OT Computer experts!!!

Altho I am very happy with my webtv, my daughter FINALLY bought a new
computer. took them 2 yrs to buy a racing helmet, that's another
story!
ANyway, she gave me her old one. Not sure how much I will do on the
internet with it, but, SIL said the hard drive is almost full. i have
no idea what any of this means He said I should find a way to clean it
out? Of course if I can do this and any of you could tell me how, it
would have to be VERY detailed instuctions.
One thing, would cleaning this out remove the games I have been
playing? :-(
Emailing to keep this board clean is fine.
Thanks for any and all help.
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

"F B" wrote in message
...
Altho I am very happy with my webtv, my daughter FINALLY bought a new
computer. took them 2 yrs to buy a racing helmet, that's another
story!
ANyway, she gave me her old one. Not sure how much I will do on the
internet with it, but, SIL said the hard drive is almost full. i have
no idea what any of this means He said I should find a way to clean it
out? Of course if I can do this and any of you could tell me how, it
would have to be VERY detailed instuctions.
One thing, would cleaning this out remove the games I have been
playing? :-(
Emailing to keep this board clean is fine.
Thanks for any and all help.
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/


There is a quick way to do this and a long way to do this.

The quick way will take away your games and you will have to re-install
them. The quick way is to start over from scratch, erase the hard drive,
and re-install the operating system. You are probably using some form of
Windows so this should not be as hard as it sounds.

The long way is to selectively pick what is not needed anymore and start
deleting files. But if it is an installed program you want to remove it
from Control Panel's Add/Remove programs applet. This would probably
require your daughter's help to decide what is important and what is not
unless she gave you carte blanche to erase stuff.

If this information is too hard core let me know :-)

F B wrote:
Altho I am very happy with my webtv, my daughter FINALLY bought a new
computer. took them 2 yrs to buy a racing helmet, that's another
story!
ANyway, she gave me her old one. Not sure how much I will do on the
internet with it, but, SIL said the hard drive is almost full. i have
no idea what any of this means He said I should find a way to clean it
out? Of course if I can do this and any of you could tell me how, it
would have to be VERY detailed instuctions.
One thing, would cleaning this out remove the games I have been
playing? :-(
Emailing to keep this board clean is fine.
Thanks for any and all help.
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

Doris
The simplest way I know of to clear up some Hard Drive (HD) space would
be to:
1. Click on Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on Add/Remove programs
4. Search the list for programs you never ever use
5. Click on them and follow the onscreen instructions for removing them.
6. shut down the computer for 60 seconds
7. restart computer and you should be good to go

Of Course the more initiated computer users out there may have an easier
or more detailed solution for you that would be better. Good luck in
your efforts

Winde
'pants? what are pants?'

There may be an easy way to clean it up without removing ANYTHING....

There should be a "Recycle Bin" icon on the main screen (desktop).
Double-click to open it, and then empty it out.

Every time something gets deleted on a computer, it doesn't get "removed" --
it just gets relocated to the recycle bin. Emptying the recycle bin
actually gets rid of it for good, and can free up many megabytes of space.

--Jeff


"F B" wrote in message
...
Altho I am very happy with my webtv, my daughter FINALLY bought a new
computer. took them 2 yrs to buy a racing helmet, that's another
story!
ANyway, she gave me her old one. Not sure how much I will do on the
internet with it, but, SIL said the hard drive is almost full. i have
no idea what any of this means He said I should find a way to clean it
out? Of course if I can do this and any of you could tell me how, it
would have to be VERY detailed instuctions.
One thing, would cleaning this out remove the games I have been
playing? :-(
Emailing to keep this board clean is fine.
Thanks for any and all help.
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

"Jeff Landon" wrote in message
...
There may be an easy way to clean it up without removing ANYTHING....

There should be a "Recycle Bin" icon on the main screen (desktop).
Double-click to open it, and then empty it out.

Every time something gets deleted on a computer, it doesn't get
"removed" --
it just gets relocated to the recycle bin. Emptying the recycle bin
actually gets rid of it for good, and can free up many megabytes of space.


Also if there is heavy web usage then go to the Tools menu in Internet
Explorer and choose Internet Options... On the first tab there is a delete
files option. When you load a web page images, etc are saved to a temporary
folder on your hard drive. This button will delete those files. Sometimes
this can be a huge amount of disk space.

