Cleaning your hard drive from unnecessary files. How to quickly clear a disk from a laptop or PC from unnecessary files
Disk C, by default, is the disk on which the Windows OS system files are located.
Over time, it becomes quite clogged and the memory on it becomes less and less. It seems like nothing was installed, nothing was downloaded, but there is still very little space.
There are usually two reasons for this phenomenon: clogged temporary files folder and a large number of system restore points.
Removing temporary files from the temp folder
In general, temporary files should be deleted after finishing working with the program, but this does not always happen. If you haven’t cleaned out the “temp” folder for more than six months, then rest assured, there’s plenty of garbage in there. Some people can remove more than 20 GB of memory from their computer simply by deleting this folder.
It's easy to find: go to drive C and type “temp” in the search bar. There will be one folder in front of you, open it, see its contents, select everything and delete it.
That's all. This usually allows you to clear a lot of space.
Deleting restore points
Now let's look at option to delete restore points. Sometimes they can also take about 10 GB of space. The folder with recovery points is hidden, so we won’t see it just like that. You can even access the file system using the usual WinRar archiver.
We do this:
- go to drive C using this archiver and see the “System Volume Information” folder there;
- We make sure that we don’t need recovery and delete the folder.
These are the two most power-hungry folders and deleting them usually frees up a large amount of disk space.
If this did not help, or did not help enough, then you should turn to third-party utilities.
Programs for cleaning folders
An easier way– download the Scanner program or similar. It will be able to clearly show you which folder takes up how much space.
In ten minutes in such a program you can delete a huge number of files (for example, browser cache) and unnecessary documents.
Increase space on drive C by disabling hibernation
Also, to free up space, you need to disable the page file and hibernation. If the VAZ has more than 4 GB of RAM, then the message about the need to use the swap file should not appear. If it appears, it’s better to turn it back on. To turn it off you need to do the following: go to "My computer" right-click and select "Properties". On the left we see a link "Advanced system settings". Let's press it.
We see the “Performance” item in the “Advanced” tab and click “Options”. We go to the additional tab, and the amount of virtual memory consumed will be written down there.
Typically, many people have this value set to 2 GB, but it can be different depending on the characteristics of the computer. Click “Customize” and here you will have a choice: disable it altogether or reduce its size. At any time you can turn on or increase its volume in the same way.
To disable hibernation in a quick way, you need to do the following:
- go to “Start” and type “cmd” in the search bar;
- The command line opens and in it we write “powercfg /hibernate off”.
After completing this procedure, hibernation is turned off, and you get exactly as much free space as you have RAM. To enable hibernation you will need to change the value “off” to “on”.
That's all. We have looked at many ways that will free up maximum space on the C drive even for the most demanding users.
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Every PC user has at least once encountered the problem of low disk space. When such a situation occurs, a person begins to frantically remember what information he will no longer need and what can be deleted in order to make the next update or install the necessary program. Famous tweakers and cleaners may be able to help you, but they often do not work very correctly.
In this article you will learn about Windows 7 (64-bit system).
Removing junk using Disk Cleanup
How to completely clear drive C (Windows 7) so as not to disrupt the operation of the disk" - this is one of the safest programs among all the tools that help get rid of computer junk. With its help you can clean your hard drive, but it is almost impossible to delete something important , as a warning signal will be received. Other utilities offer quick cleaning, but cannot offer any security guarantees.
To understand how to clear drive C (Windows 7) of unnecessary files using the Disk Cleanup function, you need to understand what this function is for. With its help, the number of files that have not been used for a long time, but are located on the hard drive, is reduced. Such measures lead to increased computer efficiency. All temporary and unused system files will be deleted and the Recycle Bin will be emptied.
You need to start working by launching the program. To do this, go to “Start”, select “All Programs”, go to “Accessories”, “System Tools”, and then click “Disk Cleanup”. In the "Disk Cleanup Options" window that opens, you should select what you want to do: clean up personal files or all files that are on the device. If you are prompted for a password, you must enter it.
In the window you need to go to “Select disk” and determine which disk will be cleaned. After that, click “OK” and check the boxes next to the selected files. This action must be taken responsibly so as not to delete important files. After this, you must confirm the cleaning.
The Advanced tab includes two more methods that let you free up space on your hard drive. But it is only available if the option to delete files for all device users is selected.
The next step leading to knowledge of how to clean up drive C (Windows 7) is opening the “Programs and Features” item, which is located in the Control Panel. In it you can delete everything that is not used. In the "Size" column you can see how much disk space each program takes up.
