Re: Need to delete unused programs, but program list removal not worki
- From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:21:21 -0700
On Sat, 8 Sep 2007 23:32:01 -0700, mia vai
<miavai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I got an old laptop from my friend. It only has 3 gb of memory.
I was about to reply "*only* 3GB? 3GB is an extremely large amount of
memory."
Most of the
memory has been taken up by duplicate programs that I do not need.
Then I read that sentence. Please do not mix up the terms "memory" and
hard drive space." They are two very different things. You presumably
have 3GB of hard drive space, not memory. Memory is RAM, the thing
that you probably have 128MB or 256MB of.
I tried
many ways to get rid of them: deleting from the program list (computer
prompts me to insert program disk, which I don't have), deleting from the
core files (which I don't really want to do, because I am not that savy.)
3GB is an impossibly tiny amount of disk space to run Windows XP. If
you really have that little, you should either replace the drive with
a larger one (probably not cost-effective for an old machine) or run
Windows 98 on it.
Also note that a computer so old that it has only 3GB of disk space is
probably inadequate for Windows XP in other ways, and will be
extremely slow
I
am also unable to format the hard drive. I attempted it, but it did not
work. Any suggestions?
Yes. Do not try to run Windows XP on such an old and small computer.
Regarding formatting the hard drive, when you ask a question saying
"it did not work," you need to give us much more information to help
you. What does "What does "it did not work" mean? How did you try to
do it? What happens when you try? If you get an error message, please
quote it verbatim.
For information on how to make a good newsgroup posting, read
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm and
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
But I'll take a guess that you tried to format the drive from within
Windows. You can't format the Windows drive from within Windows, since
that would leave Windows without a leg to stand on.
Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).
You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm
or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm
or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm
But reformatting and reinstalling isn't the solution to your problems.
As I said above, you either should run Windows 98, or upgrade the
computer (probably at leas the hard drive and RAM). Since upgrading is
highly unlikely to be cost-effective, you also should consider junking
it and buy a new inexpensive computer.
--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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