Windows 7 consumes a lot of space on your C drive. Therefor, your boot drive may be out of space in notime.
Here are some tips to clean up your C drive. The tips may also apply to Windows Vista and Windows XP.
1) Empty your Recycle Bin
Yes, I know, it’s not rocket science but it’s just the appetizer! Keep on reading!
By the way, you can adjust the maximum disk usage size of the recycle bin by right-clicking the Recycle Bin and clicking Properties…
2) Run Disk Cleanup
When you right-click on you C drive and click Properties, there’s the option Disk Cleanup. This gives you the option to clean up unused files, like temporary internet files and old installation files.
An alternate way to open the Disk Cleanup, is the command cleanmgr. Click on Start, type cleanmgr in the command bar, press ENTER, and voila!
3) Uninstall any software you don’t use (anymore)
In my career as computer technician, I have seen many people who had installed Adobe Photoshop on their computer, while they didn’t even know what a JPEG file was. (They didn’t have a legal license key either 😉 ).
It’s best to uninstall unused software to gain speed and save space.
4) Disable the Windows System Restore feature
The Windows System Restore feature may use up to 20% of your disk space. To adjust or disable this, go to your System Properties (try the WIN-KEY + PAUSE!), click Advanced System Settings, go to the tab System Protection, click the drive you want to adjust and then click Configure. You can turn off System Protection or adjust the max usage of the Disk Space Usage.
5) Disable Hibernation
If you don’t know what Hibernation is, you probably don’t use it. To turn off Hibernation, do the following:
- Click Start
- Type powercfg -H off in the command bar
- Press Enter. The Hibernation file will be deleted with the next reboot.
6) Move files to another drive
Yep, this may sound stupid, but it’s one of the easiest way to free up space on your C drive without harming your computer.
If you have a D drive, consider moving Movie or Music files to your D drive. In addition, make sure to check all the folders in your Documents folder. Folders like My Downloads can grow to extreme disk usage.
You may also consider to move your pagefile to another drive. To move the pagefile to another drive (or resize the pagefile), do the following:
- Right-click (My) Computer and press Properties
- Click on Advanced System Settings.
- In the Advanced System Settings Window, click the tab Advanced and click Settings in the Performance category.
- In the Performance Options Window, click the tab Advanced and then click Change.
Adjusting your pagefile may improve or decrease the performance of your system. However, in many cases a pagefile of 2GB on the D drive should be OK. Don’t forget to click Set after each change you make.
That’s all for now. There may be several other ways to free up space on your C drive, but these 6 tips are probaby the tips with the most efficiency. However, if you still need more space on your C drive, you may try CCleaner (free tool).