With System Restore, you can use restore points to go back to an earlier state to restore your system files. If your computer is functioning properly, you can delete previous revert points to save disk space.
Removing "garbage" manually
To know how to properly clear drive C (Windows 7) of unnecessary files manually, you need to have information about where the temporary folders are located. They can be found at the following addresses: "%windir%\Temp" or "%ProgramData%\TEMP". For everyone using the device, it is "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp".
Files located in these folders can be deleted without problems. If you try to uninstall an important and necessary program, Windows will not allow you to do so.
Windows Search Services and file reduction
Cleaning up drive C (Windows 7) can be done using the Windows Search Service; it caches all information about files on hard drives and transfers it to the database, which is located in the folder "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows" \" and is called "Windows.edb".
The thing is that if the amount of data on hard drives increases, then the database file also increases. It can be several GB. Those users who do not use hard drive search very often can free up space using the following method, which will not only reduce the file, but also be able to monitor its size.
You need to enable "services.msc" and set "Window Search" to disabled. Then you should run it again. In the "Indexing Options" you need to click "Change" and select the appropriate mode, and then confirm all actions.
Working with file size
How to clean up drive C (Windows 7) and free up space on it? This can be done by reducing the volume and relocating it to another disk. The optimal sizes depend on the features of your device.
Cleaning the installation
Most updates that are installed on a computer tend to leave installation programs in a separate folder. This leads to its size increasing significantly. You should not completely delete these files; such a measure may lead to incorrect operation of the device. But if free space is urgently needed, then removing them will be the way out. In the future, you should use software distribution kits or remove applications.
Antivirus software
It is better to explain clearly using the example of the popular antivirus "ESET NOD32". When it finds infected files, it sends them to the “Quarantine” folder. Its location may vary, so you need to look at your specific computer.
If there are a huge number of such files, the folder size will increase. You can solve this situation by clearing the "Quarantine" folder.
Disabling sleep mode
There is a file "hiberfil.sys" on the system disk, which always takes up space. Depending on the configuration of your computer, it can reach different sizes. If you don't need hibernation, you can always turn it off. But you need to do this in sleep mode.
To do this, you must log into your computer using administrator rights. On the control panel you need to select "Go to sleep mode". You must click to create a shortcut. In the field that opens, enter "powercfg -h off". Then confirm your actions. Next, you should run the shortcut as an administrator and agree to the actions in the “UAC” request.
Another useful tip is how to clean up the C drive (Windows 7) to free up space on the system partition. To get rid of possible problems in the future, it is necessary to control the availability of free space. This applies to user folders.
For this method to work, you need to have several hard drives or partitions on them that will be located on the same computer. It is more advisable to carry out this procedure immediately after reinstalling Windows. This is due to the fact that there should always be free space left, which is necessary for defragmentation. It can be carried out either automatically or if necessary. Defragmentation not only reduces wear and tear on the hard drive, but also improves the performance of the computer as a whole.
After installation (which requires drive C) of Windows 7, you need to create several system folders. They must be placed in the root directory. Some of them may not be displayed. But the necessary one, "Users", is always visible.
After entering this folder, you can see all the names. The number of users may vary depending on circumstances. You need to select the folder that is named after the user you need. This is where all the user data will be located.
Almost each of these folders will grow in size as you add photos and other files. If you pay attention to the picture, you can see which one is overfilled and requires cleaning.
It is better to remove the folder that fills up as a result of various downloads from the hard drive and move it to another location. To do this, you need to cut it out and move it to the next disk, which has more free space. On this disk you need to create a folder with the user name and paste all the data there.
If there are many users, this procedure must be done for each. This will allow you to control the system partition and also improve the performance of the entire system.
In the life of every user, sooner or later there comes a moment when running out of free space on drive C and a similar message pops up. At the same time, the computer begins to slow down terribly, many programs do not work correctly or do not work at all. It is advisable to avoid such a situation, but if it has befallen you, in this article I will tell you how to deal with it - Free up space on your system drive without damaging the system.
1. Windows temporary files
The first thing to do in such cases is to delete temporary Windows files. To do this, you need to delete all the contents of the folders:
\Temp
\WINDOWS\TEMP
for Windows XP:
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\Temp
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\History
for Windows 7, Vista:
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Temp
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
In all “beast builds” of Windows, the location of the temporary folder may differ. To find the temporary folder, follow these steps:
Start -> Run(for Windows XP)
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run(for Windows 7, Vista)
In the Run window, in the Open field, enter the following text: %TEMP%
Click on the button "OK«.
