How To Free Up Hard Drive Space

Freeing up Disk space can improve the speed of your hard drive and computer. In this guide, we show you how to free up hard disk space.

First, a great place to start is with the Windows Disk Cleanup tool. This built-in 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 more great ways to free up space including with the Disk Cleanup Tool:

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. 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. This can be done from the Add/Remove Programs or Disk Cleanup tool in Windows.
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. Another option is to burn these files to a DVD. If you go with the burning route, I would recommend burning multiple copies to make sure your data is save.
Turn Off Hibernation to Save Disk Space. Disabling Hibernation is a great way to save disk space if you don't use the Windows hibernation feature.

Quick Tip: Find Large Files Using Windows Search

Another way to find files to delete is by using the windows search utility. Windows Search can help you find the largest files on your hard drive. To do this, Click "Start" -> "Search" to open up the windows search dialog window. On the left side of the window, Click "All files and folders", then click the search button. To find the largest files, Order by "Size" descending by clicking on the column heading for "Size" twice. After windows is finished searching, you will have a list of all files on your hard drive ordered from biggest to smallest.

Use a Tool to Free Up Disk Space

There are quite a few good tools out on the market that can you help you free up hard drive space if you are uncomfortable deleting files and folders on your own. We recommend that you use FULL-DISKfighter for this. FULL-DISKFighter contains 4 total tools to help you optimize your hard drive. It is targeted at users who have full hard drives, but the tools are helpful to all users. FULL-DISKFighter does a great job finding junk files and also does a great job organizing the hard disk for the best performance possible. If you are interested, you can download FULL-DISKFighter here.

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-By Dominic

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