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Ever been just using your computer, and suddenly a message pops up saying you need more disk space?
Don’t fret, we’ve all got it at least once! However, this is no need to run out and buy a new hard drive. Sometimes, all you have to do is clean up.
A lot of the time, we download files to use once. This leaves clutter in the download folder, so if you don’t need any of those, you can just delete them. Often times for Firefox, the download folder is %username%\Documents\Downloads or %username%\My Documents\Downloads. For Internet Explorer running in Windows Vista, you can find it in %username%\Downloads. Just open these and delete any files you don’t need.
Another good cleanup tool is Disk Cleanup, which comes baked-in to Windows. Under the Programs section of the Start menu, go to Accessories/System Tools/Disk Cleanup. Run it, and select what you don’t need.
As I was checking out this tool, I found something suprizing- I had over 7GB of junk in the Recycling Bin. This included some dupes of vacation pictures and the Adobe trial downloads- nothing I care about.
Next up, take a quick jog around your computer. Is there anything you don’t need? Delete old documents you know you’ll never need. Of course, make sure you back them up first! Clear out those videos you made when you were first trying out Windows Movie Maker. Uninstall those freebies you know you’ll never use.
Next on the path to recovery is to defragment your hard drive. It’s under Start/All Programs/Acessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter. What it does is it takes all your files that have been invisibly split across your hard drive and it de-splits and reorganizes them. This won’t gain much space, but it will speed your file acess slightly.
Another space-freeing way is to use CCleaner to do the heavy lifting.
CCleaner is a system utilities tool that clears personal information, but that includes cache. Once you download and install CCleaner from here (install the Slim version for no nasty toolbar) then open it.
You should select Cache, but DESELECT (very important!) COOKIES. If you select cookies you’ll need to log in to every single site again, and reselect all non -logged in settings.
On the “Windows” tab, select “Temporary Internet Files” and Recycle Bin” to save space without sacrificing some settings.
NOTE: Check “Empty Recycle Bin” for more space-saving.
After no cleaning and no following of the instructions above, CCleaner is offering to save 7.7GB of space. Even without the Recycling Bin, that’s over 1/2 a GB! That doesn’t even include Firefox’s cache, which is because you need it to be closed to clear the cache.
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So now we’ve cleaned and cleared, deleted and del… whatever. Let’s check the numbers:
BEFORE:
And, of course, the AFTER:
With over 70GB free, 7GB may not seem like a lot, but on my old laptop, I freed 12GB with this method.
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This article has been contributed to dotTech by Locutus. It is copyright 2009 by Jean-Luc Picard (aka Locutus). Any uses of this article outside of dotTech[.org] will be considered illegal.
One last tip: Throw away your OS so that you don’t have to worry aobut disk space!!! All right just joking :)
@MikeR:
Mike, I went to Windows Cleanup! as you suggested, to check it out. Does it have any advantages over CCleaner, which is what I have been using? Seems to do the same things as all the popular utilities’ cleaners…..
Aren’t restore points cumulative–like backups that don’t copy the everything but rather just record the changes (thus requiring earlier ones in order to restore)?
@Locutus:
The character, Jean-Luc Picard, in Star Trek is portrayed by British (English) Shakesperian actor, (Sir) Patrick Stewart.
The name seems to have Franco origin, but that really is for the authors to explain.
I think the real reason for change of avatar to Locutus is just because it is shorter and thus means less typing.
But who cares.? As it is written “Never mind the plot, just enjoy the story.”
Thanks Locutus. I make regular cleanings that you recommend, so it brings me 2 Mb today.
For cons, I’m surprised that no one talks about cleaning the DLLcache that I do on a regular basis (not every day of course).
On win XP-sp3, the directory is under C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache.
I just found 2040 items there. After cleaning, there are still 25 and I removed 336 MB (I get the files from the recycle bin and I put them in a safe place just in case, but until now it was useless).
For those who don’t know how to do that :
- select all the files in the directory, right click and select “delete” ;
- each popup saying the file is a program and asking if you really want to delete it, say NO!!!
Best regards.
Having heeded hundreds of Ashraf’s suggestions over the past few years, and grateful-plus for a growing number of intelligent contributors who just teach and share and make plenty of us get sharper and sharper at this, and then, BOOM! Along comes a young pup sneaking in one @$$-kicking dll cache clean. 2040? Ppfff! I’m about to clean more than 4,000 from one computer, more than 10k add’l from 3 others.
JeanJean, you are HOTD (hero of the day).
Thank you all. .. many, many times. If Ashraf does not win a Nobel someday, we all owe him in a kick in the keister. Great teaching and sharing.