It is best to delete files using a file manager such as Total Commander because: a) folder Local Settings usually hidden and the user may simply not find it; b) in a folder Temp There are several files that cannot be deleted because they are currently in use by the system. For Windows Explorer, this becomes an impossible task and it cannot completely clean the folder:
For Total Commander, both of these issues do not pose problems.
2. Windows update files
After operating system updates in the folder \WINDOWS\ There are still many folders whose names begin with “$...” You can also delete them all:
3. Browser cache
Internet browsers Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer (especially version 6) sometimes leave behind a huge amount of garbage on the system disk, which is also sometimes useful to clean. This is done like this:
for Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Erase Recent History. Select item "All", press "OK":
for Opera: Settings -> Delete personal data. You can expand the list " Detailed setting", press " Delete«:
for Chrome: Chrome menu (toolbar) -> Tools -> Clear browsing data. Select the item " during all this time", press the button "Clear the history":
for Internet Explorer: Service -> Delete browsing history, or Service -> Internet Options ->
Are common ->
Browsing history ->
"Delete" button... 
In this way, you can clear drive C of several gigabytes of garbage, which consists mainly of many thousands of small (up to 10 kb) files, which can significantly slow down the operation of browsers and the computer as a whole.
4. Downloading browsers, torrent clients, DC, MediaGet, DownloadMaster, etc.
By default, all program data loads files onto the “C” drive, which very quickly leads to its clogging. To prevent this, it is necessary to configure the paths for saving files from the Internet “not on drive C” in each such program.
for Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Settings -> General -> Path to save files:
for Opera: Settings -> Advanced -> Downloads - > Save downloaded files to:
for Chrome: Chrome menu (toolbar) -> Settings -> Advanced settings:
for uTorrent: Settings -> Program settings -> Folders
For other programs that download anything from the Internet or local network, the setup principle is the same.
5. Mail program databases (TheBat, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Office Outlook, etc.)
With intensive exchange of information using email programs, the size of their databases can grow to incredible sizes over time. It is advisable to take this point into account at the stage of installing and configuring these programs, but if you haven’t done this, it doesn’t matter, you can still fix it.
for TheBat: Mailbox -> Mailbox Properties -> Files and Directories:
for Microsoft Office Outlook: Tools -> Email Accounts -> View or change existing accounts-> Create Outlook data file:
You can check whether everything is correct and at the same time delete an unnecessary file from drive “C” here: Tools -> Options -> Mail settings-> Data files:
For other email programs, everything is configured according to the same principles.
7. Temporary program files
Programs that work with large amounts of data, such as disc burning programs (for example, Nero Burning ROM), video (for example, Pinnacle Studio), audio editors, image processing programs (for example, Adobe Photoshop) during their work create temporary files of large size (the so-called “cache”) and, if there is not enough free space to create them, they refuse to work normally, and various failures occur. To prevent this, you need to promptly transfer their temporary files to another disk:
Nero Burning ROM: File -> Presets -> Cache:
Pinnacle Studio: Settings -> Project Options:
Adobe Photoshop: Editing-> Settings -> Performance:
8. Games
From the very beginning of using a computer, you should make it a rule: “If possible, do not install games on drive “C”! Moreover, modern games take up several DVDs, and after installation they can take up several tens of gigabytes. After installing several of these games, you will run out of free space on any disk, no matter how large it is:
9. My Documents and Desktop
This problem dates back to the dinosaur days of the very first versions of Windows. 8 generations of the operating system have already changed, and user folders are still located on the system drive. Moreover, it has worsened: starting with Windows Vista, additional folders have been added to them, such as “Pictures”, “Videos”, “Music”, “Downloads”, “Games”, “Contacts”, “Searches”, “Links” ...
There is also no standard procedure for transferring all user folders to another local drive. There are only a few possibilities, for example, in Windows XP you can move the “My Documents” folder:
Quite experienced and novice PC users have a bad habit of saving the necessary and most needed files on the desktop. A dozen or two gigabytes of information on your desktop is, unfortunately, not at all uncommon! What can you recommend? There is only one thing - to completely refuse to use these “wonderful opportunities” and keep all important information NOT on drive C. Moreover, the probability of losing information stored on drive “C” is much higher than on any other logical drive.
