Portable storage question

[momsgonelooney]

i'm looking to free up some memory on my comp. i was told i could put some of my programs that i use occasionally on a usb drive. my thing is last time i did that i screwed it all up. so if some1 could possibly guide me through it i would appreciate it. ty

 

[Rick]

I started typing a response, but I'd like to ask you a few questions first.

My first question might be, how much free space do you have?

The next one is, what is taking up so much space? Do you have lots of photos? Maybe tons of music and/or videos? For most people, the programs aren't what take up the most space.. It is their personal data. Here's an interesting program that gives you a visual representation of where the most data resides.

And my third question would be, what version of Windows are you using? XP? Vista? Something else?

Lastly (a comment), I'd like you to steer clear of installing or moving programs to an external drive, if at all possible. It's a messy solution and I think we can come up with something that will work better for you... Maybe something as simple as some computer house cleaning will solve your storage issue.

 

[DelJo63]

cleanup old temps using Disk Cleanup.

another technique is to stop taking System Restore Points ,
resize the quota to 4-5% and then
reenable System Restore Points.

This will toss the old ones, trim the amount of data that can be retained and
return a large amount of free space.

Good idea to defrag the HD after this is all completed

 

[momsgonelooney]

i was actually looking to upgrade my system if any1 has some suggestions. i'm posting a few specs.

Field Value
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)


Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2300 MHz (11 x 209)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer
System Memory 512 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (05/04/05)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB]

Multimedia
Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP2-S - Audio Codec Interface

Storage
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Serial ATA Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATALink Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive ST3160021A (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive Optiarc DVD RW AD-7190A
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 152617 MB (121109 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (192.168.1.47)
Modem Motorola SM56 Speakerphone Modem

Peripherals
Printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Printer Send To OneNote 2007
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI USB 1.1 Controller
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI USB 1.1 Controller
USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller