Re: SP2 is TOO BIG TO DOWNLOAD -- where can I save space?

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Donald McDaniel (orthocrossNOSPAM_at_cablespeedDOTcom.invalid)
Date: 08/25/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:48:14 -0700

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:58:49 -0400, "Frank D. Nicodem, Jr."
<Mail@FrankNicodem.com> wrote:

>My automatic download of SP2 started this morning -- and completely wiped
>out the 600MB of free space I had left on my C: drive! I was rather
>started, since the only information I had from the Microsoft Web site was
>that this was a 233MB download. However, after some searching around the
>Microsoft site this morning, I found the following statement:
>What to Expect
>Hard disk space: You need at least 1.8 gigabytes (GB) of free space on your
>hard disk.
>
>Say *WHAT*??? 1.8GB???? What the *heck* is in this thing, anyway? I don't
>HAVE 1.8GB of free space left. So that brings up three questions:
>
>1) Is there any way to do this update "in steps", so that it doesn't require
>all that space at once?
>2) Is there any way to use another drive/partition for this download, rather
>than C:?
>3) What can I "clean up", that would give me more space? How many of these
>files (and files from past updates) are "temporary", and are just saved on
>C: for possible future reference?
>
>Here are examples of directories that have *tons* of files, and take up huge
>amounts of space. I'm wondering what they are, and if they can be removed.
>(I've had my XP system for two years, and have been doing regular updates
>that entire time. I suspect that's why I have do much "lying around"...)
>
>C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution -- 6 folders, over 650MB of space!! (and
>this is where the SP2 download is currently downloading, it seems)
>C:\Windows\Installer -- 193 folders, almost 200MB
>C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\I386 -- over 1100 files, 260MB
>C:\Windows\$NtUninstall* -- 56 folders, mostly small but some are many MB
>C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations -- 3 folders, over 40MB
>
>Are there any other areas I should look into? How about my
>C:\Windows\System32 folder? Just in that folder alone there are almost 3000
>files, totalling almost 500MB!!! Is there any way to "clean out" ones that
>aren't needed any more?
>
>I believe that there are a LOT of files that have accumulated over two
>years -- and ones which simply aren't needed. I've always done all of the
>"normal" maintenance to keep my drives clean, but now I apparently need some
>*significant* help. ALL SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>Frank Nicodem
>Mail@FrankNicodem.com
>
This is my suggestion: If you're looking for space in 40mb chunks,
you definitely need a new, bigger HD. Hard drives are cheap these
days.

XP was not created for 2gig hard drives, it was created for 40gig+
hard drives.

By the way, the reason SP2 needs at least 1.8gig free space is that it
is delivered in compressed form, and needs the space to uncompress the
installation files. It also needs the space for copying, moving, and
deleting other files. It needs space for backing up your current
system files. It needs SPACE.

Donald L McDaniel
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