10.Programs
Review the list of installed programs and remove those that you will no longer use, especially large ones:
11. Sleep mode
If all else fails, disabling the use of sleep mode will save from 1 to 5 additional gigabytes.
for Windows XP: Start-> Control Panel -> Appearance and Themes -> Screen -> Screensaver -> Power -> Sleep Mode. Uncheck " Allow use of sleep mode»
for Windows 7, Vista: Start -> Control Panel -> Power supply -> Setting up a power plan -> Put your computer into sleep mode -> « Never". You can also disable the sleep function. Select "Change advanced power settings" and in the window, find sleep mode and turn it off. After disabling Sleep Mode, you can delete the hidden hiberfil.sys file in the root directory of the system disk. It’s a little easier to do this with help: just enter the command “ powercfg -hibernate -off«.
12. Other
Large files can appear in any other place on the system disk, where you wouldn’t expect to see it:
- log files of some programs can grow to many tens of gigabytes;
- one of the users may safely hide and forget the “collection of videos”. Where is the best place to do this? Of course, somewhere in the wilds of system folders on drive “C”;
- some program or plugin for Photoshop stores its database (10-100 GB in size) in a user folder;
In such cases, it is necessary to check the size of all folders (including hidden and system) and find the “culprit” by eliminating. Using the Total Commander program, this is again easier to do: just press the Ctrl+Alt+Enter key combination in an open folder and the size of all attached files and folders will appear in the palm of your hand:
Another case: the folder for temporary files of Avira antivirus has grown to an incredible 16 GB:
13. Basket
Emptying the Recycle Bin is a fairly obvious way to clean up disks of already deleted files, but sometimes quite a large number of files accumulate there, which also negatively affects computer performance.
13. Cleaner programs
There are a huge number of programs that promise, with the click of one or maximum two buttons, to solve all the user’s problems with computer performance and raise it to unprecedented heights. As practice and common sense show, these programs can only solve some (or rather only 1, 2 and 3, and some other little things) from the problems described above, which in this particular case may well not be the most important problem. Although automating this process saves time: it is much faster to automatically delete temporary files than to clean them out manually. Standard disk cleanup program ( Start -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup) is slightly worse than alternatives (eg CCleaner).
14. What else do they write about on the “Internet”
On “our Internets” there are also many fables, myths, unverified facts and outright misinformation. These, from my point of view, include:
- deleting, resizing, moving the swap file;
- deleting backup copies of system files, drivers;
- removal or modification of operating system components;
- removing duplicate operating system files;
- formatting drive C.
It is not advisable to touch operating system components without a clear understanding of what exactly you are doing and why.
15. Summary
Long gone are the days when you could put Windows, a bunch of programs and a lot of data into a 1 GB hard drive and still manage to work and play games. The amount of memory on the average user's hard drives has already crossed the mark of several terabytes, but the problems remain the same. Well, artificial intelligence will not soon replace experience and common sense. Keep an eye on the free space - for comfortable operation of the operating system there should be at least no less than 1/3 of the disk capacity, or no less (or preferably more) several gigabytes. The final step of this work, to achieve an even better result, is to carry out.
The article provides seven ways to solve the problem of insufficient free space on the Windows system disk, both using built-in system tools and third-party utilities.
Thirteen years ago, when the Windows XP operating system appeared and instantly gained popularity, no one was particularly worried about the size of the system disk. 20-30 GB on disk "C" was enough to install both the system itself and the software. With the advent of Windows 7, PC owners for the first time were massively faced with the problem of lack of space on the system disk - this operating system itself occupied about 10 GB, and programs absorbed approximately the same amount, registering and constantly updating. The 20-25 GB system disk filled up very quickly. And many even had to resort to repartitioning their computer disks in order to increase the system disk at the expense of another disk.
To ensure that there is always enough free space on the system partition, it must be kept clean and tidy and periodically monitored to see if it is cluttered. If Windows reports that there is not enough free space on the system disk - usually on drive C - it's time to clean it up. Let's look at 7 ways to clean the system disk with Windows 8 installed below.
Before you start cleaning up your disk, you need to remember how much free space is currently available on it. In the future, this will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the work done by comparing the initial and final figures.
1. Removing unnecessary files from the system disk
First, you need to check whether files are stored on the system disk that, in principle, may not be stored there - these are media files, folders with documents, disk images, program installation files, etc. All this can be transferred to a non-system drive; moreover, it is even recommended that all important files be stored on a non-system drive (D, E, etc.), so that if an unexpected system failure occurs and it has to be reinstalled, this data were not destroyed during formatting of the system disk.
As a rule, all files downloaded from the Internet are stored in download folders assigned by default by browsers on the system drive. To prevent the system drive from becoming cluttered with downloaded files in the future, you need to assign a different folder for downloads in the browser settings, but on a non-system drive.
