Professional advice, Auckland city/Mt Albert

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MadamButterfly

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#62587 10-Jun-2010 11:12

Hello - I'm visiting Auckland and need some urgent help - I need to give a presenttion (PowerPoint) tomorrow and my computer (toshiba laptop, Vista) has run out of disk space - although consiering I've just deleted hundreds of huge files and some programs I'm not using and it hasn't created any space, I suspect that the problem is more than that.

Can anyone recommend someone who could look at my computer immediately (if not sooner), hopefully solve the problem, and let me get this job finished.

Jacqui, 0274 814 811 or 550 5895

bcourtney

652 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#340119 10-Jun-2010 11:13

Right click on your Recycle Bin and empty it

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13769 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

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Lifetime subscriber

#340127 10-Jun-2010 11:30

Run a disk defrag and a scandisk as well (right click your C drive, Properties) - sometimes Windows dosent report the correct space and after running a Scandisk it reports the correct space :)

Has happened to me a few times....

Also try running CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com) - clears out garbage files etc from your system.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

MadamButterfly

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#340135 10-Jun-2010 11:43

Oh! Never thought of that bcourtney... ;)

No seriously, have done that already. Just posted briefly the urgent part of my needs and now that I've "put out other fires" will explain more...

Disk size is 68GB. I do use large programs, e.g. PhotoShop, InDesign, Quickbooks...

I am very careful about running virus checks regularly, deleting files etc. Fairly experienced computer/internet user - have been training seniors for some years - have been using them for over 30 years.

10 days ago in motel, could not get onto their network. Motel owner calls out dial-a-geek (or similar) who fixes their problem then comes down to my unit to get me onto their network. He disabled firewall, may well have done other stuff, hard to know.

6 days ago upgraded Mozilla Thunderbird to V. 3. That was when real problems started. It uses "Smart folders". It was constantly hanging - probably not helped that I've been mobile and have had to shift base several times since then.

In the hopes that things would improve (diskspace wise) I have deleted all old mail, deleted a few programs I haven't been using, run virus scan, downloaded and run combofix, but it appears to have REDUCED the space available to me rather than given me more. I mean, this is REALLY chronic.

Look forward to any further ideas, especially where to contact a professional who knows what they're doing, and hopefully not too far away from Mt Albert.

Thanks.

MadamButterfly

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#340136 10-Jun-2010 11:45

Thanks xpd, will try those ones. Have only just deleted cccleaner to make more space.

Ragnor

8223 posts

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#340192 10-Jun-2010 13:46

Backup/copy/archive your documents, favourites, music, email and any other user data to an external portable USB hard drive.

If you don't have one already there is a DSE (Dick Smiths) opposite St Lukes Mall, near Mt Albert. Something like this with give you ~1000GB for $120ish http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/en/product/XH1210 you can of course go cheaper than than but 1TB for ~$120 is good bang for buck.

Next run ccleaner to remove junk taking up space (old logs, crash reports, event logs, windows update install files etc)
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Use Treesize free to scan and identify where the majority of the space is being used up.
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

Would also recommend running a scan with malwarebytes free version to check for any dodgy malware.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Any questions, just ask here.

After this experience you will even be able to help teach seniors a few new tricks like backing up to an external usb hard drive, check what is using space and cleaning out junk!

MadamButterfly

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#340219 10-Jun-2010 14:38

thanks Ragnor, sounds like great advice. I have managed to finish the ppt that i need to present tomorrow and put it on a flashdrive. Looks like the work scheduled for next week will be on hold while I do some cleaning up.

No doubt I will be back!

Cheers.