A failed install is taking up a lot of disk space and I can't uninstall. What can I do?
There isn't a lot of free space on my main drive, and I wanted to install software on my PC but it was not installed successfully. However, it got 2GB of the space on that drive, and its not possible to uninstall or remove that program in "add or remove program". How can i remove it?
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It's too bad that the failed install didn't clean up after itself.
A good installer/setup program should do exactly that: if it fails for any reason clean up. That means not taking up 2 gigabytes of space for something that didn't work.
However, you're in that situation, so I'll look at some of the approaches I would take recover that space.
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My first reaction is to use a different tool to uninstall the problematic software. Unfortunately, that tool requires ... installation. I'll assume that things are tight enough such that we'll start by simply freeing up some "elbow room" on your machine.
"... I'm going to focus on the problem at hand: disk space."
Making Some Room to Work
I would do two things to clear up what could be a lot of space on your machine quickly:
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Clear your browser cache. That's covered in this article: What's a browser cache, how do I "clear" it, and why would I want to? For the cost of a little performance the next time you use your browser, you may find that you've recovered a lot of disk space quickly. Of course that space will slowly disappear as your browser cache fills up again with use.
*
Delete temporary files. That's covered in this article: Can I delete the contents of my TMP folder? This has almost no performance cost, and depending on what's been accumulating over time can also clear up a lot of space quickly. Heck, it's possible that the 2GB "used" by your failed install are here, and doing this will recover that.
While the second could possibly actually resolve the issue, it certainly doesn't cover all cases, so we'll assume it didn't.
The goal here was simply to quickly free up some room on your hard disk so that we can install another application.
Revo
My go-to tool of choice for failed installs - or rather for failed uninstalls - is Revo Uninstaller. The free version is all you need (though I elected to support their efforts by purchasing a copy).
Revo will first attempt to run the "normal" uninstall tool for the application if it exists, but then will take additional steps to remove "leftovers" from the registry and elsewhere on the machine.
Revo may well help locate and truly uninstall the failed install you're currently stuck with.
Naturally, of course, it may fail to find anything, depending on exactly how your problematic uninstall failed.
Manual Removal
This gets ... trickier.
I want to be clear that I'm not going to recommend a "manual uninstall", removing all traces of the failed install. That's difficult at best to do, simply because we really have no idea where things might be have been placed.
Rather, I'm going to focus on the problem at hand: disk space.
A program that when installed takes up 2 gigabytes may well be easy to spot, simply based on disk usage.
Where's my disk space going? outlines use of a utility to see what's taking up space on your machine. By examining the relative size of folders - most likely starting with the folders within "C:\Program Files" and/or "C:\Program Files(x86)", you may be able to quickly locate the application by name and find that it is, indeed, using 2 gigabytes in its failed installation.
The initial solution: rename the offending folder and reboot.
I do this first instead of immediately deleting simply to quickly determine if deleting the files would cause a problem of some sort. If the reboot proceeds without error, I'd delete (or perhaps backup and delete, just in case) the folder or files that are associated with the application and are taking up so much space.
If there is an issue after reboot, then I'd investigate that before proceeding. More than likely it is an auto-start entry referencing the partially installed program, which you'll want to remove before proceeding.
While you're at it, looking around at what's taking up space, you might just see if the bigger offenders are actually needed. I'm not saying delete things recklessly, but while you're looking it might be worth checking and considering if additional things need to be uninstalled or moved.
•
It's too bad that the failed install didn't clean up after itself.
A good installer/setup program should do exactly that: if it fails for any reason clean up. That means not taking up 2 gigabytes of space for something that didn't work.
However, you're in that situation, so I'll look at some of the approaches I would take recover that space.
•
My first reaction is to use a different tool to uninstall the problematic software. Unfortunately, that tool requires ... installation. I'll assume that things are tight enough such that we'll start by simply freeing up some "elbow room" on your machine.
"... I'm going to focus on the problem at hand: disk space."
Making Some Room to Work
I would do two things to clear up what could be a lot of space on your machine quickly:
*
Clear your browser cache. That's covered in this article: What's a browser cache, how do I "clear" it, and why would I want to? For the cost of a little performance the next time you use your browser, you may find that you've recovered a lot of disk space quickly. Of course that space will slowly disappear as your browser cache fills up again with use.
*
Delete temporary files. That's covered in this article: Can I delete the contents of my TMP folder? This has almost no performance cost, and depending on what's been accumulating over time can also clear up a lot of space quickly. Heck, it's possible that the 2GB "used" by your failed install are here, and doing this will recover that.
While the second could possibly actually resolve the issue, it certainly doesn't cover all cases, so we'll assume it didn't.
The goal here was simply to quickly free up some room on your hard disk so that we can install another application.
Revo
My go-to tool of choice for failed installs - or rather for failed uninstalls - is Revo Uninstaller. The free version is all you need (though I elected to support their efforts by purchasing a copy).
Revo will first attempt to run the "normal" uninstall tool for the application if it exists, but then will take additional steps to remove "leftovers" from the registry and elsewhere on the machine.
Revo may well help locate and truly uninstall the failed install you're currently stuck with.
Naturally, of course, it may fail to find anything, depending on exactly how your problematic uninstall failed.
Manual Removal
This gets ... trickier.
I want to be clear that I'm not going to recommend a "manual uninstall", removing all traces of the failed install. That's difficult at best to do, simply because we really have no idea where things might be have been placed.
Rather, I'm going to focus on the problem at hand: disk space.
A program that when installed takes up 2 gigabytes may well be easy to spot, simply based on disk usage.
Where's my disk space going? outlines use of a utility to see what's taking up space on your machine. By examining the relative size of folders - most likely starting with the folders within "C:\Program Files" and/or "C:\Program Files(x86)", you may be able to quickly locate the application by name and find that it is, indeed, using 2 gigabytes in its failed installation.
The initial solution: rename the offending folder and reboot.
I do this first instead of immediately deleting simply to quickly determine if deleting the files would cause a problem of some sort. If the reboot proceeds without error, I'd delete (or perhaps backup and delete, just in case) the folder or files that are associated with the application and are taking up so much space.
If there is an issue after reboot, then I'd investigate that before proceeding. More than likely it is an auto-start entry referencing the partially installed program, which you'll want to remove before proceeding.
While you're at it, looking around at what's taking up space, you might just see if the bigger offenders are actually needed. I'm not saying delete things recklessly, but while you're looking it might be worth checking and considering if additional things need to be uninstalled or moved.
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