Decreasing disk space! (and McAfee site advisor won't go away)

[Skeye]

Hello CHF gurus *bows*   

MS Win XP Home
ver. '02
SP3

Not receiving error messages

Compaq Presario PC
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
2.13 GHz 224 RAM

No discernible problems with software(well, except for McAfee)/hardware as of yet

Months ago(September or so) I appealed for help on freeing up disk space(using a friend's PC that had gotten down under 200 MB) and after all the wonderful help, downloading and running the recommended anti-virus/malware programs, it bumped up the MBs a bit, but when I uninstalled AVG8(after having problems with it, not sure what exactly now, slowness I think) the MBs went up to just over 1GBs! But now, it is back down to almost under 400 MB again.

Each time I go online the MBs decrease, get most back after running CCleaner, but not always, sometimes not even half are back. Sometimes I notice more MBs when I log back in the next time. I notice sometimes that when updates are downloaded it says the size and it turns out to be much larger when actually downloaded(from kbs to MBs, especially Windows updates), but even when there hasn't been updates the MBs drop.

I have Avast now([69.70 MB] do I need a different firewall instead of Windows'?).

Java 6 update 11(90.49) is the only other big program that I can remove, is there an open source program that is compatible with Java and can run Java apps? (Do I know what I am talking about? I don't know... ). All the other programs are mainly music related that the owner uses, so I can't remove anything else really.

And speaking of removing: does anyone know how to remove the McAfee Site Advisor?! (this is a fairly new problem, only downloaded a month or so ago) I even googled this question, found the same problems, but no real answer. In the Add-ons, the 'uninstall' won't highlight, so can't use, and it is not in the 'add/remove programs'.

I just went into the Programs and noticed AVG8 still has a folder with empty avgam and log folders and these files: avg8us.chw(which won't open), fixfp (which when clicked on quickly and momentarily pops up a C:/ window, which I am remembering this was a problem when it was installed, it would randomly pop this up), and winspamcatcher(2).dll.

Should I just trash'em?

Under 'Common Files' McAfee has a folder with only an Installer, nothing else.

Ahhh...okay, found the McAfee folder with the Uninstaller, but am reminded of the problem: when I try to uninstall a blank blue window pops up and I have to use Task Manager to shut it off.   

I think that is it for now.


P.S.: If this isn't the right place to post let me know, I followed a link from this thread:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,69137.15.html
(CD's post at bottom)

[DaveLembke]

I feel you might want to etch-a-sketch the system ( Rebuild time ) There is a lot of issues going on, and I would backup whatever necessary data to removable media and rebuild this system from the original system restore CD if available.

If you must carry on with this system in its current state and want to free up hard drive space, take a look in your user profile for temporary internet files and see if there is any unnecessary clutter in there. Also most new Seagate Hard drives come with a cloning package for free to migrate your data from say a 20 or 40GB HD to a 160GB or larger IDE drive... That would definately give you the space you need with little hassle. You could even install an extra hard drive as a slave or set up an external USB hard drive for 500GB or more storage and not have to do much with the C: drive but move your music or whatever to the other drive to free up C:

[Skeye]

Thanks Dave, I have been considering a Seagate EHD and would do what you suggested if it was my computer, but guess what? I was attempting to watch a movie trailer and it said I needed the newest Quicktime, so I updated(still didn't play and said I needed to update  ), then on a hunch checked the disk space....and it was at 1.33 GB! AND it has actually gone UP since then, now at 1.35 GB. I don't know...we'll see how long this lasts.

If anything changes I let you all know....and if possible I am going to get a Seagate soon I believe.   

Peace!

[patio]

If it's still increasing in size at the end of the Month i'll buy that drive from you...

[Skeye]

If it's still increasing in size at the end of the Month i'll buy that drive from you... Grin

lol! Yea, would have been nice if that kept up, but no...it's right back to eating up space. Went from 1.35 to 1.31. and got down to 1.25, so I uninstalled Quicktime to do a little experiment and it is now at 1.29. If this persists without Quicktime I'll reinstall. Perhaps I'll try to stay off the community sites(facebook, tribe, myspace) for a day and see if that changes anything.