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Tip 9: Increase available disk space by scaling back System Restore.
It's not perfect, but Windows System Restore is a useful first step in recovering your PC or drive from a major system error. However, it can consume more than 10 percent of your total hard drive space.
If you find yourself desperate for an extra few gigabytes — particularly on secondary storage drives — there's an easy way to reclaim data space by simply limiting the number of System Restore points Windows XP establishes. This one's a snap and there's no tangible increase of risk, which is why we love it.
1. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties > System Restore.
2. If you have just one hard drive, skip to step 3. Otherwise, select the drive on which you want to gain storage space and click the Settings button.
3. Adjust the slider to the left to use less disk space, and Win XP will reduce the number of System Restore points by the appropriate amount.
 Reducing the space devoted to System Restore points is an easy way to regain a few gigabytes on a hard drive. Click image to enlarge and to see image gallery. |
Tip 8: Scrub your hard drive clean.
Windows Support Tools, provided free by Microsoft, are a suite of some 20+ separate applications that are extremely handy for a number of uses. Ordinary PC users probably won't use many of these apps — they're mostly used by IT pros to troubleshoot and analyze Windows XP. But even if you're not an expert, don't be afraid of using the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility, which will help you remove all leftover files from a failed uninstall of a Windows Installer application.
Download Windows Support Tools from Microsoft's Download Center. (If you're curious about the other apps in the suite, check out the help file included in the Windows Support Tools Program group.)
To run the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility, go to the command prompt (select Start > Run) and type msicuu.exe. You'll see a list of all applications with uninstall data. Select the ones you want to get rid of and click the Remove button. Obviously, you want to use caution here — don't clear the install data for an application unless you're absolutely sure you won't ever need it.
 The Windows Installer Clean Up utility will help you completely eliminate unsightly Windows installations gone wrong. Click image to enlarge and to see image gallery. |
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