I got a 16GB HP Mini around Christmas 2008 (to use for traveling, but since my Dell has died, it's become my everyday computer) and am wondering if it is time to say goodbye.

When I first got it, I noticed that the operating system (and whatever else was pre-loaded with it) took about 5GB. Once I installed Office 2007, a couple more web browsers, some virus scanners, etc., I was up to 8GB (IIRC), ~50% of the total capacity on the drive.

Even though I never download much of anything (other than Windows updates) to the internal hard drive, I've recently been getting warnings that the hard drive was near full capacity. For awhile, I tried deleting random things that I didn't need. This would help for a day or so, and then I'd be back to full capacity. Last weekend, I decided that I had had enough, so I decided to re-install Windows and start again from square one. So I did that, but almost immediately (i.e., the ONLY thing that I had downloaded and installed was Firefox), I was getting the same stupid disk full errors.

The computer went through a lot of automatic Windows updates right after the refresh, so assuming that the restore CDs loaded up the same 5GB worth of stuff that was on the computer when I bought it (I forgot to check), is it possible that I have downloaded another 10GB of Windows updates? FWIW, I used the restore CDs without actually issuing the "format c:" command at the DOS prompt, as my understanding is that the CD would do it for me. Should I try it again and do everything manually from DOS, to ensure that the C: drive is clear?

My real solution will be to go out and get a new laptop, as the netbook was never supposed to be my everyday computer. But do I need to get a new netbook as well?

I have no good answer for you, really. I've had a couple of netbooks, I think with even less memory than you have. I tried never to install much, other than firefox, and whatever pictures I had taken on that trip. Trying to keep everything to a minimum.

I just bought my first HP NetBook a couple of weeks ago at Costco, but haven't opened the box yet. If it is flaky, I'll just take it back.

My 16 GB netbook usually has around 4.5GB free. I have XP, Office 2007, and a few other big programs. I've got some vids and pics. I use a portable hard drive to put some docs and videos when it gets below 4 GB.

I don't think downloading updates for Windows should take up 10 GB though.

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This will probably get better responses in Travel Technology.

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Moving this over to Travel Technology.

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Cholula
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0) Clean up your temporary files - some installers/updates don't always clean up nicely - My computer, right-click on your hard drive (C), Properties, Disk Cleanup. Make sure you don't check the "compress files" option.

1) Check and see how much space you have dedicated to your swap file (Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory). That can usually eat up a fair amount of hard drive space (on my work laptop, it's showing 2GB right now.

2) Check and see how much space is dedicated to System Restore (Control Panel, System, System Restore) - you might be able to reduce this a bit.

3) Barring that, you need to investigate where the space is actually being eaten up. Get a free program like http://windirstat.info/ - it will break down disk usage by folder on your computer, so you can see where the space hogs are at.

Can you add an SD card?

I have two of the original 4 GB EEE PC's and don't have trouble, but I use Linux on them.

Are you able to switch out the SSD drive with a normal HDD?

Thank you for such detailed and helpful advice, bdjohns1! I've been doing step 0 every time that I get the disk full warning, but I tried the other 3 steps just now.

I had 1876MB reserved (each) for both my swap and system restore. I set swap to 200MB min 400 MB max and system restore to 200MB as well. I would have thought that this would have freed an additional 3GB on the C drive, but I only got an additional 1.3GB out of it (I was at 576MB available prior -- which was shockingly high for me -- and now am at 1.87GB).

So then I downloaded WinDirStat and ran it, with some interesting results. First, WinDirStat shows 8.2GB occupied on C:, rather than the 13.3GB that Windows seems to think is sitting there (i.e., when I right-click on the C: drive in Windows Explorer). Of the 8.2GB that WinDirStat shows, 2.8GB is allocated to the O/S, which I assume is reasonable(?). Where it starts to get sketchy is in the 3.2GB held by Program Files (2GB) and Documents and Settings (1.2GB). Specifically, it shows space occupied by applications/ data from stuff that I had on this computer prior to last weekend's system restore, but that are most definitely not there now. E.g.,:
- Approx 700MB for a variety of applications that I used to have on here but don't now (e.g., ms office, my printer and scanner, opera, skype, zonealarm, etc.)
- 800MB in Local Settings info for the user name that I created when I set up the computer in 2008, most of which is in Chrome application data (also not currently installed)

So that's 1.5GB of questionable data on the C: drive right there. Does this mean that the drive didn't reformat when I re-stored everything last weekend? If it means anything, the original name on my computer was XYZ with user name ABC. When I did the restore, I named the computer ABC and assigned the user name EFG. Could the re-use of the ABC name have confused the computer, somehow (since the drive would have been wiped, I would not have thought so, but I have next to no technology skillz, so what do I know?)?

Next question -- if I try to select something for deletion in WinDirStat, it gives me a warning, asking me if I know what I am doing. Since I don't, I'll ask it here -- can I safely delete the stuff that I know shouldn't be on the computer (e.g., Chrome application data or even the entire ABC user profile?)?

Last question -- should I try to wipe the hard drive and restore from the CD again? If so, should I try to do it manually (i.e., actually type format c: in DOS and then switch to the DVD-ROM and run the setup file)?

Thanks again for your super-duper advice, though -- a big :-: for you! If nothing else, there is enough space on this computer for it to be a quasi-useful traveling computer.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys, but I have no idea if I can do either of these things. Would it be worth the expense (incl. labor because I don't know how to do this)? A brand-new 120GB Compaq netbook was on sale the other day for $300ish over here, and I'm guessing that I'd be paying about the same to take this computer to the shop for anything. Assuming that they even take the computer... when the Dell was having troubles, I tried taking it someplace over here and they refused to touch it because the plug was the American kind () and I got this computer at home, as well.

When installing windows it will not wipe the drive unless you explicitly tell it to do so. That's why the data from your previous installs is still there.

I wonder if you have a restore drive in a hidden system partition? I know some laptop makers started doing this so you could restore without system discs. A good idea when the drive is 160 gigs or whatever, not so good when its 16!

I mentioned out switching out the SSD since you have the system discs. I don't have a HP mini but for most netbooks, they made them in a way that was super easy for the end-user to do their own upgrades.

A new 160GB HDD will cost you around $50 USD, but I'm not sure what it'll cost in Dubai. If you've got a friend that's got an interest in computers, he/she might be able to switch it out for you.

+1 Reinstall does not equal Reformat.

Okay, I tried to re-install again this morning. There was an option on the screens to keep original settings, or to reformat in one of 4 ways. Since I didn't understand what that meant at the time, I think I went with keep original settings, which apparently meant no-reformat (though it did delete all the applications, as far as I could tell).

This time around, things look good. >10GB free, though at the moment, I'm just running whatever came on the CDs (i.e., I have a fair amount of software to load). Which is enough space for everything I need, though I will still investigate swapping out the hard drive (thanks for the suggestion Braindrain, I do actually have a good friend here with his own IT "we do everything" company, so I'll see what he thinks).