Free Hard Drive Space

0 December 30, 2022

If your Hard Drive is getting full, before adding another drive into your computer you can try the following suggestions to free some space in your Hard Disk:

  1. Run Disk Cleanup
    1. Windows includes a built in tool that deletes temporary files and other unimportant data. To access it, click on start then click in All Apps and navigate to Windows Administrative tools wand open Disk Cleanup
    2. When Disk Cleanup opens ask you to select the disk or drive you want to clean up, normally you will need to select “(C:)” where your Operating System is installed and click on the “OK” button.
    3. Wait for Disk cleanup to calculate how much space you will be able to clean.
    4. Select the types of files you want to delete and click OK. You may want to select all from the list to gain as much space possible.
    5. You are going to be prompted to ask if you are sure to delete these files, continue by hitting “Ok”
    6. Disk Cleanup will initiate to delete the cluttering files, please wait to complete.
  2. Clean System Files
    1. You can also clean up system files, which don’t appear in the list here. Click the “Clean up system files” button shown in step 4, if you want to delete unused system files. After clicking this option will ask you again in which drive you want to search for files, again you will normally want to select C: drive where your system files are. This is going to bring more options that will allow you to gain even more space.
    2. After scanning your drive will give you more options that securely can be selected. You may want to select all specially the Temporary Windows installation files that uses a big part of space in your Hard Disk Drive. You can also notice a new tab “More Options” in the “Disk Cleanup utility”. Check all the options you want to remove and click OK.
  3. Remove System Restore and Shadow Copies
    1. Again will prompt you to continue, click on delete files to complete. (as shown in steps 5 and 6)
    2. If there is the need to recuperate more space, is possible to go to the more options tab showed in step 8 and on “System Restore and Shadow Copies” click on the “Clean Up…” Button and will eliminate the old restore points and backup images freeing some more Hard Drive Space. Be careful because you won’t be able to use older system restore points.
    3. To complete the action at the prompt click on the “Delete” Button and wait to have this completed.