# Windows XP Disk Disk Cleanup **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526 "2003-06-08T22:08:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/1 "2003-06-08T22:08:33Z")
I’m running Win XP on an AMD Athalon XP home built system. Whenever I try to run Disk Cleanup to clean up the hard drive it always freezes on “compressing old files” and no matter how long I let it run it wont budge. This happen to anyone else? Any fixes out there? My google skills were lacking for this problem. PC Configuration: Soyo Dragon 333 mainboard 512 MB RAM Athalon XP 2000+ 80 Gig HD (Three partitions: Win XP equals 40GB with 23GB being used) GeForce 4600 TI video card ---
**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/2 "2003-06-08T23:56:34Z")
How long has Windows been installed, and how long has it been since you last ran Disk Cleanup, if ever? It might just be choking on the sheer number of old files, especially if there’s 23 gigs of them (although not all of them will be old, obviously). ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/3 "2003-06-09T02:10:59Z")
Have you tried updating your Win XP with Service Pack 1 available at [http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com](http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) ? ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/4 "2003-06-09T02:54:54Z")
Yeah, already have SP1. Windows has been installed for about 1 1/2 years. Not sure when was the last time I ran disk cleanup though. Is there anyway I can manually do it? I’ve already emptied out the recycle bin and purged my Explorer cache but it still chokes. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/5 "2003-06-09T04:27:07Z")
I’m having the exact same problem, and I like to do disk maintinence every week or two. It’s got me beat too. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/6 "2003-06-09T04:56:38Z")
Try the [disk cleaning utility at PC Pitstop](http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/AutoFix.asp?file=DskClean.js). It’s safe, thorough, and free. One note though; it is a javascript that takes up to several minutes for a large hard drive, and it doesn’t indicate the progress of the utility. It just starts, then disappears for a while. When it is done, it will pop up again, and tell you how much it cleaned. Don’t get impatient, give it time and it will eventually come back. ---
**Author:** ![jromz03](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@jromz03](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jromz03)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/7 "2003-06-09T05:56:15Z")
I remember I waited 5 hours, just to let the DDC finish finding the files, the deletion took just a few minutes. Just let it run (overnight if you have to), and it will eventually finish. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/8 "2003-06-09T09:28:15Z")
Oddly I have precisely the same problem on my brand new laptop. And it bloody well doesn’t finish, even overnight. Bloody MS and their bloody expensive buggy bloody systems. However more productively I wonder if there are any solutions out there, ex-the PC Pitstop thing as such connexions don’t work well for those of us in the developing world. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/9 "2003-06-09T09:37:21Z")
This is a known issue in Windows XP. Try the [workaround](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;812248) from the Microsoft Knowledge Base. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-disk-disk-cleanup/180526/10 "2003-06-09T09:37:39Z")
This may be a longshot, but… I had a system overheating problem for a little while. One of the things that would cause it to overheat and lock up was compressing old files in Disk Cleanup.