Thanks to all of you wonderful people.
I'll let you know if I blow it up!!,vbg
I did find out you are NOT supposed to shut shut it off. Hmmm, so much
to learn and so little mind left!
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

"F B" wrote in message
...
Thanks to all of you wonderful people.
I'll let you know if I blow it up!!,vbg
I did find out you are NOT supposed to shut shut it off. Hmmm, so much
to learn and so little mind left!
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

You should never delete individual files by sending them to the recyle bin
unless you are 100% sure you know what you are deleting. You might get rid
of something your computer needs.
If you have a large group of files you want to delete take your mouse cursor
and left click on an open area next to the first file, hold the mouse button
down and drag it down (or up) to select multiple files. Or hold down ctrl
and A together to select all files. Then once you have all the files
highlighted just hold down shift and hit the delete key (you can de-select
files by holding down ctrl or shift and unhighlight them with the cursor)
POOF all gone now. Cut out the recycle bin step that way if you are sure you
want to delete those files.
I'd vote for the start from scratch approach if it's over 6 months time--any
computer needs a flush job just like cars need oil changes. That way you
will hardly ever get migranes from your computer giving you the BSOD.
HTH

This makes no sense at all.

First of all, deleting files by sending them to the recycle bin is the
PREFERRED way to delete them. When a file goes to the recycle bin, the
operating system keeps track of where it came from so that recovery, if it
becomes necessary, is easy.

Secondly, computers don't need "flush jobs" just like a car. Sometimes it
can be necessary to re-install the operating system, but it should not be
done routinely "just because". It's a good idea to make regular backups of
important data in case a re-install should be necessary -- but, never
re-install unless it really is necessary.

Last, there are better ways to select a group of files for deletion than
dragging the mouse over them. While using the shift key is a good way to
prevent the files from going to the recycle bin, it is not the preferred
method because it is permanent -- unless you have the appropriate utility to
UNdelete files and know how to use it (that's a completely different topic).

--Jeff



"bri" wrote in message
ink.net...

"F B" wrote in message
...
Thanks to all of you wonderful people.
I'll let you know if I blow it up!!,vbg
I did find out you are NOT supposed to shut shut it off. Hmmm, so much
to learn and so little mind left!
Doris

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own
pants.
~ Farmers Fighting For Farmers ~
http://www.geocities.com/ampa_ltd/

You should never delete individual files by sending them to the recyle bin
unless you are 100% sure you know what you are deleting. You might get rid
of something your computer needs.
If you have a large group of files you want to delete take your mouse
cursor
and left click on an open area next to the first file, hold the mouse
button
down and drag it down (or up) to select multiple files. Or hold down ctrl
and A together to select all files. Then once you have all the files
highlighted just hold down shift and hit the delete key (you can de-select
files by holding down ctrl or shift and unhighlight them with the cursor)
POOF all gone now. Cut out the recycle bin step that way if you are sure
you
want to delete those files.
I'd vote for the start from scratch approach if it's over 6 months
time--any
computer needs a flush job just like cars need oil changes. That way you
will hardly ever get migranes from your computer giving you the BSOD.
HTH

"Jeff Landon" wrote in message
...
This makes no sense at all.

First of all, deleting files by sending them to the recycle bin is the
PREFERRED way to delete them. When a file goes to the recycle bin, the
operating system keeps track of where it came from so that recovery, if it
becomes necessary, is easy.


But then there is not much of a savings on disk space.

Anyway you should neither outright delete *NOR* send to the recycle bin any
files which are associated with an installed program. The proper way to
remove those is to use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.

Correct.

Any files that you KNOW can be deleted safely (files you created in the
first place), are perfectly safe. And, if you've been backing up your
system periodically, there's no reason to send them to the recycle bin,
since you have another recovery method.

Since I do regular backups, I am not in the habit of using shift-delete when
I go to remove a file. I don't like things going into my recycle bin. It's
redundant and takes up space.

On a related note, NEVER remove stuff from the registry on your own. Good
way to mess up your system and force a re-install!

--Jeff


"PCameron" wrote in message
...

"Jeff Landon" wrote in message
...
This makes no sense at all.

First of all, deleting files by sending them to the recycle bin is the
PREFERRED way to delete them. When a file goes to the recycle bin, the
operating system keeps track of where it came from so that recovery, if
it
becomes necessary, is easy.


But then there is not much of a savings on disk space.

Anyway you should neither outright delete *NOR* send to the recycle bin
any
files which are associated with an installed program. The proper way to
remove those is to use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control
Panel.