How to Free up Space on your Hard Drive
What do I need to do or know before I perform these steps:
- Please be aware that if a file says "read only" or you are asked "are you sure you want to delete this system file", than you should always choose "NO" unless you are 100% sure of what you are removing from the system.
- Determine your current Free Space - note that your goal is to have at least 20% free
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- Open Windows Explorer
- Right click C:/ and choose Properties
- Note the free space
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- Do NOT check the box to "Compress the drive to save space"
- Do NOT use the "Disk Cleanup" button/wizard
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How do I free up space on My computer's Hard Drive Cleanup your 'Desktop'
- All items showing on your computers 'desktop' are stored on C:/ If you need quick reference to these items, put shortcuts to them on the desktop
- Move all items to somewhere on another partition such as D:/ if your computer has another partition Empty your Recycle Bin
- Right click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and choose "Empty Recycle Bin"
Clean up the "TEMP" Directories
- Chose Start > Run and type: %temp%
- Sort by “Date Modified”
- Highlight all files with the current date
- Choose “Edit Menu” -> “Invert Selection”
- Right click all files and “Delete”
- Repeat the process until all files that can be deleted are removed (some may not delete because they are still in use)
- Chose Start > Run and type: %tmp% and hit enter
- Sort by “Date Modified”
- Highlight all files with the current date
- Choose “Edit Menu” -> “Invert Selection”
- Right click all files and “Delete”
- Repeat the process until all files that can be deleted are removed (some may not delete because they are still in use)
- Navigate to the folder "C:/Temp"
- Delete or move any files which you may have placed there
- Empty Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files
- Start Internet Explorer
- From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select "Tools", and then "Internet Options"
- On the "General" tab, select the "Delete Cookies" button and then select OK
- Next, select the "delete files" button, place a check in the check box, and then choose OK
- Delete Jinitiator files
- Open up Windows Explorer
- Navigate to any (or all) of the following folders, and delete their contents:
- C:/Program Files/Oracle/jre/version_number/jcache
- C:/Program Files/Oracle/JInitiator version_number/jcache
Delete unneeded files from patches which have been installed to your computer
- Right click “My Computer” and choose “Explorer
- Choose “Tools Menu” -> “Folder Options” -> “View Tab”
- Check the radio button for “Show Hidden Files and Folders”
- Click “Apply to all Folders”
- Click “OK”
- Browse to C:/Windows
- Delete all directories that start with $NtUninstall...$
Delete unneeded User Profiles
- Open up Windows Explorer
- Navigate to the folder "C:/Documents and Settings", and look in the window pane to the right - you may see names of other users who have logged into your PC (like jdoe or smsmith, etc.)
- DO NOT DELETE the folders: All Users, root, Administrator, or Default User. If you delete any of these profiles you system may become unstable and there is risk of loosing critical data. You may delete any other accounts that appear to represent other people who have logged into your computer.
Move or Delete unneeded files under the root of the C:/ drive
- Open up Windows Explorer
- Navigate to the "C" drive by clicking on the "C" drive in the left window pane
- In the window pane to the right, you will see all of your folders on your C drive and beneath the folders, you will see some files
- Locate ANY files which end with the extension "EXE", "XLS", "PPT", or "DOC" - they should not be there - please move them to the D Drive. DO NOT delete any other files that may be required for your computer to boot (this is an area to be careful when cleaning!)
Move the Page File to the D:/ drive
- Right click “My Computer”
- Click Advanced Tab -> “Settings” -> “Advanced Tab” -> “Change”
- Highlight the C: Drive
- Choose “No Paging File”
- Click “Set”
- Highlight the D: Drive
- Choose “System Manage Size”
- Click “Set” -> “Ok”
- System Control Panel Popup – Click “Ok”
- Click “Ok” two times and choose “No” for “Reboot”
Move the contents of your "My Documents" folder to another partition such as D:/
- Don't get too fancy here, simply cut and paste your documents, pictures, movies, music etc to another partition
Remove un-required space hoarding applications
- We have observed time and again some applications such as Google Desktop Search can consume one or more GB of space on C:/
- Remove these programs using the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet
Disable Hibernation
- If you don't regularly use Hibernation mode, disable this feature and delete the large hiberfile.sys file
- Choose Start > Run and type: powercfg.cpl then hit enter
- Click the Hibernate tab
- Uncheck the box for "Enable Hibernation"
- Click Ok
- Reboot
- Delete the file C:/Hiberfile.sys
- If you cannot see this file, from within Windows Explorer Choose Tools > Folder Options > View and uncheck the box for "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" while viewing the contents of C:/
Check your free space again - Your goal is to have at least 20% free. If you have followed all of the steps above you should be in good shape.
- Open Windows Explorer
- Right click C:/ and choose Properties
- Note the free space
How do I defragment My computer's Hard Drive At this point, if you have created a significant amount of free space you should defragment your hard drive one or more times. During Defragmentation your computer will be largely unusable so do this during lunch or at the end of the day.
- Open Windows Explorer
- Right click C:/ and choose Properties
- Click Tools > Defragment Now...
- Highlight the partition you want to work on (C:/)
- Click Defragment
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