During installation, there may be a  message received stating that there is not enough hard disk space to complete the installation. This article explains how to determine how much disk space is left and how to increase, or free up, hard disk space.

Determining hard disk space

Follow these steps to determine how much hard disk space is available on the computer.

1. Double-click my computer.
2. Select the drive to which the software is being installed.
3. Right-click the drive to which the software is being installed (usually, this is C: drive) and select properties.

   

4. On the general tab, note the amount of free space.

   

5. Keep the properties dialog open as while reading the following information.

It is possible that you need more space to install your software than the minimum system requirements in the product documentation state. A general rule of thumb is you need twice as much space as stated. If you need to increase hard disk space follow the instructions in the increase your hard disk space section below.

If you are certain you have enough space to install the software on your computer, something else is causing the error. You can click ok to close the properties dialog, and visit the Who to Contact page for instructions on how to contact your vendor for immediate assistance.

Increase hard disk space

There are several ways to increase hard disk space. The most thorough way is to use the Windows utility disk cleanup. Disk cleanup searches the drive and then walks through the process of deleting:

• Temporary Internet files
• Downloaded program files (ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded from the Internet)
• Files in the recycle bin
• Files in the temp folder
• Optional Windows components that are not in use
• Installed programs that are not in use

Disk cleanup can be directed to delete some or all of the files it identifies.

1. Click disk cleanup in the properties dialog. The disk cleanup dialog opens and the drive is scanned.

   

2. After the drive has been scanned, a dialog for the drive being scanned opens.

   

3. On the disk cleanup tab, select the items to be removed from the hard drive. Usually, downloaded program files, temporary Internet files, recycle bin, and temporary files. To view the files that will be deleted, click view files.  To keep a file, create a folder, then drag and drop the file into the created folder in which it should be kept.
4. Click ok to start cleanup.

Optionally, you can clean unused Windows components and installed programs using the more options tab of the disk cleanup dialog. For more information, search the Windows help by selecting start > help or double-clicking my computer and selecting help > help topics. Search for disk cleanup, Windows components, or add/remove programs.

If you do not want to use disk cleanup, you can do any or all of the following items to free up space on your hard drive.

• Empty the recycle bin: On your desktop, right-click the recycle bin, and then click empty recycle bin. If you are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the files, click yes.
• Delete files in your temp directory: See Clean the Temp Directory.
• Remove installed programs: Uninstall programs that you do not use:
  1. Click start > settings > control panel > add/remove programs.
  2. Select any programs that you do not used and click change/remove.

  Note: It may be necessary to restart your computer after uninstalling the programs you do not want. If you are uninstalling more than one program, you can choose not to restart until you have uninstalled all programs.

• Delete temporary Internet files:
  1. Click start > settings > control panel > Internet.
  2. On the general tab, click delete files.