How to find unnecessary files. Freeing up hard drive space with - tips from professionals

The capacity of hard drives is getting bigger and bigger every day, but somehow there is always not enough space for them. And this is even more felt in the case of SSD drives, the volume of which, as a rule, is less than that of HDD drives.

If you're suffering from a constant lack of free disk space, our suggested methods will help you free up that space for more important files or programs.

In the operating room Windows system built-in tool that removes temporary files and unimportant data. To launch it, right-click on one of the drives and select "Properties".

In the properties window, select Disk Cleanup.

Select the file types you want to delete (clear) and click OK. Disk Cleanup will also affect temporary files, log files and files that are currently in the trash.

You can also clean up system files. If you need to do this, click the "Clean up system files" button.

After that, you can select the Advanced tab and click the "Clean" button in the System Restore and Shadow Copy section to delete the system recovery files. This button will delete the most recent restore points, so make sure your computer is working properly before clicking it, as you won't be able to use them anymore.

Removing resource-intensive applications

Removing programs frees up disk space, but some programs are marginally small. In the Programs and Features panel, you can look at the "Size" column to determine how much space each program takes up.

If such a column is not visible, select the "View" menu (top right) - Table. But, note that not all programs show how much disk space they take up. The program can take up a lot of space but does not show information in the "Size" column.

In the case of Windows 10 . You can also open Computer Settings and select System > Applications and Features.

Using this menu, you can also remove applications installed from the Windows Store (Windows Store). This menu is also available on tablets.

Disk space analysis

In order to understand what is using hard disk space, you can use hard disk analysis programs. These applications scan HDD and show you which files and folders are taking up the most space. Consider the example of WinDirStat.

After scanning the system, the program shows folders, file types and files that take up the most space. Make sure you don't delete any important system files - better delete personal data files. If a program's folder in Program Files takes up a lot of space, you can delete it - WinDirStat will show you how much space the program is taking up, even if it's not visible in Programs and Features.

Deleting temporary files

The Windows cleanup tool is handy, but it doesn't remove temporary files from other programs. For example, it will not clear the cache of Firefox or Chrome browsers, which can take up gigabytes of space. The browser cache uses your hard drive to save you time when you access sites in the future, but it doesn't matter if you need to clear your drive and free up space.

For more aggressive disk cleaning, you can use CCleaner. It removes useless files from third-party programs, as well as files that Windows Disk Cleanup does not touch.

Find duplicate files

You can use applications to find duplicate files that are not needed and can be deleted. Such programs do not just remove duplicate files, but show them and give you the opportunity to choose which of the files you want to delete. There are programs both for finding duplicates of all file formats, and for finding duplicates of files of some format - for example, images.

Reduce the amount of space used for System Restore

If System Restore is eating up a lot of disk space, you can reduce the amount of space it uses. The downside in this case is that you will have fewer restore points and fewer previous copies of files to restore. Here you need to decide for yourself what is more important in this case - free disk space or the ability to restore the system.

Other Important Windows Features

These methods will help free up disk space, but they disable important Windows features. We do not recommend using them, but if there is a great need for free disk space, then you cannot do without it.

Disabling Hypernation (sleep mode). When the computer enters sleep mode, it saves the contents of memory (RAM) to the hard disk. This keeps the system running without using electricity. The next time the computer boots up, it will start in the state in which it was sent to "sleep mode". Windows saves the contents of random access memory (RAM) to the C: drive (C:\hiberfil.sys file). To conserve disk space, you can disable the ability for your computer to go to sleep.

Disabling System Restore. If reducing disk space is not enough for system recovery, you can disable this feature completely. But in case you need to restore the system to a previous state, you will not have the opportunity to do so.

In conclusion, we want to add that before proceeding with the cleaning hard drive estimate how much free space you need and what files you can delete without the risk that you will need them in the future or their removal will adversely affect your work or computer performance in the future.

