Vista C Drive

aet3

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Good afternoon,
Please bear with me as my computer knowledge is limited.
My elderly brother bought a Laptop 2 years ago.
He only uses it for purchasing on the internet, emails and writing letters etc.
He has only downloaded and installed Windows Update and Norton 360 updates over this period.
Yesterday, a Norton update message came through, which downloaded OK, but when it got to "install" etc, a message appeared;
"Cannot continue, disc full".
When I got him to check the Vista C drive - it showed 209MB Used and only 55GB Free.
I assume that his hard drive must have been far larger (estimated due to age of computer 500GB).
Can anyone suggest what has happened please.
Also, is there anything he can do ??
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
 
Right click on Computer in the start menu, pick manage and then go to the Disk Management section. They'll show you the capacity of the hard disk rather than just the C:\ partition.

Vista was replaced almost six years ago now so sales of Vista laptops tailed off in 2010. Even if it was a business laptop that picked it for compatibility Microsoft stopped all sales of Vista three and a half years ago in October 2011.

So it's very unlikely to be a two year old laptop if it's running Vista. If it was bought two years ago then it was probably as a second hand machine (or some seriously old stock).

Some Vista machines did come with 64GB SSDs and 80GB hard drives, particularly early or cheap models. Factor is a recovery partition for restoring windows and you can easily run into this issue.
 
Right click on Computer in the start menu, pick manage and then go to the Disk Management section. They'll show you the capacity of the hard disk rather than just the C:\ partition.

Vista was replaced almost six years ago now so sales of Vista laptops tailed off in 2010. Even if it was a business laptop that picked it for compatibility Microsoft stopped all sales of Vista three and a half years ago in October 2011.

So it's very unlikely to be a two year old laptop if it's running Vista. If it was bought two years ago then it was probably as a second hand machine (or some seriously old stock).

Some Vista machines did come with 64GB SSDs and 80GB hard drives, particularly early or cheap models. Factor is a recovery partition for restoring windows and you can easily run into this issue.

Hi
Thank You for your prompt response - greatly appreciated.
I will have to talk to my brother, he lives a long way from me, so I have to go by what he tells me, and unfortunately, at his age his computer knowledge is negligible.
So between us, we are struggling. !!!!
My best suggestion, would be to take it into PC World, where he bought it, for help !!!!
Cheers.
 
PC World don't have a great reputation for customer service. I would hesitate to recommend then to anyone without a clue. Especially the same branch that sold a Vista laptop in 2013. Are there no younger family members or more technical friends nearby that could help?

Does the laptop have a D: drive? It wasn't uncommon a few years ago for laptops to come with multiple partitions so it may be a 160GB or 250GB drive and you could delete the second partition (D: ) and expand C: to fill the space (that would be shown and done in Disk Management again).
 
PC World don't have a great reputation for customer service. I would hesitate to recommend then to anyone without a clue. Especially the same branch that sold a Vista laptop in 2013. Are there no younger family members or more technical friends nearby that could help?

Does the laptop have a D: drive? It wasn't uncommon a few years ago for laptops to come with multiple partitions so it may be a 160GB or 250GB drive and you could delete the second partition (D: ) and expand C: to fill the space (that would be shown and done in Disk Management again).


Hi Again
Thank You for the additional suggestions.
Please bear with me, and I will contact my brother and see if I can glean the answers required.
Thank You for your help.
Cheers.
 
Hi,
I assume the laptop has 209GB used and 55MB free, not "209MB Used and only 55GB Free" ?
In which case thats a massive amount of space for only windows and norton to use - should be more like 50Gb.
The drive is probably a 250Gb drive.
Maybe the drive needs cleaned of all the unused useless files left over from installing years of updates, try downloading CCleaner, let it scan and see what that says.
Also I would get rid of Norton and Install Avast or another free virus program as Norton is very resource hungry.
 
Hi
I am waiting for my brother to send me some screen shots.
But he insist it does say : 209MB Used and 55GB Free.
This is what I cannot understand.
I will revert if I glean any more useful info from him.
Cheers.
 
The disk full message wouldn't come up with 55GB free. It's likely 55GB used and 209MB free.
 
Also I would get rid of Norton and Install Avast or another free virus program as Norton is very resource hungry
Was resource hungry, but generally is a good AV/IS program now - but I personally would avoid 360 and buy their IS suite instead.
IIRC it was Norton 2005/6 that really was resource hungry and it took them a fair few years to get it back to a reasonable resource level, but it is now one of the better IS suites and I know many users that are more than happy with it.

We use Symantec (who now own Norton) Endpoint Security where I work and that is a good business level AV program and is very light on resources.

Mark.
 

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