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NEED HELP!!! Computer problems!!

Posted: 2003-08-06 06:41pm
by Enigma
Don't laugh but I use WIN ME. The problem started a few days ago. I cleared some space in hard drive because I was low on space. But WIN ME still says I only have 230MB when I should have at least 1.5 and 2 GB. Virus scan comes up empty. What would cause this problem???

Re: NEED HELP!!! Computer problems!!

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:00pm
by Solamnus
Enigma wrote:Don't laugh but I use WIN ME.
Hahahaha.
The problem started a few days ago. I cleared some space in hard drive because I was low on space. But WIN ME still says I only have 230MB when I should have at least 1.5 and 2 GB. Virus scan comes up empty. What would cause this problem???
What do you mean by cleared? Did you delete programs? You might want to check out your System Restore options and see how much space that is taking up. One time I kept adding and removing programs trying to get my computer back to a 'good' state with WIN ME but everytime I restored my computer to an earlier state, it would save the info on the hard drive (like System Restore is suposed to do). Basically I guess it kept creating Restore points. Check to see how much space you allocate to System Restore and if you turn it off, it should release all that space. But keep in mind, it will erase all of your restore points!

Re: NEED HELP!!! Computer problems!!

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:00pm
by Darth Wong
Enigma wrote:Don't laugh but I use WIN ME. The problem started a few days ago. I cleared some space in hard drive because I was low on space. But WIN ME still says I only have 230MB when I should have at least 1.5 and 2 GB. Virus scan comes up empty. What would cause this problem???
Maybe your files are sitting in the Recycle bin. If that's empty, then maybe you have a shitload of stuff in your temp directories.

Not knowing just how incompetent you are with a computer, it's hard to make an educated guess :wink:

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:05pm
by Joe
1) Get XP or 2000 pronto. WinME eats it like nothing else in the world.

2) Try rebooting. I have this problem pretty often on the Win98 system I have to use in the summer and when I reboot a few times it goes away.

Re: NEED HELP!!! Computer problems!!

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:06pm
by Enigma
Darth Wong wrote:
Enigma wrote:Don't laugh but I use WIN ME. The problem started a few days ago. I cleared some space in hard drive because I was low on space. But WIN ME still says I only have 230MB when I should have at least 1.5 and 2 GB. Virus scan comes up empty. What would cause this problem???
Maybe your files are sitting in the Recycle bin. If that's empty, then maybe you have a shitload of stuff in your temp directories.

Not knowing just how incompetent you are with a computer, it's hard to make an educated guess :wink:

I don't use system restore, I configured the Recycling Bin to automatically delete all files sent to it and I have a simple batch file that when I double click it, it empties all temp folders. I can't figure out why? I haven't done anything different to the computer and this problem pops up.

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:07pm
by Enigma
Durran Korr wrote:1) Get XP or 2000 pronto. WinME eats it like nothing else in the world.

2) Try rebooting. I have this problem pretty often on the Win98 system I have to use in the summer and when I reboot a few times it goes away.
I've rebooted several times and even shut down the computer for an hour but the problem is still there.

Posted: 2003-08-06 07:09pm
by Darth Wong
OK, how do you know you should have 1.5-2GB free?

Posted: 2003-08-06 10:01pm
by Enigma
Darth Wong wrote:OK, how do you know you should have 1.5-2GB free?
I had removed several files and programs totalling about 1.5GB and I had around at least 500MB free.

Posted: 2003-08-06 10:33pm
by Xon
Enigma wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:OK, how do you know you should have 1.5-2GB free?
I had removed several files and programs totalling about 1.5GB and I had around at least 500MB free.
If you just uninstalled them, it probable left a bunch of junk.

Just manuelly go & delete the left over crap.

Posted: 2003-08-06 10:46pm
by Darth Wong
Enigma wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:OK, how do you know you should have 1.5-2GB free?
I had removed several files and programs totalling about 1.5GB and I had around at least 500MB free.
Have you run a Scandisk to make sure that nothing went wrong during the deletion, thus leaving you with a shitload of reserved but unallocated blocks on your Windows ME primitive kludge FAT32 wheezing pathetic joke of a filesystem? That sort of thing used to be quite common on DOS, and WinME still uses the DOS filesystem.

Posted: 2003-08-06 10:50pm
by jegs2
Durran Korr wrote:1) Get XP or 2000 pronto. WinME eats it like nothing else in the world.
I'll second that. Win XP forces you to register each copy and makes it difficult to upgrade, but I've found it very stable as an OS.

