how big should a fresh XP sp3 install be?

[gazz292]

i've got a 250 gig HD in the computer thats going in my cab, i figured that'd be more than enough, 24 gig for the roms, 121 gig for the chd's, the rest ofr windowz,

but checking the HD usage, i've got around 160 gigs used, that was with the roms on it, mame and mala, but no chd's and the only other proggies i've added was the stuff for the avga card, a processor info tool and headkaze's mame compiler and the mame source code and mingw.

i plan to get rid of a load of stuff i wont need on the cab, but i am amazed to see 160 gigs used on a fresh install.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Depends on the build of windows... There exists 'tiny' versions of XPSP3 with various 'unneeded' and/or 'unwanted' features removed. I seem to recall that windows alone can be made to take up less than 600 megs without removing most features. I know it can be brought down to around 400 with more aggressive trimming. 200 megs in the face of 250 gigs is pretty minimal though.

[gazz292]

jeeez, somethings wrong with my install then, i'll have to ask my brother what he did, as it was him who put xp on it for me,

i know it has the service packs on, .net frameworks, and some things for the drivers of the mb, once i'm done compiling i'll have a go at finding out what is bloating it.

i was going to go for a build of tiny xp, but most people said not to bother when i asked here a few weeks ago, most even said to go for win7,

i may well go for win 7, but it'll be the 64 bit version, but only if i am sure i can get all the drivers i need, i know the avga card will work on 7-64, not sure what else i'll need, sound driver.. that's onboard, but if needs be i'll get a pci sound card,

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/foldersize.htm

Small add on for windows explorer that will allow you to see the sizes of directories in detail view. That should help you more quickly locate large offending directions to get an idea where the bloat is.

[Marsupial]

are there any software that can do trimming post-installation?

let say you want to reduce HD usage and speed-up boot time without reinstalling, is there any method?

[Havok]

Do you have video preview files? That takes up a lot of space as well. And a Windows 7 install is huge. In any case, a 250GB hard drive should be plenty for a dedicated arcade emulator machine...

are there any software that can do trimming post-installation?

let say you want to reduce HD usage and speed-up boot time without reinstalling, is there any method?

You can try CCCleaner to optimize the drive; I've used it and it works well. I would also defrag the hard drive to help with speed.

[gazz292]

Tar for the suggestions, i'lll work through them and get this thing sorted,

i've got mame working now, sorting out setting mala up and all that,

i'll be going thru the computer and take off all the rubbish i dont need, stuff like printing and scanning, camera stuff,

origionaly i was going to remove all networking and internet related stuff, plan was to take the HD from the cab, pop it in the desktop to load new stuff on,
i dont plan on updating mame evey time a new one comes out, but i will if a particular game we like gets emulated better,
so really once it's set up, it'll be left alone... untill windows throws it's dummy out and messes the system up that is.

[flashiv]

See this Microsoft article for lots of good ideas.  Especially the last one about deleting Service Pack files.  Be aware that these files are normally hidden.  I do most of these procedures myself on my cab and on any other computers that I repair for my day job.  Also Ccleaner is great like Havok said.  I use mydefrag for defragging, much better than Windows defragger.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956324

http://www.mydefrag.com/

[Vigo]

Using nlite, I was able to get my XP to around 50mb, and that was with a few extra features that I thought I might end up needing, so kept. I believe that was using SP2.