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Other => General Topics => Topic started by: Chim on October 15, 2012, 10:10:01 PM
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I didn't want to hijack a certain thread elsewhere, so I decided to start my own topic.
So what exactly are Hotfixes? Are they all or most of the Windows Updates?
I checked with CCleaner and if I let it remove ALL of the Hotfix Uninstallers in my Hard Drive, I would regain 593.915 Meg of Free Space.
Now THAT is Drool-worthy! ;D
Are Hotfix Uninstallers something that would be used only MANUALLY by a computer user?
To the best of my knowledge, I don't believe I've ever used a Hotfix Uninstaller.
So, that means there are 593.915 Mega Bytes of worthless Info taking up precious potential FREE Space on my Hard Drive.
Let me put it this way. As of about 2 months ago, I have already disabled the Automatic Windows Updates so that I wouldn't lose anymore Free Space on my Hard Drive cuz those monthly Windows Updates were Free Space Hogs.
So, since for 2 months my computer hasn't even taken on any NEW Windows Updates ... and it's working fine ... there shouldn't be anything in that 593.915 Mega Bytes mountain of Hotfix Uninstallers that I would need, would there?
Windows itself doesn't use any of those Hotfix Uninstallers on its own from time to time, does it?
COULD I therefore just simply let CCleaner remove all those 593.915 Mega Bytes of Hotfix Uninstallers?
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So, since for 2 months my computer hasn't even taken on any NEW Windows Updates ... and it's working fine
But unfortunately is now more unsecure than ever since the exploits that where fixed are still exploitable on your system.
Not updating security patches on any OS or program is never a good idea. Sorry. :'(
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@chim
Can you post the location of these files.
Without the location I can't say yes or no. But if they are where I think they are you can delete them. The draw back is that you will not be able to uninstall any updates.
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Bob, I'm aware that it's not a good idea to disable the Windows Updates.
But, if I didn't disable them, I was going to soon run out of Free Space as that guy has done on that other thread.
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Hardtek, there were around 2007 Files, so I don't know that it can be said that they were at ______ location.
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Hi chim,
First, I don't use CC. I do mine manually ;D. The folder I was referencing is C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ for XP. If these have names like $NtUninstallKB810217$ it is safe to delete. From what I've read it is ok to have CC delete them. More google results on here http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&pq=hotfix%20uninstallers%20location%20in%20win%20xp&cp=18&gs_id=3&xhr=t&q=Hotfix%20Uninstaller%20location%20in%20win%20xp&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=Hotfix+Uninstaller+location+in+win+xp&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=581053e234362904&bpcl=35277026&biw=1347&bih=619. See my previos comment about being unable to remove updates.
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Yeah, that's the type of File Names the Files had.
As of last night, it's done.
I had CCleaner remove them ... I believe around 580 Meg.
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And now, Chim, it's time to turn on Windows Update so that your computer can get all those secuity updates it desperately needs. You may need to manually activate the Update program.
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I thought of that and it's very tempting, Charley.
But, I am too aware of how quickly those monthly Windows Updates devour Free Space.
If monthly Windows Updates were more along the size of a daily avast Virus Definitions Update, it'd be easy to pull the trigger.
But, monthly Windows Updates are more along the size of King Kong buffets.
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I thought of that and it's very tempting, Charley.
But, I am too aware of how quickly those monthly Windows Updates devour Free Space.
If monthly Windows Updates were more along the size of a daily avast Virus Definitions Update, it'd be easy to pull the trigger.
But, monthly Windows Updates are more along the size of King Kong buffets.
Would another HD help ??? I have an older IDE not doing anything. (Not sure of the size at the moment.)
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Then it begs the next question. Why not hav CC delete the backups after you have installed the updates?
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Thanks, Bob! But, while a bigger Hard Drive would of course solve the problem, Ehhh, I really don't need to go that route of having you send over one of your Drives.
FYI, from what some guy told me, because of my REALLY OLD computer ... HP Pavilion 6730, any Hard Drive Upgrade could be no bigger than a 40 Gig Hard Drive. Yeah, a couple of months back I pondered the possibility of taking the Hard Drive from my destroyed Dell GX270 and putting it in my HP Pavilion. I was drooling at the possibility. But, I also kept thinking, "It's probably too good to be true. It can't possibly be possible to take that huge 400 Gig Hard Drive and install it in my HP Pavilion and have it work? Can it?"
So, one of my Online friends asked her brother, who works in IT and he said that NO ... that Hard Drive cannot be installed on my HP Pavilion 6730. He said that the biggest Hard Drive that my HP Pavilion could take would be a 40 Gig Hard Drive.
