Low Disk space on C drive

[Domi.nick]

My system was working well before updating. When I installed SP3 update the same failed. My windows directory shows 4GB size. And the installer is around 300MB. Are this files useful. The updates are installed well and I do not think we really need those files. I am using a older version of Office. Now I had upgraded that to Office 2007 and I started getting low disk error. I cannot list all the details of files here. Like the Local Settings folders show up 1.15GB. Does that is needed. I think I have to format my system and make it work properly.

[CoYoTeA]

I had used Gparted. This tool provides to manage Windows partition. You can increase or shrink partition as per your choice. It is not complicated to handle. I had added a additional of 10GB of space to the existing Windows directory without formatting. I hope to find some better option under Windows to merge empty partitions. That would be more enough to get rid of the issue. Or else you can simply disable the notification from Control Panel. It is quiet better.

[Janairo]

I do not believe on Gparted. It is not at all a reliable software. There are chances that you face crash issue. The best thing you can do is move your files from C to D drive. There are options available by which you can move the files of document settings, the default download folders, user profiles, etc to another partition. This also works in many ways. I am using CCleaner to wipe out unneeded settings from the system. It keeps on cleaning the history bookmarks, etc improving the system performance. CCleaner is also capable of wiping out invalid entries from Windows Registry.

[SMichael]

I too have the same issue. But that was due to Outlook Express. My mailbox is too large and it has tons of emails in that. I had copied all of them to a different partition. You just need to copy the .pst files. That's all. If you are using a email client then just check the size of your mailbox. It is quiet large then you must move the same to another location. Because if you try to merge your partition with any third party tool then there are chances that you might find system crash issue.

[LeonL]

Thanks for the answer. I use a software that provides information on the folder size of Windows. I found my mail box around 6GB. I can atleast move that and get some space. This is always a issue with old system which comes with low hard drive. The best thing is to add another hard drive extending the storage space. Disk Cleanup just offer basic support by which you can wipe out settings that are not needed. This is quiet a major issue with servers where you cannot make any changes instantly. As it hampers other application also. I had deleted updates from Software Distribution folder also. That made more space now.

[Taidje]

Merging partition is a nice alternative but risky to some extent. You cannot just merge it with any software. You need a tool that can offer you right way of doing that without loosing your data. I had tried some but maximum failed. Merge Partition is a software by PartitionWizard. It is the the only tool that worked. I had added 5GB more space and the notification just disappeared. There are chances that you face issue with low space. It can be a virus too. If the space goes below 5GB the warning starts appearing.

[EltonJ]

My C drive has 13GB of space left. But still I am getting that popup notification. So in my views this can be a kind of virus. I am having Symantec as the default antivirus installed in the system. It is a powerful security software that can scan and find infected files. But does 13GB is very less space. As mentioned above if the space goes below 5GB the popup mostly appears. I had performed all cleanup stuff. Later on I found some similar discussion on web. They were related to a low disk space virus. But there was no cure provided. System restore worked here.