And keep in mind that files that are deleted by both standard Windows disk cleanup tools and third-party programs do not end up in the Recycle Bin. Accordingly, there will be no way to restore them.

If a free space on drive C is rapidly ending, then it's time to release it in various ways, which we will consider in this article. After all, a small amount of space system drive leads to all sorts of consequences, take at least the situation when the computer starts to slow down or work in some programs becomes impossible.

Like it or not, but on the system drive "C" there should be at least a few gigabytes of free space.

In fact, there are many ways to free up space on the C drive. In addition, you can add disk space at the expense of other disks. But first things first. After reading this article, you will know where wasting space on the C drive and what to do to get it back. You can take and use any of the described steps right now, or apply all the tips in a complex way and clean up space on the system disk.

Installed programs

By itself, most of the space on the system disk is occupied by installed programs, so first of all pay your attention to this moment. Remove unused programs using a standard Windows utility.

By opening "Start - Control Panel - Uninstall a program" you can sort installed applications by date, size or name. Uninstall unnecessary.

In this way, you can free up, if not several gigabytes, then at least several hundred megabytes, which will already allow disk "C" to "breathe" freely. And I described the process of uninstalling programs in Windows 7 in more detail in the corresponding lesson on this site.

Basket

Remember that everything deleted files most often they end up in the Trash first. A folder called "Recycle Bin" acts as a temporary storage for everything deleted. But in fact, it takes up space on our computers.

In order to permanently erase the data from the recycle bin, just right-click on it and select the corresponding item "Empty recycle bin".

Folder Downloads

Most often, downloaded files from the Internet are saved by default to the "Downloads" folder on the "C" drive. It is not difficult to guess that if you constantly download something, but do not move the files anywhere, then they will begin to take up hundreds of megabytes, or even several gigabytes, and free disk space will become less and less.

Therefore, you need to open "Computer", go to the "Downloads" folder.

And make sure that there are no large files there, and if there are, then delete them or move them to another disk.

This is another step that is more typical for novice users and will help them free disk space in Windows 7 or another system. We move on.

Temp folders

Windows has two Temp folders that store various temporary files. For example, files that are needed when installing programs, drivers, windows update or antivirus and so on. But after they become useless, they can simply be deleted to free up some more space on the C drive.

Open "Computer - Drive C - Windows Folder". Find the Temp folder there and delete all the contents.

If some files are not deleted, it's okay, just click the "Skip" button. The main thing is that most of the unnecessary "garbage" will be removed.

The second Temp folder can be opened through the Start search by entering the query% TEMP% and open the found folder. We clear its contents.

P.S. Don't forget to empty the Recycle Bin if data from the Temp folders goes into it.

Disk Cleanup

Clean up C drive from other unnecessary files, you can use a standard Windows utility. To do this, just right-click on the disk, and select "Properties" from the drop-down list.

Immediately on the "General" tab, we need to click the "Disk Cleanup" button.

And wait a while while the program analyzes the data and finds possible unnecessary files. Then she will offer us to delete them by checking the boxes next to them.

swap file

Windows has a paging file, this is such a thing that is needed for those cases when the main RAM is not enough to perform tasks in programs. Usually, the paging file takes a couple of gigabytes from the system drive "C" for its needs. It is necessary to make sure that these gigabytes are taken from some other disk.

You need to go to the "Properties" of the Computer. Open "Advanced system settings", here click the first "Options" button and on the "Advanced" tab, through the "Change" button, specify the size of the paging file on some other disk. Thus, to free up space on the “C” drive, we get another couple of gigabytes more. But that's not all.

hibernation mode

If you want to save even more space on your system drive, then I recommend disabling hibernation, but only as a last resort. This is a very convenient feature that allows you to put your computer into Sleep mode, leaving open folders, programs, etc., and turn it off even from the network. One way or another, by turning on the computer again, all the opening of the folder, the programs and data in them will be restored thanks to the Hibernation mode.

