Best way to increase disk space?

['97ventureowner]

I seriously need to increase the free space on my son's Dell E 310 computer. He has an 80 GB hared drive and I usually run the usual utilities on it to keep it maintained. Lately he has had around 59% free space remaining, but today he complained to me that he was getting error messages when he tried to dl Shockwave and it wouldn't allow him to. The error message said he didn't have enough disk space to do so, and imagine my surprise when I checked the computer told me there was 0% free space.
I ran the Add and Remove program to get rid of some of the programs that are seldom or never used and I also ran disk cleanup which resulted in a total of 10% free space gained. I still can't run the defrag because it's telling me it should have at least 15% to properly run.
While running the Add & Remove programs I noticed a bunch of Java Updates (4 total) at 114 MB each . They are updates 4,5,6,and 7. Can I delete the first three or do I need to keep all of them? I didn't know if the next update supercedes the previous and you would no longer need the previous one.
What other ways can I increase disk space on his computer besides what I have already done? Where would I look to find stuff to get rid of.
He is only 8 but very computer saavy,( as I stated in a previous thread last year, my son has Autism and Aspergers Syndrome which gives him a high IQ for his age and he's ahead of peers his age, especially when it comes to computer knowledge) He is on his computer everyday and has made his own forums, and message boards along with websites and created other things online. Recently he downloaded a program I am not too familiar with called Hypercam, which allows him , I guess , to take video of website actions to post on sites like Youtube? (Anybody familiar with this program?) I do know that video takes up a lot of disk space and noticed that this issue just cropped up in the past few days so I put 2 and 2 together and wonder if he took a lot of video and stored it on his computer?And that is why his hard drive is so full?
While looking on the Add and Remove Program, I noticed that most of the programs listed do not take up much space, so I'm wondering what could be taking up all that space all of the sudden, which led me to think of him dl that Hypercam and using it for video, then storing it.
Any help would be appreciated in cleaning out some of the stuff and resolving the problems caused by it. Thank you.

['97ventureowner]

Issued resolved. I found a folder he had with "videos" he had taken with the Hyper Cam and stored in that folder.Some of these vids were over 10,000,000 with one over 39,000,000 KB. I explained to him about storing things on his computer by using the analogy that his hard drive is like an empty box and everything he downloads or stores there is like adding something to the box. Pretty soon the box is full as in his case and you can't add any more items. I then went through the folder with him and deleted 53 saved videos and now his hard drive is back to 80% free. I'd still like some responses to the question I posed above concerning the multiple listings for the JAVA updates and as to whether or not I could delete any older updates, or do I need to keep all of them as most are between 114 and 135 MB.

[ericn1300]

You should definitely deinstall all but the most current version of Java not just to save space but because older versions have security issues that might make your PC vulnerable.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14738046

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by ericn1300

You should definitely deinstall all but the most current version of Java not just to save space but because older versions have security issues that might make your PC vulnerable.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14738046

Thank you very much for that link and info. I will uninstall it in the morning on my son's computer and also check our other ones for older updates as well. I'm surprised the updates, when installed, do not remove any older versions that they find.Hopefully Sun Microsystems will hold true to their word and make any newer versions/updates automatically remove any older versions that may be on one's computer.

[Oz]

Treesize Pro is a brilliant utility to see where all your disk space has gone:
http://www.download.com/TreeSize-Pro....html?sb=2&v=1

It'll give you a nice pie graph of the space on your disk.

What are your unanswered questions? I'll try and answer them tomorrow.

[Gohan Ryu]

lol usually it's the hidden porn folder that's the culprit.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by Oz

Treesize Pro is a brilliant utility to see where all your disk space has gone:
http://www.download.com/TreeSize-Pro....html?sb=2&v=1

It'll give you a nice pie graph of the space on your disk.

What are your unanswered questions? I'll try and answer them tomorrow.

Actually Oz, I think my questions have been answered. My main question after getting the issue resolved was about whether or not to keep the older Java updates. The other question was if there was a way to find out what was taking up so much space in that short amount of time, ( to which I got my answer by finding the Hypercam folder with all the screen shots,( videos) he took. I guess he's on a site called Club Penguin and many others that are regulars on that site use Hypercam to take videos of their actions on that site and post them to YouTube. He wanted to do the same.)
I do have one more question that I just thought of if you'd like to answer it since your offering . This one revolves around my wife's laptop. It's a Dell Latitude I bought off of eBay earlier in the year. She was hospitalized for an extended length of time, and I bought it to keep her busy, loading it with games and such. It didn't have internet access on a regular basis until June, I hardwired it to our router to get access to download some programs and games. During it's brief time hooked to the Internet, some Microsoft updates were downloaded and installed on the laptop. During the time there was no internet access, everytime you went to sign off, you'd get the message, the shield on the "turn off" button letting you know there were updates to install and to not turn off the computer. I thought that was strange to keep appearing everytime you signed off, especially since the laptop wasn't even connected to the Internet to download any updates. I suspect there may be am update that did not correctly get installed, and is "hanging there".
Is there a way I can locate this update and either delete it, and re-download and install it, or make another attempt to install it the right way?

Originally Posted by Gohan Ryu

lol usually it's the hidden porn folder that's the culprit.

Not in this case, the main computer operator is only 8 years old

[Oz]

OK, if the "yellow update shield" is appearing, click on it and select a 'Custom' installation and note down the update. It will appear as KB followed by 6 numbers. Eg. KB768944. Google this update and you'll be able to download an offline standalone installer. But try installing it using the Custom option first.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by Oz

OK, if the "yellow update shield" is appearing, click on it and select a 'Custom' installation and note down the update. It will appear as KB followed by 6 numbers. Eg. KB768944. Google this update and you'll be able to download an offline standalone installer. But try installing it using the Custom option first.

Are you talking about the yellow shield down in the system tray by the clock that denotes updates are being downloaded? I don't recall seeing that most of the time, only when updates are being downloaded and I have done what you suggested in the past when I do see the shield, ( although the other times I remember selecting the first "recommended" option to install. I do know when I don't see the yellow shield but do see the notification at the sign off screen that something is not right, as I should have seen some notification about updates being downloaded. That is what made me aware in the first place that something might be wrong. I'll check tomorrow when my wife is on the laptop once again, and if there is a shield , I'll do what you recommended and see what happens. Could I tell by looking in "Add/Remove Programs" as to which update might be the one with the issue?

[Oz]

It sounds like the update hasn't installed successfully yet and is having problems, so it probably won't be in the Add/Remove programs list.

If you don't see the Yellow Shield icon, change your Automatic Update settings to "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them".

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by Oz

It sounds like the update hasn't installed successfully yet and is having problems, so it probably won't be in the Add/Remove programs list.

If you don't see the Yellow Shield icon, change your Automatic Update settings to "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them".

I will do that. So is there any way I can locate this "mis-installed " update in the computer so I can delete it or see if it can be re-installed? I wouldn't know where to begin to look for something like that. ( I do not know exactly when it was downloaded, but I know it was over a month ago but not more than 4 months ago.)

[Moppie]

Removing all the porn is a pretty good way to clean up some space.

Buying a new HDD is easier.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by Moppie

Removing all the porn is a pretty good way to clean up some space.

Buying a new HDD is easier.

Nope. No porn here unless you're talking about naked pics of Sponge Bob Square pants
What does "HDD" stand for? Hard drive d----?
I bought a 500 GB external HD earlier this year to use on my computer with the intent of also hooking it up to his if there was something that needed to be saved off of his computer.

[ericn1300]

HDD stands for hard disk drive, interchangable with HD