Under no circumstances should you transfer system files to another drive, which means that you better avoid the Windows folder on the tenth route.
To search for media files and documents, you can use Windows Search and set search criteria for the desired file types within the system drive.
Check the found files further, cut out the necessary ones and paste them on a non-system drive using the context menu, and simply delete the unnecessary ones.
Remove all those programs and games that you do not use. As a rule, after removing large resource-intensive games, quite a lot of space is freed up. To correctly remove software and clean the system from remaining traces, use special software - uninstallers.
Here are some popular uninstallers:
- Your Uninstaller;
- Soft Organizer;
- Revo Uninstaller.
3. Windows Disk Cleanup service
The Windows operating system is equipped with a standard service that analyzes the space on the system disk and identifies files that can be deleted to free up space without causing harm to the system.
In Windows 8 Explorer, open “My Computer” and open the context menu on the system drive. At the end of the list, click “Properties”, and in the window that appears, click the “Disk Cleanup” command. In the “Disk Cleanup” window, check the boxes next to the files that you want to delete - Recycle Bin files, temporary files in Temp folders, temporary Internet files, etc.
Then click “Clean up system files.”
4. Manually cleaning Temp folders
If the system disk is not periodically cleaned, up to 5-6 GB can accumulate in the Temp folders over a long period of time. And the Windows Disk Cleanup service, as a rule, deletes only some of the files from these folders. Temp folders can be cleaned manually by completely deleting their contents.
What is the “Temp” folder for in general? Temporary files are stored there that Windows and various programs installed on the computer create for their work. Most of these files become unnecessary over time because they are not used in work.
Temp folders are hidden, and the easiest way to get to one of them is using standard Windows Explorer, or the popular Total Commander file manager, since most builds of this program have a pre-installed “Hidden Items” button in the toolbar. It displays all hidden files and folders on the system. Click this button and open the root folder of the system in Total Commander and find the “Temp” folder there:
You can open the “Temp” folder in the same path in standard Windows Explorer, but before that you also need to configure the display of hidden folders.
In Windows 7, click the Start button, then Control Panel, then Appearance and Personalization, then Folder Options. In Windows 8, you can get to the “Folder Options” section directly from the “Control Panel”.
In the “Folder Options” window that opens, immediately go to the “View” tab and check the “Show hidden folders, files and drives” option in the additional settings.
Then click "Apply" and "OK".
In the “Temp” folder, select all existing files and press “Shift + Delete” so that the files are completely deleted from the computer, bypassing the “Trash”.
But there is more than one “Temp” folder on the computer: in addition to the one located in the Windows root folder, another “Temp” folder can also be found in user files on the system drive:
C:\Users\Windows Account Name\AppData\Local\Temp.
You can follow this path in a file manager or Windows Explorer, but it is much easier to enter the command %TEMP% in the address bar of Explorer and press the Enter key.
Select all the files that are there and delete them.
Not all files from this “Temp” folder will be deleted, some of them may be currently used for the operation of the system and programs, so just skip them.
To increase the loading time of Internet pages, browsers, when accessing a server on the Internet, first check the cache - a place on the system disk specially allocated for storing previously visited web pages, pictures and other elements of Internet resources. And if there is a copy of this data in the cache, then the browser downloads it from the cache, and not again from the server.
To periodically receive updated data from servers, ideally the browser cache should automatically clear itself from time to time, but this is not always the case. Sometimes, after active Internet surfing, a fairly impressive amount of unnecessary data remains in the cache, and it must be periodically cleared manually. To do this, browser developers provide a special function to clear the cache manually.
In most browsers, this function can be accessed by entering the key combination “Ctrl + Shift + Delete”. However, you can separately clarify how to clear the cache of your particular browser, or use special programs for cleaning the system, which will be discussed below.
Clearing your browser cache will free up a certain amount of space on your system drive.
The software market today offers a huge number of programs designed for comprehensive cleaning of Windows OS. This includes cleaning the Recycle Bin, temporary system files, installed programs, and browser cache.
The most popular program of this kind is CCleaner. It is free, minimalistic, however, it offers the necessary functions to clean the operating system of unnecessary files and optimize its registry.
Among CCleaner's analogues there are also more functional solutions - for example, System Cleaner, Neo Utilities, System Optimize Expert, TuneUp Utilities and other programs.
You shouldn’t place too much hope on such a program plan. Like the Windows Disk Cleanup service, they can also remove only a portion of unnecessary files. Therefore, if the need to increase space on the system disk is urgent, it is better to additionally clean the “Temp” folders manually.
