Freeing disc space

[Eireann]

Oh, here's something.

Last night, I downloaded some video-burning software, so I could make a DVD for a friend. The software didn't impress me. A window popped up telling me something - what, I don't remember now - and I clicked "OK".

The window just kept popping up, again, and again. Finally, I got tired of it, and it was late anyway, so I shut down the computer.

Well. Today, when I turned on the computer, nothing. It turns on, and the lights below the on/off button are green and all that, but the monitor just sits there, screen black. AND, the lights on the keyboard aren't illuminated. AND, I can't turn it off; I have to unplug it. No action whatsoever.

What now?

[Der Cute]

Ok.
First, check the cable connecting monitor to PC. Are both ends tight? Is the power cord into the monitor tight? Is the video card tight in it's slot in the machine? Is there any "on" light (amber) on the monitor? Off = no light. On but no signal = amber. On and signal = green. If there is nothing going on with the monitor - try a different one.
And double check the power cord to the computer.
Is your keyboard wireless or wired?
First if it's wireless, check the keyboard's batteries. Is the keyboard pod plugged in to the USB port correctly? Ok.
If it's wired, check another USB port. Try a different one, like front. If the keyboard does not light up, swap keyboards.

Try to start up the machine, after figuring ifi it's monitor keyboard or such. Once you get light and keyboard running, start the machine in safe mode. F8 the hell out of it when you boot up.

Uninstall that DVD software. The partition stuff is much more important - you have almost no space in your C; drive, and when that happens, the OS also gets unhappy (needs swap file room) ...Your apps AND the CPU want space in the C: drive.
Once you've got the partition stuff settled, THEN you can do the other stuff.

And why did you install something when you have very very little room on the machine?

[Eireann]

When it happened, I checked the monitor connection, the mouse connection, and all other connections. The lights under the on/off button were green. It just wouldn't turn off, and I knew the monitor was working, because I pressed the "Menu" button.

I talked to one of the guys living in this house, and it turns out that he does know a few things about computers. We plugged in the computer and he took a look at all the connections, then suggested I might need a VGA card - which he just happened to have! He got it, we installed it, we plugged in and turned on the computer, and it all worked!

This is an old card, so the graphics aren't up to dealing with everything about the system I'm running - the image isn't full-frame - but for now, it's just fine with me.

When I download a program, I always save it to D. Does this have any effect on C?

[Der Cute]

The video card was a thought I hadn't posted. Derp.
Yeah the video card isn't all up to par, but you're getting somewhere.

As for the install; yes and no. You installed to D:, that saves a lot of space on the C: drive. And I know you've freed up other space by uninstalling apps and stuff.
But- swap file lesson - when a computer is running, it uses RAM, right? We all know this. Well, sometimes an app is kind of "paused" but not really being used, like you've stopped writing on Word while you go play Solitaire and check email etc. Word's UP but not doing anything. And so, adding all those apps, active and paused - the RAM is full. So you start typing up on Word again, but the other apps are still there, paused (solitaire, email, all the other stuff). Word needs more RAM space, but shit, RAM's full.
Swap file - physical space on a hard drive for RAM space. RAM's full, it needs a bit more "space" to do it's job for you. So it uses a bit of hard drive. It'll park the "paused" apps there, since you're running actively.
Swap file - space needed by RAM. Drive too full or fragged or just f'in slow hardware - will slow you down.

Again. Partitions are pretty important here. Is it possible you can get on ANOTHER pc while you're doing a partition and hook up with one of us here, on Skype or such?

We can go look around for vid cards later.

Oh. And the reason I said monitor/keyboard? Physical stuff first. Check plugs, check batteries, check under the desk..etc.

[Eireann]

Well, I've succeeded in freeing a few GB of space on the C drive, without compromising anything. It turned out that I had video files waiting to be burned, and, well...

Yeah.

The C drive looks happy now; I think I even heard it sigh with relief. It's still important for me to create more space for it to breathe. I'm not sure if I can Skype on another computer - I do have an ancient (by computer terms) laptop, but when I tried using it the other day, something was up with it, too. It told me to press F1 or F2, but nothing happened when I did.

[barcode]

Me again.

Der Cute
The video card was a thought I hadn't posted. Derp.

I was thinking she had the camera plugged into the firewire (I've had a few computers that wouldn't boot if a non-booting USB drive was plugged in. Go figure.).

