaded a disc "visualizer" that showed me where the stuff was - my kid's 7gb if Itunes! Inside very non-descript folders.

By the way, anyone know if / how you can get rid of earlier Win service packs? Why keep em if you have the latest? Deleting them gets a error messg: other programs are using them... Oh, well.

**slgrieb** · August 31st, 2011, 07:26 PM

Actually, a Service Pack contains all previous updates,so if you already have them in place, it doesn't duplicate them; so you're not losing space.

**Ferrit** · September 1st, 2011, 09:00 AM

Get a bigger harddrive. The fact that you have a 20 gig and it still is actually running is a miracle considering the age it must be. I suggest replacing it as quickly as possible to avoid data loss

**xpuser357** · September 4th, 2011, 09:40 AM

And you can use acronis to clone to your other drive so you will not miss a thing

**Guts3d** · September 5th, 2011, 03:18 AM

As usual, Ferrit and Niclo are correct. Hard drives are dirt cheap nowadays, and IDE drives even moreso as they are outdated and slower, ergo less in demand.