Quick, easy steps to free up space on your computer

Even though computers these days come with huge hard drives, they can fill up very quickly. If you are struggling to find some space on your hard drive, these helpful tips should free up some extra space for your important files, photos, music and videos.

BEFORE you make any changes, ensure you have backed up - Here's how!

Step 1 – Empty your Recycle Bin
This is an easy one! When you delete a file it isn’t immediately wiped off your drive, (if you don’t know this, I’m a bit worried) it is only moved to the Recycle Bin. This is so if you accidentally delete something, you can just find it in the Recycle Bin.

Because of this, the Recycle Bin can take up a lot of space. Before you empty it, make sure you haven’t accidentally deleted something. When you are happy, right click on the Recycle Bin > click Empty Recycle Bin.

Step 2 – Use Windows Disk Cleanup
Sometimes there are bits of data and files on your hard drive that are not automatically deleted. Window’s built-in utility, Disk Cleanup can be used to get rid of them.  

Click on Computer > right click on the drive you want to clean and select Properties > click Disk Cleanup. If you are asked what files you want to clean up choose > Files from All Users on this Computer. From here it will scan your drive for redundant files and get rid of any bits that are floating around.

Step 3 – Remove unwanted applications
Applications can take up a lot of space, if you have a lot installed on your computer that you never use; you are wasting a lot of space. Luckily, removing unused applications is easy!

Open the Control Panel > Programs and Features. Then choose which applications you want to uninstall. Windows will even show you how much space they are taking up on your hard drive.

Step 4 – Clear temporary files with CCleaner
Web browsers and other applications often store a lot of temporary data on your drive. The best way to clean up all this data is to use the program called CCleaner (it’s free!). Install CCleaner and click on Analyze. It will then start to scan your PC.

When the scan is done make sure there’s nothing that is found that you don’t want to delete, then click > Run Cleaner.

Step 5 – Copy large files to another disk or partition
You usually have multiple drives on your PC, the one that runs low on space is the C drive. The best way to free up space on this drive is to copy large files to another drive on your computer. There is a free utility called WinDirStat, it will scan your drive and show your which files and folders are taking the most space.

Once you have found the large files that are taking all the space, copy them to another drive on your PC and you’ll have plenty of space on your important C drive!\

If you ever find that you are running low on disk space, use these easy steps to declutter your hard drive. Do you clean up your computer regularly? What methods do you use?

Need some help freeing up space on your computer? Contact The Computer Guyz in Cape Town or Centurion, we can offer your a variety of services and some friendly advice!