Windows 7: reclaim some disk space

[Grauniad]

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/new-windows-7-feature-in-kb-2852386-reclaims-wasted-space-your-c-drive-228449

Microsoft has made available a new update patch that lets you delete old update files. This may reclaim, depending on how old you PC is, between 1GB (on my 3-month old PC) and 10GB on a friend's 4-year-old PC. of hard drive space.

Read the article linked to above for instructions/background. As with all programs/applications. run at your own risk.

Here is the Microsoft Support article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386

[Kingo]

Can't hurt to get back more memory... thank you Microsoft!

[Grauniad]

Kingo. Disk space is not the same as memory or RAM> Disk space is slower and until recently most commonly on rotational platters or disks spinning around.  Memory is typically referred to as RAM and is usually much less than the disk space on your processor. Things are loaded into memory from the disk drive before the computer can process it.

[Kingo]

Kingo. Disk space is not the same as memory or RAM> Disk space is slower and until recently most commonly on rotational platters or disks spinning around.  Memory is typically referred to as RAM and is usually much less than the disk space on your processor. Things are loaded into memory from the disk drive before the computer can process it.

I meant disk space... lol.
I forgot that RAM is referred to as memory. But I do understand the difference between them.

[thepenguin]

Kingo. Disk space is not the same as memory or RAM> Disk space is slower and until recently most commonly on rotational platters or disks spinning around.  Memory is typically referred to as RAM and is usually much less than the disk space on your processor. Things are loaded into memory from the disk drive before the computer can process it.

Grauniad. Both are technically memory.

Also, I'm not sure reclaiming that tiny amount of memory is worth the hassle unless your disk is almost full.

[knucracker]

Wish I could get this to work... I have over 19G in that dir awaiting deletion.

I have win7 sp1, all the latest updates installed.  I installed this update, rebooted, confirmed it was installed by trying to install again.  Run Disk Cleanup, click "Clean up system files".  It runs though and even says at one point in the progress dialog it is "Scanning: Windows Update Cleanup".  But, the resulting list contains no entry for "Windows Update".  It is the same list as before with the same amount of disk space listed as recoverable at the top of the dialog.

One more nudge towards that new system....

[Grauniad]

Grauniad. Both are technically memory.

Also, I'm not sure reclaiming that tiny amount of memory is worth the hassle unless your disk is almost full.

I live and learn. Please post me a link to where a technical definition of hard drive space is called memory?

And a nice hedge on your 2nd statement. Makes it relatively meaningless.

[Michionlion]

I don't know, referring to the disk as a disk is one thing, but the disk HAS memory, so you could use both terms.  In general, though, ram is called 'memory', although not all the time.

[Grauniad]

I don't know, referring to the disk as a disk is one thing, but the disk HAS memory, so you could use both terms.  In general, though, ram is called 'memory', although not all the time.

Google this. :)  Only use memory to refer to both hard drive space and RAM if you want to confuse everyone around you.

[asmussen]

Grauniad. Both are technically memory.

Also, I'm not sure reclaiming that tiny amount of memory is worth the hassle unless your disk is almost full.

I live and learn. Please post me a link to where a technical definition of hard drive space is called memory?

And a nice hedge on your 2nd statement. Makes it relatively meaningless.

Grauniad, this is from the wikipedia entry for Computer Data Storage:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_data_storage

Often the fast, volatile technologies (which lose data when powered off) are referred to as "memory", while slower permanent technologies are referred to as "storage", but these terms can also be used interchangeably.


However, despite that, I agree with you that when discussing computers, it is much better to use the terms separately so as to avoid confusion. It's a pain in the neck when you ask somebody how much memory their computer has and they reply with something like 500 Gigabytes, and then you have to do the dance where you explain to them what you mean by memory. Most technical type guys, myself included, tend to avoid mixing the terms 'storage' and 'memory'.

[teknotiss]

my comp sci lecturer took delight in confusing the two to teach us not to, both are technically memory, but it is sensible to refer to them with seperate terms. personally i don't like using memory for either, but since it's apparently accepted webwide that memory = RAM, i'll go with the flow  :)

[thepenguin]

Google this. :)  Only use memory to refer to both hard drive space and RAM if you want to confuse everyone around you.

"memory" is defined as the capacity for storing information.  It is technically correct to call disk space memory, regardless of how it is confusing when considered without context.  However, we are able to use our brain (and the memory we have within it) to interpret the correct meaning.  In this thread, you seem to be the only one who has tried to use the term "memory" to refer to RAM in a discussion specifically about hard drive space, and so I have to wonder whether you are being confusing more than you are being confused.