What can I safely remove from my C: drive to create more space?

Try the system clean up utility.

1. Press +R to show the Run box, type cleanmgr and press OK to run the Cleanup Manager.
2. Select your drive and use this utility to clear up space.
3. I recommend running this again and choosing "clean up from all users" too.

There are a number of things you can do to -- temporarily -- free up disk space.  The only real solution, however, is to get a larger internal hard drive (or a second internal drive). A desktop or tower probably will be able to accommodate a second internal drive.  A laptop or “all-in-one” (computer built into the monitor) probably will not.

You can move data to an external drive, but if it is data that you use frequently, the slower access times may annoy you.  Therefore, I don't recommend that you move your My Documents folder in its entirety to an external drive, although you certainly could do that by following the linked instructions.  Moving My Documents to a second internal drive is OK.

• You can run Disk Cleanup (Start > Run > cleanmgr > OK) [See NOTE below]
• You can reduce the size allocated to System Restore to about 1 GB (right-click My Computer > Properties > System Restore >Settings)
• You can turn off Hibernation (if you don't use it) (right-click empty spot on desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > Power > Hibernate)
• You can disable Disk Indexing, which will also speed up your computer a bit (http://lifehacker.com/031440/turn-off-indexing-and-speed-up-windows-xp)
• You can reduce the size of your Internet browser cache (varies depending on which browser you use)
• You can remove most of the $NTUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders following the directions here:  http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Hotfix_backup.htm  (read the caveats in the grey box first)
• Also see:
• How to reclaim disk space on Windows XP and Windows Server 2008-based computers?
• Forty Ways To Free Up Disk Space

NOTE:  By default the Disk Cleanup utility does not delete files accessed in the last seven days.  You can either go directly to the Temp directory (Start > Run > %temp% > OK), and select all of the files and delete them (except one or two that will be “in use”) or alter the LastAccess value in the registry, to configure the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder regardless of the last accessed date. Here's how (it would be prudent to backup your registry or at least create a Restore Point first):

• Open Regedit (Start > Run > regedit > OK)
• Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files

• Locate and double-click the LastAccess value
• When you see the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the Value Data setting from 7 to 0 and click OK
• Restart Windows.

But none of the above will really gain you significant amounts of space for very long.  The only long term solution is a bigger hard drive.

In the meantime, download and run JDiskReport, which will graphically show you what files are taking up the most space and thus suggest what files you should move to another drive.  An alternate utility (also free) is TreeSize Free.

If you want to move an application to another drive (either external or internal), you'll have to uninstall it and then reinstall it specifying the other drive as the install location.  You can't simply move the files.  Even so, many applications will place some files on the system drive (i.e., the drive where Windows is located).

Thanks, some useful tips here, especially the ones about Disk Indexing, System Restore & $NtUninstall.

regards,

rggraham1947