You can turn off hibernation mode by opening the command line through the search in Start.

And having registered the command: "powercfg.exe -h off" - to disable the hibernation mode. Click " Enter ».

Now, restarting the computer, we will see that there is even a little more free disk space. And to enable this mode again, we need to register a similar command: “ powercfg.exe -h on". Naturally, all this is done without quotes.

System Restore

Another way free up space on the C drive- delete restore checkpoints, as they also take up a certain number of megabytes. To see them, you need to go to "Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore".

A window will open where we can observe checkpoints that are created every time we update drivers, or install some programs, and so on.

This useful feature gives us the opportunity to restore our computer to a more efficient state. For example, after an unsuccessful attempt to update drivers, or after a virus attack. If this situation happens, you can first restore your PC using a checkpoint. I recommend leaving one last dot and deleting the rest.

CCleaner

If you install it, you will see the following window:

The most interesting here are the “Cleanup” and “Service” tabs, where you can: remove everything unnecessary, clear the cache, remove programs from startup, and more. And on the tab " Registry"You can clean it by simply clicking the" Search for problems "button. I usually leave all the checkboxes that are set there.

And the last.

BONUS

As a last resort, if you are catastrophically, chronically and constantly not enough disk space, then you can increase it at the expense of another disk.

Source

How to free up space on the C: drive?

In our age - the age of high technology and huge hard drives with a capacity of 1-1.5-2 terabytes, despite the huge disk space, some problems remain the same. The space on the system disk was running out as before, and now little has changed.

There are a huge number of specialized programs designed to help the user in this seemingly difficult task, but most of them are paid. In this article, we will consider methods for freeing up disk space manually and using free programs and utilities.

Where does the free space on the C: drive go?

In addition to the fact that disk space runs out due to the efforts of the user himself, who actively uses his data storage, and the efforts of various programs and the operating system itself.

In the first case, these are numerous films and music stored on the desktop (after all, we are talking about the system disk C:, and not about others, and by default, all the contents of the desktop are stored on the system drive). If you have multiple drives, whether physical or logical, then you can copy your entire desktop content to one of those drives, whichever has more space. If you only have a disk C:, unfortunately this is not available to you.

In the second case, these are temporary program files that create these same temporary files to store some data that is required during the program's operation until it is closed. In the process of closing the program, these same files should be deleted, but this is not always the case, and they tend to accumulate indefinitely. Temporary internet files if you are using a browser Internet Explorer are also commonly collected. Of course, to free up disk space, you can remove unused programs and games, but today we will consider how to do without victims, namely ...

How to free up space on the C: drive without deleting the programs available there?

To begin with, we will carry out a little preparation, which we will need to more successfully and efficiently get rid of temporary files. For the purity of the experiment, we will detect how much space was on the hard drive of the author of this article and will monitor these values ​​after each stage of cleaning the disk.

1. Go to the folder My computer and select the menu there Tools>Folder Options.

2. Go to the tab View and in the window Extra options select Show hidden files and folders. This is what we need in order to clear temporary files from our profile. By default, these things are hidden from users, but this state of affairs will not suit us. Click OK to save the settings. For Windows Vista/7 users - to get to this window, you need to go to Start>Control Panel, select in the column View small icons and double click on the icon Folders settings.

3. Now click Start, find the Run command there (they are not displayed by default in Windows Vista / 7 - see How to enable the Run command) and type (or copy from here) the% USERPROFILE% command and press the button OK. In the window that opens, go to the folder Local Settings > Temp.

4. Click Ctrl+A and after that the key combination Shift+Delete(delete files bypassing the trash) and click Yes.

All these files can be safely deleted, because. since they got into this folder, they cannot represent any value. However, during the removal process, the following situation will necessarily arise:

Here we answer Yes for everyone

And then this:

Here we press OK, and then we press the key ctrl and left-click on the file with the name indicated on the message to deselect it. After that again Shift+Delete and drive on until everything that can be removed is removed.