Hibernation mode is a low-power mode in which the system goes into a sleep-like mode, but all open files and running programs are saved on the system hard drive in a separate file. Hibernation mode is designed for laptops to extend battery life without recharging the battery. But Windows automatically creates a file to store data in hibernation mode no matter what computing device you're using, and the file size is several gigabytes.
To see the hibernation file, with the display of hidden files and folders enabled, open the system drive in a file manager or Windows Explorer window. Find the “hiberfil” file with the “.sys” extension among the hidden ones.
If you are using a desktop PC and not a laptop, you generally do not need hibernation mode. And you can delete it to free up space on your system drive. And when working with a laptop and periodically using hibernation mode, you can transfer the “hiberfil” file to another non-system drive.
You won’t be able to get rid of the “hiberfil” file so easily with the usual “Delete” context menu command, since it is protected by the system. But it can be removed using the command line.
If free space on drive "C" is rapidly ending, then the time has come to release it in various ways, which we will consider in this article. After all, a small amount of space on the system disk leads to all sorts of consequences, for example the situation when the computer starts to slow down or work in some programs becomes impossible.
Whatever one may say, there should be at least several gigabytes of free space on the system drive “C”.
In fact, you can free up space on the C drive in different ways. Additionally, you can add disk space using other disks. But first things first. After reading this article you will know where can Lost space on drive "C", and what to do to get it back. You can take any of the steps described right now and use it, or you can comprehensively apply all the tips and clean up space on the system drive.
Installed programs
Of course, most of the space on the system disk is occupied by installed programs, so first of all pay your attention to this point. Uninstall 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 what you don't need.
In this way, you can free up, if not several gigabytes, then at least several hundred megabytes, which will allow drive “C” to “breathe” freely. I described the process of uninstalling programs in Windows 7 in more detail in the corresponding lesson on this site.
Basket
Remember that all deleted files most often end up in the Recycle Bin first. A folder called “Trash” acts as a temporary storage for everything deleted. But in fact, it takes up space on our computers.
In order to permanently erase data from the recycle bin, just right-click on it and select the appropriate “Empty Recycle Bin” item.
Downloads folder
Most often, downloaded files from the Internet are saved by default to the “Downloads” folder on the “C” drive. It’s not difficult to guess that if you constantly download something, but don’t move the files anywhere, then they will begin to take up hundreds of megabytes, or even several gigabytes, and the free space on the disk will become less and less.
Therefore, you need to open “Computer” and 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 drive.
This is another step that is more common for novice users and will help them free up disk space in Windows 7 or another system. Let's move on.
Temp folders
In Windows there are two Temp folders in which various temporary files are saved. For example, files that are needed when installing programs, drivers, updating Windows or antivirus, and so on. But after they become useless, you can simply delete them to free up some more space on the C drive.
Open “Computer – drive C – Windows folder”. Find the Temp folder there and delete all 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 a search in Start by entering the query %TEMP% and opening 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 drive "C" 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 a thing that is needed for those cases when there is not enough main RAM to perform tasks in programs. Typically, the paging file takes a couple of gigabytes from the system drive “C” for its needs. We need 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 parameters”, 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 drive. This way we can free up space on drive “C” by a couple more gigabytes. But that's not all.
Hibernation Mode
If you want to save even more space on your system disk, I recommend disabling hibernation mode, 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 opened folders, programs and data in them will be restored thanks to the Hibernation mode.
You can disable Hibernation mode by opening the command line through a search in Start.
And by writing the command: “powercfg.exe -h off” - to disable hibernation mode. Click " Enter ».
Now, after restarting the computer, we will see that there is a little more free disk space. And to enable this mode again, we need to write a similar command: “ powercfg.exe -h on" Naturally, all this is done without quotes.
System Restore
Another way free up space on drive "C"- delete recovery checkpoints, since they also take up a certain amount 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 such a situation happens, the first thing you can do is restore your PC using a checkpoint. I recommend leaving one last point and deleting the rest.
CCleaner program
If you install it, you will see the following window:
The most interesting tabs here are “Cleaning” and “Service”, where you can: remove everything unnecessary, clear the cache, remove programs from startup, and more. And on the tab " Registry“You can clean it simply by clicking the “Search for problems” button. I usually leave all the checkboxes that are checked there.
And one last thing.
BONUS
As a last resort, if you have catastrophic, chronic and permanent not enough disk space, then you can increase it using another disk.
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