Tech support!

My DELL mini only has Ssd and this just keeps filling up. Probably due to up dates etc. I’ve done all the usual clearing out and clean up but the only option is to go back to factory settings. However, for some reason the machine cannot find the retore environment! Please help me!

Not sure that’s really going to help long term TBH, as it’ll still want to download the updates afterwards. Which model of mini, & when you say it can’t find the restore enviro men what exactly do you mean? (Restore options don’t work & or you get an error message?). If you like the unit & want to keep it, how’s about upgrading the SSD & popping windows 10 on while it’s still free (this assumes swapping the SSD doesn’t involve disassembling the unit to much & you have win 7 or 8 installed to upgrade)
Have you tried something like oldtimers TFC utility, to confirm all the temp files are deleted, to keep it working, while you decide?

What version of Windows? How big is the drive? What’s this “usual” clearing out you speak of?

Windows 8.1 and the clean disk utility as well as the system files option

I get the error message that the retore environment cannot be found

Easiest way would be to download the Windows 10 .ISO and use that to wipe it and start again.

If you want to try to reclaim space instead, TFC is very good as Z1ppy said. It’s worth running Treesize too, that can bring oddness to light. (I use it a lot on servers that are eating disk space, it’s brill for rooting out ten years’ worth of unchecked log files that have consumed three quarters of the disk.)

If you run the disk cleanup as Admin it gives you extra options; in particular, it can have legacy OS files shot.

Still think a larger Solid state drive is probably going to head off a repeat of this issue (& there a lot cheaper than they used to be), go search out ‘hdd replacement’ for your exact model of dell mini, they’ll be a YouTube video on how to do it

<nods> that’s why I asked how big the drive was.

Another benefit of upgrading the drive first is it’s easy to revert back if the OS install goes wrong.

Forgot to add,

If you get Treesize, I find it best to grab the .zip and then extract the .exe, you don’t need the full installer as it’s one standalone file.

How do you run cleanup as admin?

As above – treesize is very useful for finding out what is taking up the space on your drive.

Ccleaner is good for cleaning out the crud that builds up – I’d run it first then Treesize to find out what you actually have on your drive.

Then there’s a larger drive – you can get a 240 Gb drive for £55 these days.

How do you run cleanup as admin?

Press Start, type “disk”, Disk Clean-Up should autocomplete in the menu. Right-click it, pick Run as Administrator.

Ccleaner is good for cleaning out the crud that builds up

I’d recommend TFC (as above) over CCleaner. It’s a one-button app that deletes temp files and nothing else. CCleaner is good but is more than capable of trashing a system if you pick the wrong options.

It’s probably worth checking how much of your disc System Restore is using to save Restore Points; in some versions of Windows it could default to silly amounts.

As above, if you’re going to start from scratch why not avail yourself of the free Windows 10 upgrade and do it that way; if you do you could use the option to use the install routine to reformat/partition your SSD (some manufacturers restore system defaults routines store the data on a separate partition which could be taking up a far bit of space).

I can’t avail myself of the free windows 10 upgrade as I don’t have enough space to download it

I don’t have any restore points on my disk

How big is your disk ?

How much space do you have free ?

Essentially no space free. Maybe 600M

Press Start, type “disk”, Disk Clean-Up should autocomplete in the menu. Right-click it, pick Run as Administrator.

start? This is win 8.1
You mean the run command?

Oh. Got it

Nope still struggling. I have abig folder called temp1234 which I cannot delete without permission from trustedinstaller.

Look at the list of programs that are installed on your computer – anything using a decent amount of space that you no longer need ?

If so, get them uninstalled.

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller/%5B/url%5D

Clearing your internet cache should free up a bit of space (depending on your cache size) and give a bit of elbow room. It might also be worth checking if you have a static Page File set (unlikely though).

Things like Office installation packages and copies of old OSes can take up huge amounts of space, but should be able to be cleared from the Disc Clean-up utility.