Why did such a situation arise? The fact is that we are deleting files from the current profile, so there are files that are currently used by the operating system and programs. Naturally, Windows will not let you delete them, so as not to cause a system crash. Everything else must be removed.

This is what the folder looks like Temp after global cleanup:

How much disk space has been freed up FROM:

This computer undergoes such cleaning regularly, so in your case the result may be much more noticeable. The author once thus freed 20(!) Gigabytes disk space and that's just by deleting the contents of the Temp folder. True, it was someone else's computer.

Let's move on to the next step. I go to the folder My computer, disk FROM:, folder Windows and there is a folder in it Temp. If the following message occurs during this long path:

Feel free to choose Show contents of this folder and move on.

Actually this folder Temp left as part of the operating system only for compatibility with older programs, so it will most likely be almost empty. But the chicken bites grain by grain, so we will clean everything that is possible, and the result will be good. We do everything with this folder exactly the same as with the previous one of the same name. Namely Ctrl+A and Shift+Delete.

In this case, about three megabytes were freed, so it makes no sense to see how the disk space of the test disk has changed.

Clean up temporary internet files. This method works if you are using Internet Explorer. Although, in other browsers everything is deleted in much the same way. We go to Start>(Settings>)Control Panel and double click on the icon Internet Options.

We press the button Delete.

Check the boxes like this and click Delete. And then OK after the removal is complete. We look at how the indicators of free disk space have changed:

Internet Explorer is hardly used on this computer, so in your case the effect may be much more noticeable.

Now right click on cart and choose Empty trash. This is done just in case, you never know, something flew into the basket. You don't store in cart the files you need, right? Just like don't store food in the bin.

Next, we will use the program DupKiller- this program will help us get rid of duplicates. The program is absolutely free. You can download it either from our website (Download DupKiller), or latest version from the DupKiller manufacturer's website. There is a suspicion that in the near future it will become a full-fledged paid commercial product, but so far this has not happened (the program is in the process of beta) - use it!

Installing the DupKiller program

Select the installation language.

We accept the conditions License Agreement.

Nothing much can be changed here, so click Further.

Installation progress window.

Click Ready.

Now we need to go to Start>(All) Programs>DupKiller>DupKiller. Tip crashes on launch. If necessary, uncheck Show tips on startup. Click close.

This is what the main window of the program looks like. You just need to select a drive C:- I have no duplicates on it, so for greater clarity, I selected all the disks. There I definitely have duplicates, tk. I duplicate especially important information on different disks (I physically have 3 of them).

Menu files and folders - select All files.

Menu Exceptions. You can leave it as it is so that you understand how the program selects. After analyzing the selection results, it is possible to add exclusions and scan the disk again.

Menu Search settings- leave everything as it is.

Menu Other settings- leave everything as it is.

Menu Removal- you can leave everything as it is, you can choose Delete files immediately if you are not afraid to accidentally delete something important. For the first time, it is better to leave the option with basket.

We press the button Scan and waiting...

This is how much space is taken up by duplicates on all drives.

And now the routine begins - we put flags on files that we definitely do not need in the form of duplicates. Keep in mind that you only need to check the box for one copy of the duplicate, otherwise it is highly likely that both the original file and its duplicate will be deleted. There is no doubt that in this case even more space will be freed up (smile), but we agreed to do without victims.

Well, the last stage in our epic - disk defragmentation. The defragmentation program optimizes the location of files on the disk (after our actions there is something to work on, take our word for it) and compresses files that have not been used for a long time, which also frees up additional disk space.

To run it, you need to right-click on the disk FROM:, go to the tab Service and press the button Run a defrag.

In the window that opens, click - defragmentation and we go to smoke, eat, for bread, etc., since this process is quite long. It is recommended to carry out once every 3-6 months, depending on how actively the computer is used.

