I know I am late, but I just upgraded my computer from Windows XP to Windows 7. The upgrade went fine and it is a fine opperating system. My problem is that my disk is nearly full. I installed a few programs, but none of my documents, and the disk is already boardering on full. I ran disk clean, and that barely helped at all.

I did find, under the "c:" drive, all the programs in files that I used to have. Could this be what is filling up my drive? Can I just delete them? Most of them are not installed at this point. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Hard drives are cheap, and you could install a new one and transfer the files over.

Just for some context, how large is the hard drive? How full was it under XP, if you remember?

In general, there is always the potential for some bloat when one migrates operating systems, but usually it shouldn't be too dramatic.

The drive is 145 gigs. Possibly small by today's standads. It was getting close to full, but I was under the impression that NOT reinstalling some of the programs I haven't used much, or pulling off all the documents, would have left me with plenty of room.

Windows 7 uses considerably more hard drive space than XP.

Mine is 55 Gb! I guess I won't be upgrading to Windows 7 any time soon... or ever.

Many pics and vids? They can choke off the hard drive in a hurry.

Can you burn the old files to a DVD then delete some?

How about an external hard drive? I have one that can hold a hundred gig of backup for me, which is more than I need for my purposes. I'm sure they're available in much larger storage capacities.

Windows.old
Windows.001
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Ccleaner and spacemonger may help to clean and to see what's taking up drive space.

If you didn't install them, yes, you can just delete them.

Yep, delete all the old programs that you didn't re-install. They are just taking up space.

Thanks Jonathan... That got the job done. I would not say I have plenty of room, but the drive is no longer nearly full. Now I can consider my options carefully and not make any rash decisions.

Dennis is right. Today's programs are getting bigger. You'll need more space going into the future. I'd look into a 1 or 2 Terabyte hard drive, they're not that expensive.

Hmmm. Deleting the old files did the job I needed, and gave me about half the disk back, but you guys have a valid point. I went to "Frys" web site and found many internal hard drives for under $100. Some were 1 TB a few were 2 TB and there was even a 3 TB for $99.

Does anyone know what brands are best and what brands to stay away from?

I've always been satisfied with Western Digital hard drives.