Eire, could you post the make/model of video card (if your friend is giving it to you), so we can direct you to the proper driver download to get the resolution back up to snuff? I'm guessing you're stuck at 800x600 or 1024x768. Also, the firewire card should be auto-detected by Windows. You can check this by going into Device Manager (right-click "My Computer" --> Hardware --> Device Manager), and looking for the card or anything that says "1394 Adapter". If you see it, and it isn't flagged (yellow or red symbol), then it's there and working. If not, post make/model of card so we can do some detective work.

Also, DerCute may have been a bit confusing about the swap file (Linux/Mac calls it a swap file or partition, Windows calls it a page file). Essentially, it's one big file on the hard drive that anything that doesn't fit into RAM, or hasn't been used in a given time frame, gets swapped/paged/spooled out to. Typically, this file should be as big as the RAM installed, and long ago (on Linux), it was recommended that it be twice the RAM. So, if you have 2GB RAM, your swap should be about 2-4GB. With Windows, however, they decided to go with an "On-the-fly" design, and it grows/shrinks as needed. You can tweak this feature to set up a permanent page file size. I don't recommend doing this, as if you set it too low, your performance takes a big hit, and if set too big, you run out of space on the HD.

So, this file (hidden) and all the various temp directories that Windows and the installed programs use are usually sitting on the C: partition by default. This is why DerCute (and I!) are stressing that you re-size C: to allow for a bigger page file (especially for video editing!). Yes, you're installing programs and saving files to D:, but Windows is still throwing all kinds of crap on C:. I still maintain that you should backup all pertinent data, as DerCute outlines above, and get that partitioning done right. Speaking of which...

I went through that link to the gPartEdMagic again, and found some things he left out. The sections about how to move and resize are all okay, it's just that he left out one nifty feature: Partition Copying! Yup. You can select one drive (say, your C: drive), right-click and select "Copy", then select the blank (new) drive and right-click-"paste" the partition to it, and then hit "Apply". It'll partition, size, and copy all the contents over in one operation. Cool! (For advanced Techs out there, it's essentially the same as using MaxBlast or SeaTools to do a direct clone.) Lastly, my experience with using PartEd has been fun. I cannot say enough good things about this utility, and how many times it's saved my bacon. The best thing about it is that I haven't lost one bit (or byte) of data using it. Although they recommend backing things up (always a good idea), there have been times when that was not possible, and I crossed my fingers and hit "Apply". Everything worked.

Eireann
I do have an ancient (by computer terms) laptop, but when I tried using it the other day, something was up with it, too. It told me to press F1 or F2, but nothing happened when I did.

If it was sitting around long enough, the CMOS battery is probably dead (as well as the main Lion battery). Most laptops use the standard CR2032, some use a 2016, and some use an esoteric type. Post make/model and we can hopefully tell you which one and how to. For testing, try plugging in the charger and leaving it for about 30 minutes (supervised!) to charge up any backup capacitors, and to see if it can give some kind of charge back to the Lions. After some time, it should boot up, complain about batteries, then launch the OS. (My HP P3-700 from 2001 just went through this very thing! Poor widdle thing.) Note that Lion batteries for laptops typically have "suicide chips" in them that prevents any charging if the batteries drop too low (Volts-per-cell) or have been over charged (unlikely, as there's another chip to prevent that).

barcode

[Eireann]

SO MUCH information!

Wow!

Okay, one reason why I've hesitated about repartitioning is that I don't have the discs for several programs. The guy at work did the installation, he had the programs, he had the discs, I didn't (and don't). Hence, if something happened, I would have no way to re-install many programs. The most important programs, that is. If there's any way to save them to disc, then re-install if something happens, I'd love to hear it!

[Der Cute]

Can you post a drive management pic for us?

[Der Cute]

@ Barcode...swap/page, heard and used both for windows. Wasn't my analogy ok? Oh and that app sounds even better than it did before! Man, why couldn't I have had that a few years ago....BTW her comment about Skype? I think she's trying to install Skype for communications; a previous post I had suggested using a sep computer to do this together. Cuz you cant have Skype running when it's partitioning!
OH hey, Barcode..after the partition has been fixed up, how about we redirect My Docs, My Pics, My stuff to the D: drive instead, making sure data doesn't normally get stored on C:?

But yes, back yo shit up NAO. You have GOT to repartition this thing because, as we've said, you need more space to juggle things. Even if you do have more than 1GB of space extra, there can still be issues that you won't see.

And along w/ Barcode's laptop thoughts; try charging it as he said. Any luck? No? Try disconnecting the battery (the big old clunky one) and just let it sit for a bit. Put that back on, try charging...? Can the laptop run with just straight power to it, not using battery?

