Free up space

Remove Files and Programs to Free up Space

Freeing up Disk space can improve the speed of your hard drive and computer. One way to do this is the Disk Cleanup tool.

The utility finds files that you can safely delete, and then allows you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Here are some ways to free up space:

• Remove temporary Internet files. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool)
• Remove downloaded program files. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool)
• Empty the Recycle Bin. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool)
• Remove Windows temporary files. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool)
• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool)
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use. (Can be done via Disk Cleanup tool) I often have old software packages or games that take up a lot of space. This is a great way to free up a lot of space.
• Move/Delete Old Music, Pictures, or Videos. These files can take up a lot of space, so moving or deleting them can free up a lot of space. I would suggest an external hard drive if you have a lot of these files that you want to hold on to.

Defragging Your Hard Drive

Fragmentation occurs when the operating system cannot or will not allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file as a unit, but instead puts parts of it in gaps between other files (usually those gaps exist because they formerly held a file that the operating system has subsequently deleted or because the operating system allocated excess space for the file in the first place).

This fragmentation causes your hard drive to run slower and fragmentation will build after time.

To Defragment your hard drive, open up "My Computer", Right Click on C:, Click properties, Click the "Tools" Tab, Click "Defragment Now", Click Defragment, click ok.

This is a pretty easy and painless operation. If you computer doesn't have enough free hard drive space, windows will not allow you to defrag. This is the only snag I have seen with the defrag utility.

However, if you don't have enough hard disk space to run the defragmentation utility, your computer may be slower due to this and it is a good idea to free up some disk space.

I would recommend running this tool every month or two. Also, I often get the message that windows does not need to defrag. I usually go ahead and run the defrag utility anyways. I would recommend doing the same to keep your drive at its best.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult, or even impossible.

The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

Repairing these bad sectors can speed up the performance of your hard drive which will help your computer's overall speed. Microsoft recommends running this utility weekly.

I rarely have found bad sectors on a hard drive. Realistically, I would just run this utility whenever you run a disk defrag.

To run the Windows Error Checking utility:

• Close all open files and folders.
• Click Start -> My Computer.
• In the My Computer window, right-click the hard drive that you want to search for bad sectors, and click Properties.
• In the Properties box, click the Tools tab.
• Click the "Check Now" button.
• In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
• Make sure to repair any bad sectors if prompted.

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