In principle, during the defragmentation, you can even try to do something, however, the computer will work very, very slowly.

An emergency way to clean (free up space) drive C:

As I promised at the beginning of the article, I present a method for the emergency release of disk space from the category "when it's completely screwed up".

You can buy a new hard drive (you can external) and dump some of the information on it, but there is not always time, opportunity, money for this.

In this case comes to the rescue Disk compression. If you go into My computer, right click on the drive FROM:(and for anyone, except for a flash drive and a floppy drive) and choose Properties then you will see a checkbox Shrink disk to save space. After setting it and clicking on the OK button or Apply a window will appear:

Here you have to choose To C:\ and to all subfolders and files and press OK. The procedure will take from 10 minutes to half an hour and will free up a certain amount of disk space.

As a flip side of the coin, in this case, you will notice that the speed of the computer has decreased. This is because the compressed disk operating system when opening a file, it should unpack it, after which it should already perform certain actions. This very "unpacking" takes processor performance and machine time. Therefore, even if you had to compress the system disk, try to find an opportunity to uncompress it back as soon as possible in order to return the computer to its previous performance.

The volume of any hard drive is limited. Even if it contains a terabyte of data, sooner or later the free space will run out. The question arises: how to free up space on the C drive. Why C? Because this is the system partition on the hard drive. Installed programs and important system files are stored here. Other partitions are usually used to store information that can be easily deleted if desired.

If you want your system not to slow down and work without failures, and always have at least some free space on the hard drive, then it will be very useful for you to learn how to free up the occupied space on the C drive.

The main work will be done without the use of additional software. The developers of the Windows OS have come up with a large number of features so that each user can keep the system clean and tidy.

Check Cart

From each section of the hard drive, a certain percentage of the total volume is allocated for the needs of the Recycle Bin. Therefore, the most obvious action is to clean it. It also has a certain limit of files that can be placed in it, but some users often forget to clean it in time. Before this operation, be sure to look into the Recycle Bin - suddenly there were important files there by chance.

After emptying the trash, still not enough disk space? Try uninstalling unused programs. To do this, use the standard Windows tool - Remove Programs from the Control Panel. Open the list of all applications, study it carefully. Surely you will find programs that were once installed, but are no longer needed or simply duplicate each other's functions. For example, users often have two or more media players installed. Remove all unnecessary. Globally clearing partition C will not help, but it is quite possible to win back a couple of gigabytes.

Working with disk properties

To use one of the built-in tools, you need to go through My Computer to the properties of section C. On the General tab, next to the pie chart showing the ratio of free and used space, there is a Disk Cleanup button.

After clicking on this button, the analysis of files and places on the computer that can be cleaned will begin. Then a special window will appear, where all the data that can be deleted will be displayed, indicating the size. You must check the boxes next to the files that you want to remove from the system.

This tool is also launched using the Run menu. It enters the cleanmgr command, which opens the disk cleanup window. This command works the same in all versions of Windows, allowing you to successfully solve the problem of storing unnecessary records, which wastes space on the C drive.

defragmentation

In the properties of the system partition C, in addition to cleaning, there is another interesting tool - defragmentation. You can find it in the Tools tab.

Using the Defragment button, you can optimize the location of files, compress them if they have not been used for a long time. This solves the problem when there is not enough free disk space to write new data.

After starting the defragmentation process, you will have to wait a bit. It is difficult to name a specific time, since it depends on the size of the system partition, but it is better to move away from the computer and do nothing more. Defragmentation is recommended to be done 3-4 times a year in order not to allow the system to become too cluttered.

If there is nothing to delete, there is still no space, and free disk space is vital in the near future, you can use another option - compressing partition C. This procedure allows you to quite successfully solve the question of how to free up space on the system drive C, but it does not recommended for permanent use, which will be discussed in detail below.

