Increasing Free Disk Space on the System Partition

One of the biggest mistakes I see system administrators make when setting up a new server is not providing adequate disk space for the system partition. A lot of people just assume they can skate by with a 6-10 GB system partition. Unfortunately, once you throw in a year’s worth of windows updates, a couple of service packs, some temporary files, and some new system applications that space can fill up pretty quickly.

There are a few things you can do in these cases to free up some disk space. These include:

• Move the print spooler and page file to another partition
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314105
• Run the disk cleanup wizard
  Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
• Run a disk space analyzer tool to see where space is being taken up, such as TreeSize
  http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/

A combination of these things should allow you to free up a significant amount of space on your system partition.

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Chris Sanders is a network consultant for KeeFORCE, one of the most popular network consulting firms in western Kentucky. Chris is the author of the book Practical Packet Analysis as well as several technical articles. His personal website at www.chrissanders.org contains a great deal of information, articles, and guides related to network administration, network security, packet analysis, and general information technology.