Hard Drive Space

If your C Drive is very low on space, this can in some cases cause your computer to run slow.

I have created a short tutorial on how to use the Windows Clean up tool to free up space on your Hard Drive.

After using a free tool called Tree Size and comparing the reported used space by Windows, I discovered about 60GB of space was missing 40GB of that was not reported in tree size. You can also right click on the Hard Drive e.g. C Drive and go to properties. This will show you how much Hard Drive space is being used and how much you have free.

After a some research I discovered two major culprits which were hogging my Hard Drive space.

1. Restore Points: Windows is automatically creating restore points every day. A Restore Point is like a backup of your operating system. This is very useful if you install a program that breaks something and you cant log in or your computer keeps restarting. Then in most cases, you can recover to the most recent restore point which will revert the computer to how it was before you installed the new program.
2. Temporary Files: I open a lot of documents, zipped files and install a lot of applications on my computer. When I open a document or extract a zipped (compressed) file, a temporary copy of the file is made and stored in a directory on the Hard Drive. These files are not always deleted after use and they will stay in the temporary directory taking up space.

I decided to create this short tutorial on how to use the built in Cleanup tool.

Using Windows Cleanup Tool

1. Open My Computer, so you can see your hard drive icon; normally C Drive. My C Drive is labled OS and yours may be labled something differen like OS, Local Disk, etc.
2. Right click with the right mouse button on C Drive and select Properties.

   

3. In the General Tab click Disk Clean up

   

4. This will scan you Hard Drive. When the Disk Cleanup tool opens, you will have the option to select what file you would like to delete.When selecting the files, it will show you how much space they take up. I Select:
   1. Temporary Internet Files: When you visit a website, some files are downloaded to your computer, like images so the site loads quicker the next time you visit.
   2. Recycle Bin: This is where files go when you delete them, in case you delete a file and decide you want to use it again.
   3. Temporary Files: This is where temporary files go when a program installs.
   4. Thumbnails: When you look at photos, the computer makes a smaller copy of the image called a thumbnail so you can preview the photo without opening the file.

   

5. When you have selected the files you would like to delete, click OK and this will ask you if you would like to delete the files.
6. Click Delete Files and this will delete the selected files and free up that space.

Deleting System Restore Points

1. Repeat steps 1 to 3 and select More Options

   

2. This is where you can choose to delete all Old system restore points up until the most recent. If you receive an error or it does not delete the old Restore points, you may need to run the Cleanup tool as an Administrator.

Running Cleanup Tool as an Administrator

1. Go to the Start Menu, select All Programs –> Accessories
2. Right Click on Command Prompt
3. Select Run as Administrator

   

4. Alternatively, You can type Command Prompt in the Search box Circled in red.
5. At the prompt, type cleanmgr

   

6. This will start the Cleanup tool as administrator and you should have no problem deleting those old System Restore points.