To do this procedure you need:

• Open Disk C Properties
• On the General tab, check the box next to Compress disk to save space
• Confirm your intentions
• Apply this operation to C:\ and all attached files and folders

The compression procedure will take from 10 minutes to half an hour. The result of it will be a noticeable increase in the amount of free space in the system.

Why extreme cleaning is not the best solution

The fact is that during compression, all files are archived. Therefore, before opening a file, the system first unpacks it, only after that it performs any actions. Extra movements lead to the fact that the performance of the computer is reduced, the system begins to slow down mercilessly.

Therefore, if you still had to resort to compression, disable this feature as soon as possible. This is done according to the same principle as the inclusion, only the checkmark must be removed.

Cleaning up folders and other ways to increase disk space

We examined the tools that can be used directly in the properties of the system partition. Let's move on to other ways. If there is very little space on the C drive, it is recommended to use as many cleaning options as possible.

Tidy up the Temp folder

During web surfing, as well as when installing programs, temporary files accumulate. It is they who often become the reason that the space on the C drive disappears. To delete them, you need to go to the Windows folder. Here you need to find the Temp folder, in which temporary files are stored. However, it cannot be removed - it is an important element in the correct operation of the system.

But you can successfully clean its contents. For this you need:

1. Select the contents of a folder by pressing Ctrl+A
2. Call up the menu by clicking the right mouse button
3. Select Delete, and then confirm the action

Clear your Downloads folder

After performing the above steps, almost nothing has changed and you still lose free space on drive C? Then we explore further folders that can be cleaned.

Installers of various programs downloaded from the Internet, torrent files, saved documents - all this remains in the Downloads folder and takes up space. Navigate through My Computer to the Downloads folder and see what files have accumulated there. Transfer everything you need to drive D, and delete unnecessary ones.

Attribute "Compressed"

You can compress each folder separately. This is done through the Folder Options, where you need to find the Attributes on the General tab and click the Other button. The Additional Attributes window will appear, in which you need to check the box next to the Compress content function.

After clicking OK, the system will offer to apply the compression function to all files attached to the folder. Indicate your consent by clicking Yes, and wait - the process may take a little longer.

Compressed folders will automatically be marked in blue. Every 50 GB of compressed data gives approximately 2 GB of free space - the final result depends on the type of files, as well as the ability to compress them.

Hibernation mode allows you to put your computer into sleep mode. In this case, all applications remain open. Immediately after the resumption of work, all open files will be ready to go. The function is quite convenient, but not so indispensable, especially if there is little space on the C drive.

Hibernation just for its needs takes a certain amount of free space - not so big, but if the bill goes to megabytes, then it is quite tangible. Therefore, disabling it will be a very good step towards increasing the amount of unallocated disk space.

You can turn off hibernation with command line Windows. Open it through the Start menu and type the command powercfg.exe -h off. Press Enter and restart the system.

The computer can no longer be sent to sleep, but there will be a little more free space.

Reducing the amount allocated for system recovery

Another way to solve the problem is how to free up occupied space on drive C. System restore checkpoints take up little space, but if there are a lot of them, then the volume can be impressive.

But you can’t completely disable the system recovery system - checkpoints can come in handy if you suddenly encounter any problems with drivers or installed programs. However, you can optimize disk space a bit.

Press the Win + Pause combination - the System window will open. Go to the Advanced Settings page, then go to the System Protection tab. Select the system partition C, click the Configure button.

In the window that appears at the bottom, you will see a slider that allows you to set the maximum volume that will be used by the system protection function. Move it to the minimum value.

You can also delete specific restore points. Directly below the slider there is a Delete button, after clicking which another window will open. All available system restore points will be listed here. Do not delete everything - leave at least one, the latest by date.

Clear cache and browser history

Each browser has a cache - a kind of report on web pages viewed, allowing you to quickly access them.

In most browsers, cleaning is as simple as pressing Ctrl+Shift+Del. A special window opens where you can select a specific period (from the last hour to the entire history), as well as the elements to be deleted.