Also uninstall programs that you aren’t using and bear in mind that some programs might use their own temporary or scratch folders to cache data that’s won’t be picked up by Disc Cleanup; if you’ve been streaming videos for example some of these might be cached on the drive.

Nope none of those high intensity activities
Just msoffice.
I managed to clear about by changing the ownership of Temp1234 and dumped the backup file in winsxs
The 8.1 reset still failed though.
Trying with 10 now.

What size of drive do you have ?

Is paying £55 to get a 240Gb replacement not an option for you ?

Or just buy two 8gb thumb drives, download the ISO to one and then run the bookmaker utility and choose the other as the target drive….

The temp1234 is part of the Dell factory reset image I think.

Be careful though if you’re doing a clean install of Windows 10 as it’ll ask for a serial number for a qualifying product to upgrade; if you don’t have one you’ll need to do an update to Windows 10!

Is paying £55 to get a 240Gb replacement not an option for you ?

Well, yes, but the whole point of the machiine was to have slim machine for little money, add on the £55 and i could have bought something more standard

The temp1234 is part of the Dell factory reset image I think

Perhaps so, bit seeing as it was doing no good, it is gone.

Be careful though if you’re doing a clean install of Windows 10 as it’ll ask for a serial number for a qualifying product to upgrade; if you don’t have one you’ll need to do an update to Windows 10!

even the update fails as it asks for 10Gig on disk, or an alterantive drive, but when i choose alternative drive, it still fails.

AS it is i removed Temp1234 and in the WinSxs folder, which is basically all your windows stuff, there was a huge folder called backup. Had to go Advanced and change ownership of it, but that is gone now as well.

managed to regain about 8 gig of 20 in total, that will do

20Gb isn’t a hard drive – it very nearly isn’t a memory stick’s worth of storage.

If you stick with the current drive you will always be running out of space.

Can i use an external hard drive as my main hard drive?
20GB is just to run windows and Office, it’s all its used for.
in reality only about 12G of that is available, about 8G is partitioned as recovery. I’m not sure i can access that

You can’t (easily) boot Windows from an external drive, no.

Has it seriously only got 20Gb of storage? Which model of Mini is it? A quick Google would suggest that the EEE-era Mini 9 had 16Gb of storage, but the Mini 10 (2009) had a 250Gb drive.

If it’s a Mini 9 I’d be tempted to give up and throw Linux at it.

Be very very careful deleting things from WinSxS, you can cause problems. The “backup” folder isn’t a backup in the typical sense, it’s a copy of different versions of resources that different programs may require. It’s protected for a reason. The Admin mode Disk Clean-up I suggested earlier can clean WinSxS in a safe manner.

even the update fails as it asks for 10Gig on disk, or an alterantive drive, but when i choose alternative drive, it still fails.

That sounds like you’re doing an upgrade rather than a wipe and reinstall, that’s unlikely to work. But if your disk really is 20Gb, you’re barely over the minimum requirements for W10.

Yeah, i may just leave it at 8.1.
It’s only for the kids’ homework, so very low load.

I think this still applies, I might be wrong. To get your free Windows 10, you must first upgrade your system to register it with Microsoft. You can then do a clean install via an ISO CD/USB.

I can see 3 options:

1. leave as is and hope that your kids don’t need to store anything.

2. Put Linux on it and give your kids an extra lesson in using a non-Windows OS ( and hope they don’t need to store much ).

3. Put your hand in your pocket and buy a larger drive. http://www.ebuyer.com/721080-adata-premier-sp550-120gb-sataiii-2-5inch-ssd-asp550ss3-120gm-c will set you back the cost of a tyre.

I think this still applies, I might be wrong

You are. Used to be the case, but not necessary with the latest build.

Put your hand in your pocket and buy a larger drive

If it’s a Mini 9 you’re going to struggle to replace the drive, it’s some weird PATA thing.

If it’s a Mini 10, it should have at least 250Gb in it.