sweep hard drive

**Veho Nex** · 10-27-2007, 19:30

is there a way i can sweep my harddrive of anything thats not system important so i can just reinstall afterwards?

**CrossLOPER** · 10-27-2007, 22:32

I'm really not sure what you mean. If you want to free up disk space, just go through your Program Files directory and uninstall anything you don't need via Ass/Remove programs. Don't go digging through the Windows directory if you are not sure of what you're doing. Come to think of it, find your restoration disks or make them before doing this. Also, make a system restore point in case you don't screw up your Windows partition too badly.

You can also just compress anything you have not used in a while into a neat little ball you can open up later by using the "free up space on my hard drive" feature in the Performance and Maintenance tab in the Control Panel.

I'm assuming you are using Windows XP SP2. If you are using Vista, don't mess with anything, as there is no one in the world who can help you if something goes wrong.

**Veho Nex** · 10-27-2007, 22:39

well i just did a system restore and to my utter dissapoint ment kept all my files even though i wanted them all gone

so i deleted those but there is a hidden file somewhere on my computer and its taking up 20 of my 34 gigs and i want it gone

**Xiahou** · 10-28-2007, 00:52

Something like this can completely and irrevocably erase your drive. But, before you do something like that, make sure you know how to reinstall your OS and get everything running again.

Out of curiosity, how do you know there's a file if it's hidden?

**CrossLOPER** · 10-28-2007, 00:59

Originally Posted by Jkarinen

well i just did a system restore and to my utter dissapoint ment kept all my files even though i wanted them all gone

What did you do, exactly? What is the point of what you are trying to do?

Originally Posted by Jkarinen

so i deleted those but there is a hidden file somewhere on my computer and its taking up 20 of my 34 gigs and i want it gone

Dude, you can't have a hard drive with Windows on it and have it be empty. Maybe I'm not understanding. What programs do you have installed and give me your system specs. Somethings not right.

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Something like this can completely and irrevocably erase your drive. But, before you do something like that, make sure you know how to reinstall your OS and get everything running again.

Giving Jk that was probably not a good idea.

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Out of curiosity, how do you know there's a file if it's hidden?

I'm pretty sure he's trying to remove his Windows install without knowing it.

**Veho Nex** · 10-28-2007, 02:58

no im not as noobish as i sound just suck at explaining

I did a system restore(with the disk)

once it finished i checked my harddrive space and it said 97% used and 3% unused

well then i went to program files and found all my old games still installed(along with programs) and i went through and deleted those. after that i went to look at how much freespace i had it turned into 65% used and 45% unused well i was like this isnt right since last time i did system restore i had 15% used and 85% unused.

Alright so i went and brought up every file i had on my computer and even after deleting the game they were still on my computer(yes i emptied the recycle bin)

well after all that i was still having a huge chunk used so now im stuck...

**Veho Nex** · 10-28-2007, 03:03

if i can get an os disk i might use the nuke

**Quietus** · 10-31-2007, 07:45

Originally Posted by Jkarinen

well i just did a system restore and to my utter dissapoint ment kept all my files even though i wanted them all gone

so i deleted those but there is a hidden file somewhere on my computer and its taking up 20 of my 34 gigs and i want it gone

I'd go to Disk Cleanup>More Options> System Restore (clean up).

It sucks up a lot of space. You can't go back, of course, when you clear the system restore point.

After that, just defragment.