Disk Full, Now 'Won't Boot'?

[macman81]

I am going to look at an XP system tomorrow where the owner says it was running very slow. She was getting 'disk full' warnings (which she ignored), now she says it won't start up at all-no details beyond that, but she appears to be getting BSOD when she tries to start up, if I understand her description correctly.
I didn't think that a full hard disk would actually refuse to boot, just that it would be difficult to open any programs or save files etc-doesn't Windows reserve sufficient space to run it's own system files?
If this is the case, what is the best approach please-should I try starting up in Safe Mode or Last Known Good Config, then free up some disk space?
I'm told the antivirus has expired as well which adds another little problem to the mix...

 

[Estrella]

I am going to look at an XP system tomorrow where the owner says it was running very slow

You either have a lot of friends with poorly PC's , or you are moonlighting as PC tech.

 

[macman81]

Well you know what happens. You fix one for a friend, they mention it to their friend, suddenly you have extra friends!
Never ceases to amaze me how many people will live with a system that's performing so badly until the chance of getting it looked at for free or at least cheap comes up!

 

[TonyWarrington]

You either have a lot of friends with poorly PC's , or you are moonlighting as PC tech.

Ok, taking it as being a friend of a friend and you are not moonlighting. I suggest:

You need to make a note first of the BSOD message and error number.

If the BSOD fault is software or drivers related then Safe Mode should load correctly and allow you to delete applications files etc to allow you to free up HDD space.

If safe mode does not work, and/or you get the same BSOD message you should try the 'restore last known good configuration' option.

 

[mattylad]

I have had this many times with my youngest son, he is into making game levels & 3d images etc so takes up loads of space & is always filling his drive.

You need to be able to boot either into safe mode (if it will) or with a USB stick or CD (ISTR I used a XP boot disk and quit to DOS) and then clear up some files.

Usually a manual delete of temp & temp internet files is enough to restart.

Then a good clean up & backup of as much as possible, then some severe deletion is needed.

If she wants to keep all her files then perhaps she needs another larger hard drive