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Author Topic: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited  (Read 6153 times)

toulouse

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XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« on: October 06, 2009, 10:56:46 AM »

Hiya gang,

Some of you may recall a topic that I started in August 2008 about the fast disappearing free disk space after I had installed XP Service Pack 3. While I was not alone in suffering from that problem, it seems that many who were, did not see it as a 'biggie'. Well, I'm back now to tell you that I think that I've resolved the problem. As part of my research, as well as many hours spent searching that there interweb, I found a little application called Treesize Free. Some of you may be aware of that or similar tools. Anyway, I was using that tool last week to try and track down where all the missing free space on my C: drive had gone to, and there was this 40Gb file called 'trace.log' in the C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles directory. This apparently has something to do with a Windows component called WMI. When I found this out I went back on that interweb thingy and did a search for WMI and ended up at the Microsoft Knowledge Base where the subject that has been plaguing me since last year was mentioned in a HotFix. There were a set of instructions for modifying an entry in the Windows Registry to set a value called MaxFileSize which I then carried out. Since then, my system shows 71Gb free straight after startup and remains at that kind of level, rather than the free space disappearing as before.

Some of you may wish to try that out if you are experiencing the original problem.


Good luck



toulouse
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exo

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2009, 03:08:19 PM »

Thanks for the heads up.  Not had that problem myself but do get plagued with with msi.temp files under Local Settings.
CCleaner is good at removing all temp and log files.

exo
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camallison

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2009, 04:34:51 PM »

@Toulouse - you don't have the url of the knowledgebase article you mention do you?

Colin
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toulouse

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2009, 08:14:16 PM »

@camallison - sorry I don't have it to hand at present. I'll track it down in the morning and post it up here, OK

TTFN


toulouse
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toulouse

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2009, 07:31:08 AM »

To camallison,

I had a hunt around this morning to track down the article I referred to before. I got to it through MSDN. The article actually appears in the MS Help and Support area and is entitled 'The Global Logger trace log may grow and exhaust all the disk space on a Windows XP based computer', under reference 909547.


HTH


TTFN

toulouse

P.S. it certainly appears to have resolved the issue that I had. YMMV


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camallison

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2009, 08:50:26 AM »

THX - must go and try it.

Colin
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pintosal

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2009, 12:25:32 PM »

WMI refers to the Windows Management Instrumentation service.
It is un-necessary for most home users.
You can save yourself boot-up time and some memory by disabling the service.
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toulouse

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #7 on: October 08, 2009, 12:34:25 PM »

@pintosal

Thanks for that. I don't actually ever remember ENABLING that service; it was probably done automagically after some stupid Windows Update, after all there's plenty of the bl**dy things to choose from. Is it straightforward to turn the service off, if so could you possibly let me know how. I am home user, and I suspect the service is an unnecessary drain on my system as you suggested.


toulouse
 
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camallison

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2009, 01:49:47 PM »

Windows Management Instrumentation - Provides a common interface and object model to access management information about operating system, devices, applications and services. If this service is stopped, most Windows-based software will not function properly.

Found this here http://billmullins.blogspot.com/2009/04/turn-off-unnecessary-services-in-xp.html

Also read this  http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-services-winmgmt.html
« Last Edit: October 08, 2009, 01:52:07 PM by camallison »
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pintosal

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Re: XP SP3 and disappearing disk space - revisited
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2009, 01:02:22 PM »

camallison: the statement "If this service is stopped, most Windows-based software will not function properly." is incorrect. Bill Mullins and others are wrong as far as home users are concerned. If you run an Enterprise network, then that's a different matter.
The WMI service is all about collecting management information about applications. It has nothing to do with the actual functioning of Windows or applications.
For the home user there is very little risk that an application will not work. I run without WMI on my XP/Pro/SP3 and have no problems with any application including Firefox, IE, Microsoft Office, Agnitum Firewall, Avast anti-virus,  many AV applications, Skype etc.

toulouse: It's easy to just try it. If you get problems, turn it on again. The mechanism is go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Then go to the WMI service, right click and in the Properties you can stop it, and disable it. If you want to set it back the way it was, just do the same again but in the Properties, set it to Automatic.
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