With the Free Space that was created by removing the Hotfix Uninstallers, my HP Pavilion now has plenty of breathing room for quite a while now ... now that really the only thing that keeps getting added to it are avast daily Virus Definitions Updates. I was even able to bring back SAS now after I had removed it back when Free Space was getting lower.
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Then it begs the next question. Why not hav CC delete the backups after you have installed the updates?
Believe me, that too entered my mind.
But, I did the quick mental calculations and came to the conclusion that that would just be a Band-Aid.
Probably come January or February 2013, after that month's Windows Update Tuesday, my Hard Drive would probably be back to the same amount of Free Space as before I removed the Hotfix Uninstallers.
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You surely need a bigger hard drive but I understand you are limited in that respect.
Maybe you could transfer photos, etc. to SD cards or USB drives to free up some space?
You should be able to find those at reasonable prices these days.
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Thanks, Bob! But, while a bigger Hard Drive would of course solve the problem, Ehhh, I really don't need to go that route of having you send over one of your Drives.
FYI, from what some guy told me, because of my REALLY OLD computer ... HP Pavilion 6730, any Hard Drive Upgrade could be no bigger than a 40 Gig Hard Drive. Yeah, a couple of months back I pondered the possibility of taking the Hard Drive from my destroyed Dell GX270 and putting it in my HP Pavilion. I was drooling at the possibility. But, I also kept thinking, "It's probably too good to be true. It can't possibly be possible to take that huge 400 Gig Hard Drive and install it in my HP Pavilion and have it work? Can it?"
So, one of my Online friends asked her brother, who works in IT and he said that NO ... that Hard Drive cannot be installed on my HP Pavilion 6730. He said that the biggest Hard Drive that my HP Pavilion could take would be a 40 Gig Hard Drive.
With the Free Space that was created by removing the Hotfix Uninstallers, my HP Pavilion now has plenty of breathing room for quite a while now ... now that really the only thing that keeps getting added to it are avast daily Virus Definitions Updates. I was even able to bring back SAS now after I had removed it back when Free Space was getting lower.
Since it has a USB port, and the IDE Drive I'm using has an IDE to USB converter, that limit shouldn't make any difference. :)
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@ Chim
I'm not sure where this restriction comes from as I'm using XP Pro32bit and I have a 160Gbit Primary Hard Drive split into three partitions and a secondary hard drive of 500Gbits, single partition used for backups.
These are formatted as NTFS and Not FAT32, so the OS is capable of handling larger drives, these are sata drives, but I also have an external (USB2 Connection) HDD of 500Gbits formatted as NTFS, also a single partition and for backups and they all work just fine.
So I don't know if this is an IDE Vs Sata drive type or format type FAT32 Vs SATA or a motherboard issue.
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Charley, photos, Docs and basically anything that doesn't HAVE to be on the Hard Drive HAS already long since been transferred to Flash Drives. That's why you'll periodically see me mention having the PortableApps.com platform on my Flash Drives and using the Portable versions of CCleaner, Glary Utilities, JetClean, Revo Uninstaller and several other Apps.
So yeah, I have a Flash Drive always hooked up and that's from where I access all the stuff that USED to at one time be on my Hard Drive.
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Bob, on paper, your last suggestion was ALMOST a Hit.
Unfortunately, with my HP Pavilion being a very old, slow and underpowered, computer with a Celeron Processor and only 256 Meg of RAM ... USB functionality is NOT speedy. Every time I connect a Flash Drive, I am reminded that Ohhh BTW ... This Flash Drive could work faster if you had High Speed USB Ports ... or something along those lines.
Like even when I simply open up a Folder on my Flash Drive, it is Bloop Bloop Bloop Bloop as all the Icons in that Folder slowly display as avast is checking them out. So, I'm almost certain that something like a USB-based Hard Drive wouldn't work well.
Out of curiosity ... even IF that idea would be implemented, wouldn't I have to do some serious changes, like even change something in BIOS? The USB-based Hard Drive would have to become the MAIN Hard Drive, wouldn't it? Here is were again, because of my 2 USB Ports having been declared by Windows XP as NOT Fast Ports, a USB-based Hard Drive would probably NOT work well as the MAIN Hard Drive. Maybe as an auxiliary Hard Drive. Unless you know something I don't. Which is easily very possible. ;D
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David, I'm definitely NOT remotely as knowledgeable about computers as you. But, if I had to take a guess, a shot in the dark ... I would say the KEY to that guy's claim that my HP Pavilion 6730 can only handle a 40 Gig Hard Drive with its Windows XP Home Edition would be the Processor.
