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Miscellaneous Maintenance Questions

12 years ago

As I'm fixing up the family's computers, some general questions come to mind.

1 - how much space should be free on a hard disk. I know 40GB was recommended for my 160GB hard drive. But is this a percentage - or more of a fixed amount that should be free. How much space should be free on a 500GB, 1TB and 2TB drive? I'm guessing something in between a fixed percentage and a fixed size.

2 - What can I delete in my download folder? If I download things like set up files for ccleaner, antispyware, openoffice, Itunes, can I safely delete the files in my download folder once I install the program? Are there things I shouldn't delete? Should I pretty much delete everything unless it's personal files I haven't saved to another location on my computer?

3 - How often should I run a defragment program? on XP? does it need to be run on Windows 7 (I thought I'd read that files don't get fragmented as much in Windows 7).

Guess that's all I can think of for now.
Thank you.
Lynn.

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Comments (4)

mikie_gw
12 years ago
15% recommended minimum free space - windows pops a message at 200mb then another stern message when around 50mb free.

Most don't need to defrag. Windows has automatic scheduled maintenance that does that about weekly.

Anything you've downloaded and installed.. you don't need that program anymore.. it will just get outdated. Should you ever need it,, download it again ? Delete them, unless of course you have some secret coded paid for download, which you should burn to dvd or cd before deleting.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/strategies-for-freeing-disk-space
Elmer J Fudd
12 years ago
There are many good tips on that MS page. None better than the last one - add an external drive for more space.

The better anti virus/security software systems automatically run disk utilities and delete unnecessary temp and cache files. Obtain the right utilities and give it no further thought.
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lynnalexandra
Original Author
12 years ago
Mikie - that is a great, useful link. Easy to understand and implement. I do have external hard drives for storage.

I have never seen a pop-up on my computers about running low on disk space. My desktop has 2TB drive. I have tried to keep at least 300GB free, but sometimes it's gone to 200GB when I've transferred videos from my Tivo and am going to edit them before saving to ext. drive or transferring back to the Tivos. I wasn't sure if I was pushing it too much to let the free space get down to 200GB. If the drive is large, should it still be 15%?

Thank you.
Lynn.
mikie_gw
12 years ago
I doubt tb drives need that percentage but that's what is said is needed free for defrag to have room to move stuff around to empty area while trying to put its abc's in order.

I cant image having that size drive all on a typical C/Windows drive. I hope I would be partitioned with a smaller C drive. My little 500gb drive I gave 120gb to for C and actually highest use is about 33gb. The ten minutes it takes for do things is too long.... for re-image, defrag, virus scans, etc maintenance.

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