lack of hard drive space

apoap · 07-20-2005, 05:38 AM

hello, the windows xp i was using recently failed to load so i ran the windows system recovery. now windows is up again with all my data files intact(profile), but all the programs have gone.

the problem is, i noticed that there's only 10MB of hard disk space left. i have a hard disk of around 140GB, but previously before windows crashed, i had around 100 GB of free space. now, only 10MB is left. i tried running a software(windirstat) to determine what folders 'ate' up most of the space and i found out the following:

assuming each of my profiles is around 40GB(including my documents, etc)
i discovered that my profile is duplicated three times - once in the 'documents and settings' folder (Owner and Default User have the same data there)
and also under Windows/system32/config/systemprofile

should i delete those files manually? or should i get a program to do it for me(seems like i can't delete it via any system software in windows) or do i need to backup my files and reinstall windows?

i tried checking out the userprofiles in windows but i could only find 'Owner' but not 'Default User'...

thanks a lot for your help :)

Chevy · 07-20-2005, 08:43 PM

Default User is the profile applied to each new account (along with any adds from All Users). I'm gonna go with this:

Delete The Default User folder and the systemprofile folder.

Then, do a repair installation. It should rebuild those folders to their defaults.

yto_daniel · 07-20-2005, 08:48 PM

I would find out which folders in documents and settings are taking up all of the space, if they are the temporary directories, or documents folders, you can proceed to clean those out as you see fit.

Daniel - YourTechOnline.com technician

07-20-2005, 05:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
apoap Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1 OS: Win XP	lack of hard drive space hello, the windows xp i was using recently failed to load so i ran the windows system recovery. now windows is up again with all my data files intact(profile), but all the programs have gone. the problem is, i noticed that there's only 10MB of hard disk space left. i have a hard disk of around 140GB, but previously before windows crashed, i had around 100 GB of free space. now, only 10MB is left. i tried running a software(windirstat) to determine what folders 'ate' up most of the space and i found out the following: assuming each of my profiles is around 40GB(including my documents, etc) i discovered that my profile is duplicated three times - once in the 'documents and settings' folder (Owner and Default User have the same data there) and also under Windows/system32/config/systemprofile should i delete those files manually? or should i get a program to do it for me(seems like i can't delete it via any system software in windows) or do i need to backup my files and reinstall windows? i tried checking out the userprofiles in windows but i could only find 'Owner' but not 'Default User'... thanks a lot for your help :)

07-20-2005, 08:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
Chevy Semi-Retired Manager, Microsoft Support Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Notlob Posts: 5,183 OS: Vista Ultimate My System	Default User is the profile applied to each new account (along with any adds from All Users). I'm gonna go with this: Delete The Default User folder and the systemprofile folder. Then, do a repair installation. It should rebuild those folders to their defaults. __________________ “The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. ” - Robert Bloch

07-20-2005, 08:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
yto_daniel Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 41 OS: WinXP,98SE,2000,Linux	I would find out which folders in documents and settings are taking up all of the space, if they are the temporary directories, or documents folders, you can proceed to clean those out as you see fit. Daniel - YourTechOnline.com technician