I see your computer has a Core2Duo E8300 Processor. I'm sure that Processor is Light Years ahead of my HP Pavilion's Celeron Processor. WOULD that guy's claim that my HP Pavilion 6730 can only handle a 40 Gig Hard Drive be correct if it has a Celeron Processor?
I don't know enough to ascertain that his claim is correct. What do you think? I think it SOUNDS correct. It seems logical. But, like I said, I don't know enough about these things.
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Well, since you already have done my suggestions, as well as other suggestions, I'm at a loss as to why you have no more space than you do.
On my computer, I have 2 drives - 40G main drive (C) and an 80G drive. The C drive has the OS, all XP SP3 updates, all security related programs, plus avast, firewall, several programs related to optimization, several power points, 3 folders of wallpaper (I like lots of different types), some photos from before I started putting them on SD cards, ActiveWorlds, a folder of recovery tools, and other leftover programs I should get rid of but have not.
The formated C drive has 37.2g usable out of a rated 40g yet I still have 9.42g of free space.
Are you sure you don't have some hidden files?
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@ Chim
I'm certain this isn't a processor issue as that doesn't handle the formatting of a drive and what the maximum size can be, that is down to OS and hardware as far as I'm aware. Now XP is capable of handling drives up to at least 500GB (I think that I can possibly go up to 1TB) as I have two of them and a 160GB drive. But I can't use the new very high capacity HDDs which use a different means of storing data on the drive.
So it is possible down to how the drives are formatted (FAT32 Vs NTFS) or hardware IDE drives Vs SATA drives. Another possibility is the Motherboard BIOS settings using a different BIOS LBA (Logical block addressing) setting, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing). Note, by all accounts you can't change this setting with data on the HDD as it would be lost, but having backed it up to a new drive then that might be possible.
I would ask the guy exactly why it can only be a 40GB max capacity as I don't believe it has anything to do with processor.
Also see, http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/246098-14-windows-hard-drive-size-limit (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/246098-14-windows-hard-drive-size-limit) especially some of the related content links.
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Charley, it's that there's a significant difference between my system and yours.
You have a 40 Gig Hard Drive as your Main Hard Drive and it has 9.42 Gig of Free Space.
My Hard Drive is NOT a 40 Gig Hard Drive, so there's no way it's going to be able to match that 9.42 Gig of Free Space. My Hard Drive is only a 10 Gig Hard Drive to begin with.
Let's see, aside of having Windows XP Home Edition on it, here is basically what I have in it right now:
IE 7
AOL 9.0 Security Edition
avast 7.0.1466 Free
MBAM Free
SAS Free
Opera 11.10
MS Office Suite 2000 Small Business
Photoshop 6.0
Foxit Reader
IrfanView
Puran Defrag
Media Player Classic
QT Lite
YTD Video Downloader
So SEE? All of that is in a 10 Gig Hard Drive ... NOT in a 40 Gig Hard Drive. There's no way I can match your 9.42 Gig of Free Space.
After the removal of the Hotfix Uninstallers the other night and performing a thorough Cleanup and bringing SAS back onto my Hard Drive, I believe I wound up with something like 3.6 Gig of Free Space. So, not bad considering it's a 10 Gig Hard Drive. I'd say it's about right.
I have NOT yet removed the approximately 90 Meg of downloads in the Software Distribution / Downloads Folder that was mentioned in another thread. It's that the last I looked, no one had assured me with 100% certainty that it was perfectly SAFE to remove them.
As to whether there might be Hidden Folders with useless stuff in them? Quite possible.
But, I think I have things set up to where Hidden Folders are displaying.
But, I can't say with absolute 100% certainty that I've looked in every nook & cranny for any useless, expendable Files.
There's a lot of stuff that I of course don't know what it is and therefore don't know whether it's safe to delete.
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If the guy is saying you can only have up to a 40GB drive that as an upgrade would be massive compared to your 10GB drive. I was under the misunderstanding that you already had a 40GB drive.
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David, I'll check out that link later.
However, I would have thought that how many Address Lines a Processor has would determine what size of Hard Drive it could handle. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that's the key to that guy's assessment that my computer can only handle a 40 Gig Hard Drive.
Theoretically I could send a follow up inquiry to him to get the lowdown details on his assessment.
But, I don't know him at all. I only know his sister Online.
And besides, the one and only exchange that I had with him there on her Blog ... I didn't care for his attitude. He had never met me before, but yet had a very condescending, borderline insulting attitude toward me having the old system that I have. So, I didn't care to pick his brain with any follow up questions regarding any possible other options.