Posted: 2003-08-06 11:11pm
by Stormbringer
moved to G&C

Posted: 2003-08-06 11:23pm
by aerius
Enigma wrote:I've rebooted several times and even shut down the computer for an hour but the problem is still there.
It's because you touch yourself at night. :P

Sorry, couldn't help it. But seriously, run Scandisk, Norton Disc Doctor, or some other disc checking program. My old computer would always give me some BS about how it was out of space when the HD was less than 1/2 full, or it would say I had extra space I didn't have. For some reason I was getting errors with the boot area of the disc and windows would then give a false reading on the free space left. Nothing serious, I just ran NDD regularly until Windows rot eventually forced me to wipe everything and do a clean install about a year later.

Posted: 2003-08-07 08:25am
by Enigma
aerius wrote:
Enigma wrote:I've rebooted several times and even shut down the computer for an hour but the problem is still there.
It's because you touch yourself at night. :P

Sorry, couldn't help it. But seriously, run Scandisk, Norton Disc Doctor, or some other disc checking program. My old computer would always give me some BS about how it was out of space when the HD was less than 1/2 full, or it would say I had extra space I didn't have. For some reason I was getting errors with the boot area of the disc and windows would then give a false reading on the free space left. Nothing serious, I just ran NDD regularly until Windows rot eventually forced me to wipe everything and do a clean install about a year later.

I ran Scandisk last night and it also said I had about 230MB and there were no errors. This is so screwed up. If I were to uninstall everything except Win Me it would still say that I have only 230MB.

Posted: 2003-08-07 01:31pm
by phongn
Check your System Restore settings and see if that's eating up some space.

Posted: 2003-08-07 04:37pm
by Solamnus
Yes, I said that too. Even if you do not use system restore yourself (manually creating restore points), ME does it by itself. I say double check the restore settings and turn it off if it is on.

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:01pm
by Enigma
Solamnus wrote:Yes, I said that too. Even if you do not use system restore yourself (manually creating restore points), ME does it by itself. I say double check the restore settings and turn it off if it is on.
I've disabled SR a long time ago since it screwed ME so bad that I had to reformat my hard drive.

I've sun Scandisk and Disk Defragger but it only opened up another 320MB. So now I have about 550MB when it should be around 1.5 and 2 GB.

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:13pm
by Solamnus
Then it is official, your computer OS system stinks!

So you have looked at:

1)System Restore settings
2)Recylce Bin

Did you try doing a Disk Cleanup? Temp intenet files can take up a lot especially if you havent cleaned house in a while.

If worse comes to worse, invoke the All Father of Computer Commands:

REFORMAT C:/

well, I don't know if you can do that with WIN ME, just boot off your OS disk and then reformat and reinstall all your crap.

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:17pm
by Enigma
Solamnus wrote:Then it is official, your computer OS system stinks!

So you have looked at:

1)System Restore settings
2)Recylce Bin

Did you try doing a Disk Cleanup? Temp intenet files can take up a lot especially if you havent cleaned house in a while.

If worse comes to worse, invoke the All Father of Computer Commands:

REFORMAT C:/

well, I don't know if you can do that with WIN ME, just boot off your OS disk and then reformat and reinstall all your crap.
Disk Cleanup appears once a day for no reason and it cleans up nothing since there is nothing for it to clean up. I have a small program that deletes all temp files\internet files\spools\ etc....

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:25pm
by Solamnus
Reinstall. You have no chioces left.

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:26pm
by Shadowhawk
Download this. It'll tell you exactly what's eating up your HDD.
(It's only 158k, and it's free).

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:37pm
by Enigma
Shadowhawk wrote:Download this. It'll tell you exactly what's eating up your HDD.
(It's only 158k, and it's free).
Is the _Restore folder part of System Restore? Can I delete the contents of _Restore, since it is occupying half of my hard drive space?

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:38pm
by Solamnus
Yes it is, I told you so! System Restore!

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:42pm
by Enigma
Solamnus wrote:Yes it is, I told you so! System Restore!
But how can it be when I had it disabled over a year ago? Can I empty the _Restore folder?

Posted: 2003-08-07 11:45pm
by Solamnus
Perhaps you only thought you had it disabled. Are you sure you had it set to using zero file space to save?

And yes, you can delete its contents through windows or DOS