Thinkpads Forum

After cleaning out old files, programs, etc. to improve free space I ran Toolbox and SMART Short Self Test timed out after 12 minutes, all other results were passing. I don't recall seeing this before, it has been several years since last run. Why did this time out? Since SMART is a HD diagnostic is this a symptom or an anomaly?http://forum.thinkpads.com/posting.php?mode=post&f=29#

There's a HDD diagnostic utility in BIOS. Have you tried that?

Thanks, how do is Bios diagnostic accessed? I am somewhat a newbie here. From what I read, HD diagnostics are often false positive and also miss problems. Also, how difficult is copying over existing HD to a new larger HD? There is an large 2G program that needs to be copied intact.

Press F1 on initial boot to enter BIOS. You should see the diagnostic utility right there.

Using a freeware utility such as Clonezilla makes copying drives a breeze.

Thanks George, ran diagnostic and HD passed, no problems found. Can I assume HD is OK? Looking for larger HD replacement eventually, but it it's healthy I'll leave alone for now as laptop is being used to finish a home design project. However, any tips on reducing junk that is taking up so much drive space? I was getting paging file errors and have off loaded most nonprogram files, much defragging, and still only have 10% free space. Why does it needs to run over 120 processes?
Caio,
Bob

One of the things that can eat up lots of hard drive space is System Restore.
You can try deleting some older restore points.

Another would be the Recycle Bin. Empty it if you need to.

I also use CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner to remove temp files and other junk files.

After those steps, I usually run the defragmenter.