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The OS in conjunction with the BIOS settings are responsible for the management of the HDD, whilst having a low powered processor and little RAM will make that task slower, it shouldn't restrict the size.
If the guy says you can only go up to 40GB, that is fine if you only have 10GB and is almost full 40GB would be massive by comparison. But not obviously as large as XP is capable of going, for whatever restriction he is talking about. If 40GB is possible I would bite his arm of for that kind of difference, it would certainly extend the life of this system.
If he is the one fitting the new HDD, I would take the opportunity to upgrade your RAM and if possible the CPU to whatever is possible on that motherboard. You could see some very reasonable system performance improvements for a relatively modest outlay.
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Oh yeah, 40 Gig would be more than enough for my needs. Heck, the 20 Gig Hard Drive in my Backup computer, my Gateway Windows 98SE one would be enough. But, I wouldn't want to mess around with switching out Hard Drives between my 2 computers and risk winding up with 2 non-working computers. I'd rather leave my Gateway Backup computer out of the equation.
Anyway, shortly after that guy had claimed my HP Pavilion could only handle an upgrade to a 40 Gig Hard Drive, I conducted searches Online and as I recall, I didn't find any 40 Gig Hard Drives. All I came across were 60 to 80 Gig and above.
Oh, FYI, that guy won't be touching my computer anytime soon ... or ever for that matter. He's from Venezuela. I'm in Texas.
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As to the RAM in my HP Pavilion 6730?
There too, there have been differing opinions as to what it can take. Probably more than a year ago, I was recommended some website at Geeks to Go, which would test out my RAM and inform me what the Maximum RAM would be that my computer could handle.
Well, that supposed well-known website informed me that my HP Pavilion 6730 was already at its Max at 256 Meg. But, then here at the avast Forums I have been told before that that is not true. So, I don't know who to believe.
For whatever it's worth, this website confirms that my HP Pavilion 6730 can only handle 256 Meg of RAM.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_6861634_maximum-capacity-hp-pavilion-6730.html
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Was that crucial.com ?
In all honesty you could probably pick up a second user computer for not much more that trying to upgrade the old system. A search for your old dinosaur returns many hits and it does look like it is maxed out at 256 (2 X 128MB sticks) RAM, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph05747&lc=en&cc=us&product=58757 (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph05747&lc=en&cc=us&product=58757). Though that link says it can only take win98se, which is clearly wrong.
So given all of that I really would be looking at a cheap system, there meant to be good deals in many of the computer discount stores. Where you could probably pick up one for a couple of hundred dollars, Radio Shack, some refurbished ones in there for $229 Compaq CQ5600F Desktop PC (Refurbished) and not bad specs when you consider it also has win7 home Premium 64bit.
Also http://www.compusa.com/ has some good stuff in the $100 - $199 range, http://www.compusa.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=6&sel=Price%3BPrice4 (http://www.compusa.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=6&sel=Price%3BPrice4) again not bad specs and many also come with win7 OS. Even some HP systems with win XP so not to unfamiliar starting at $109. Most have 80GB HDD and 512MB or 1GB of RAM.
I even think Wallmart does cheap computers.
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Yeah, that might have been crucial.com. I couldn't remember the name, but that sounds about right.
Yep, really a refurbished computer is probably a better route than trying to mess with upgrading the Hard Drive. I HAD conducted searches in the CompUSA and Walmart websites before. So that option IS there waiting in the wings for when I decide to pull the trigger.
Well, I'll consider this topic RESOLVED.
Thanks, guys.
I at least regained 580 Meg of Free Space from Info acquired here at the avast Forums.
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You're welcome.
A refurbished system is certainly much less hassle than trying your own upgrade and for not much more money when you consider what else you would be getting.
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He's from Venezuela. I'm in Texas.
I'll be in Forney (http://www.cityofforney.org/) on 11/9/2012 :)
If your posts aren't at least usb 2, then an external HD isn't a good idea except for storage.
A rebuilt upgraded system certainly makes much more sense.
Yard sales, Moving sales, county fairs, or, contact a Computer Club close to home.
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I've heard of Forney before, but can't place its location at this instant.
The USB Ports on my HP Pavilion ARE 2.0, but for some reason, as per Windows XP Home, they are NOT High Speed.
My Gateway Backup computer on the other hand, now that one has 1.0 USB Ports.
On that one I cannot use my Flash Drives.
That one of course has Windows 98SE.
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Sorry, Chim, I thought I read somewhere in the beginning of this thread that you had a 40gig hard drive.
My mistake. :(
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