How do I regain disk space after deleting programs?

[uncwltr]

All,

I have a laptop running XP. It has a 60gb hard drive which was about 40% full. I decided to buy a 250gb external drive and empty out as many programs as possible to give Windows more space. I deleted approx. 10gb of programs and when I finished (according to Windows Explorer) I hadn't gained any space at all! I went to the prompt and ran the old DOS "chkdsk" command and it told me the same thing. I defragged and still didn't gain any space. Now, I no longer have the programs installed and I don't have the space either. (I hate Windows)

Can anyone tell me how to convince Windows that the programs are gone and the space is empty?

thanks,
uncwltr

[sp_100]

Did you delete files and folders or uninstalled programs?

[1badtech]

Originally Posted by uncwltr

All,

I have a laptop running XP. It has a 60gb hard drive which was about 40% full. I decided to buy a 250gb external drive and empty out as many programs as possible to give Windows more space. I deleted approx. 10gb of programs and when I finished (according to Windows Explorer) I hadn't gained any space at all! I went to the prompt and ran the old DOS "chkdsk" command and it told me the same thing. I defragged and still didn't gain any space. Now, I no longer have the programs installed and I don't have the space either. (I hate Windows)

Can anyone tell me how to convince Windows that the programs are gone and the space is empty?

thanks,
uncwltr

Did you empty your recycle bin?

[djwonderstick]

One, check that all the file folders have been erased.
Two, restart your computer.
Three, use a program like CCleaner to clean your registry of excess/unnecessary garbage, and to clean your harddisk of temporary/useless files and the likes.

[smth]

What Anti-virus do you have? If it is any version of Norton AV, it requires to purge Norton protected files to free space (yes, it’s not convenient sometimes). You can do it by rt clicking to the recycle bin.

[uncwltr]

Originally Posted by djwonderstick

One, check that all the file folders have been erased.
Two, restart your computer.
Three, use a program like CCleaner to clean your registry of excess/unnecessary garbage, and to clean your harddisk of temporary/useless files and the likes.

I used the uninstaller to remove the programs, checked to be sure the files were really gone, emptied the recycle bin, used the Windows system cleaner to remove unnecessary files, defragged the disk, restarted the computer cold,...
nothing helped. The only space that I regained was that which Windows deleted when I emptied the recycle bin and cleaned unnecessary files; about 2gb. The 10+gb that I uninstalled is still occupied, as far as Windows is concerned.

However, I do used Norton, and information about purging protected files is something I haven't tried. I'll give it a shot and let everyone know how it turned out.

Thanks,
uncwltr