And when it started and it said F1 or F2, was the screen also mentioning something like No Drive Found or No Operating System Found? I'm really curious on what this oldie is now.

[Eireann]

Oh, don't worry that I was thinking of using Skype on this computer while trying to repartition it! I understood what you meant. The old laptop and the new computer both have Skype, and just as you suggested, I can at least try to run Skype on the laptop so we can communicate. I haven't tried turning on the laptop and letting it charge up for half an hour - I've always had to plug it in, because the battery just loves to go south and stay there if I try running it alone.

As for documents and pictures, they're all on the D drive anyway. There aren't any left in C; I checked. I did discover that my Kindle books go to C by default. That's about it.

[Der Cute]

Video update, redirecting saving stuff created by apps

As for documents and pictures, they're all on the D drive anyway. There aren't any left in C; I checked. I did discover that my Kindle books go to C by default. That's about it.

I'm glad you took the thought about Skype on a separate computer! It's great that you're being really thorough with your files and looking in crooks and nannies (house phrase). Please remember to run CCleaner often, especially after moving lots of data file junk.
If you need to do any more installations, remember to try to do "advanced installation" when you're installing. Make sure the .exe gets installed to C: but when data /stuff is created it is stored in the D: drive. Pay attention to each step in an install. Example = Files we've created with the Beavis app stores into c:\user\my pictures\Beavis. Change that to D:\BeavisData or what you want to name it. This way any data created from Beavis.exe is stored there. But do that DURING the installation, please.
My webcam app created it's own folder in the C: drive for storage. I can change that. It IS easier when you're installing shit.

Could you go through the puter again and find anything else you might have leftover?

Re: video card model and stuff.
Ask your buddy if he has a box or a manual left over from that old vid card...if he knows name/model/anything more about it. If not, try using Device Manager. Start menu, Control Panel, find Device Manager. Open up the window. You'll have a tall vertical tree. Click on the Display Adapters line.
When it's expanded you'll have (hopefully) a name/brand/model of a video card.
We can use that to find drivers for it online. This is the best way for it. If you're still stuck, we can go back to physically pulling the card for info.
I want as LITTLE change to this machine as possible, so there's nothing/no app to blame when we partition it. We get the driver for this, install it, run the machine for a bit and make sure it works fine.

When you've got most of your stuff setup ready for the partition change, I want you to make sure you've done a CCleaner (temp files, bits and bobs, registry cleanup). And make sure the C: is as defragged as possible. Run the PC for a bit, drive it, do what you'd normally do; surf, create something. this makes sure it's ALL ready and isn't fucked up.
Then the next step would be the partition change.

Barcode: What would you think about having her make a recovery disk and backing up this C: drive/ OS stuff to something else? And passwords? Like an external, or something else? I'm just paranoid.
Oh and we gotta make SURE there's a utility CD to get in if needed.

Eireann; this is actually fun for me. Pardon that, but I really like doing these kind of things.
Barcode: I miss this stuff!

[Eireann]

Okay, the computer automatically defrags once a week, so that's taken care of. It's the OS that concerns me. I can always save data, but programs?

I downloaded CCleaner once, but since you have to pay to use it, I let it fall by the wayside. I'm currently burning data to a CD; luckily, I have several CDs, almost a cake box full of 'em.

The video card is, I think, a late-'90s version. S3 TRIO64 V+. I tried goofing with the settings last night, and came up with some startling results. Fortunately, you don't have to stay with the changed settings. S3 doesn't make drivers for its own products anymore, and Driver Guide was more than happy to try to add a virus to my computer, so that's out.

[Der Cute]

Uh, pay for CCleaner? WTF? It's FREE. Download from CNet here: http://cnet.co/xCcsRi
Here is a page for your drivers - it's from the mfg. http://bit.ly/KPXvoM
You may NOT be able to set the video as you want to- this is an ancient card with (probably) crappy resolution. I don't think it would even do 800x600. So using this, you hobble along.
Keep your eyes open for another video card for yourself.

What's your question about programs..? You can save data but programs? what do you mean?

And are you burning what data?

[Eireann]

I'm concerned about Windows, for one, since I don't have a way of reinstalling it. Not to mention certain other programs that Computer Guy installed for Former Company.

[Der Cute]

So if Computer guy installed this stuff, where are the disks for it, the originals, the keys for it?

psst. Magical Jellybean Key finder. This will find your keys for your programs