Acer laptop memory full ...of what??

[learntojive]

My daughter's laptop is showing as only having about 10gb of her 250gb hard drive space free. I've defragged, emptied all the temporary files and uninstalled most of the programmes but it's still full. She's giving it to her grandma and getting a new one (so she can fill that full of rubbish too I suppose) so i want to clear it. Where is it all stored and how can I get rid of it?
She downloads a lot of stuff so could that stored somewhere I'm not looking? it is Vista which I'm not very familiar with.
Thanks

[Jumbuck]

There are various programs which give a graphical display of disk usage e.g. http://www.xinorbis.com/xinorbis/index.htm and using these can let you work out where all the disk space has disappeared.

[looobylooo]

hi jumbuck
i just installed that programme you recommended, but it looks a bit too complicated for me so im just trying to uninstall it - but i cant seem to find it anywhere in my programmes - theres nothing under that xinorbis name...?
ive searched for the latest installs, but nothing shows for todays date, 22nd jan.
any help please?

[LeMarchand]

Try JDisk report http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/index.html (you need Java installed, which you probably already have); get the WIN version. Once installed, run it and scan your main disc; it will provide a pie chart of where the space is being used. If you have more than one disc you MAY need to scan them, but most laptops only have a "recovery" partition which you should leave.

Come to think of it, Acers tend to have a recovery partition - if your daughter is definitely getting a new machine and doesn't seem worried about what's on the old one - why not just wipe it back to factory settings?

[learntojive]

Lovely, I'll have a look at that ..thanks for your help