Freeing up disk space c. Cleaning drive C from unnecessary files and freeing up space

In the life of every user, sooner or later there comes a moment when running out of free space on drive C and a similar message pops up. At the same time, the computer begins to slow down terribly, many programs do not work correctly or do not work at all. It is advisable to avoid such a situation, but if it has befallen you, in this article I will tell you how to deal with it - Free up space on your system drive without damaging the system.

1. Windows temporary files

The first thing to do in such cases is to delete temporary Windows files. To do this, you need to delete all the contents of the folders:

\Temp
\WINDOWS\TEMP

for Windows XP:
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\Temp
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Documents and Settings\<имя_пользователя>\Local Settings\History

for Windows 7, Vista:
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Temp
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
\Users\<имя_пользователя>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History

In all “beast builds” of Windows, the location of the temporary folder may differ. To find the temporary folder, follow these steps:

Start -> Run(for Windows XP)
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run(for Windows 7, Vista)
In the Run window, in the Open field, enter the following text: %TEMP%
Click on the button "OK«.

It is best to delete files using a file manager such as Total Commander because: a) folder Local Settings usually hidden and the user may simply not find it; b) in a folder Temp There are several files that cannot be deleted because they are currently in use by the system. For Windows Explorer, this becomes an impossible task and it cannot completely clean the folder:

For Total Commander, both of these issues do not pose problems.

2. Windows update files

After operating system updates in the folder \WINDOWS\ There are still many folders whose names begin with “$...” You can also delete them all:

3. Browser cache

Internet browsers Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer (especially version 6) sometimes leave behind a huge amount of garbage on the system disk, which is also sometimes useful to clean. This is done like this:

for Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Erase Recent History. Select item "All", press "OK":

for Opera: Settings -> Delete personal data. You can expand the list " Detailed setting", press " Delete«:

for Chrome: Chrome menu (toolbar) -> Tools -> Clear browsing data. Select the item " during all this time", press the button "Clear the history":

for Internet Explorer: Service -> Delete browsing history, or Service -> Internet Options -> Are common -> Browsing history -> "Delete" button...

In this way, you can clear drive C from several gigabytes of garbage, which consists mainly of many thousands of small (up to 10 kb) files, which can significantly slow down the operation of browsers and the computer as a whole.

4. Downloading browsers, torrent clients, DC, MediaGet, DownloadMaster, etc.

By default, all program data loads files onto the “C” drive, which very quickly leads to its clogging. To prevent this, it is necessary to configure the paths for saving files from the Internet “not on drive C” in each such program.

for Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Settings -> General -> Path to save files:

for Opera: Settings -> Advanced -> Downloads - > Save downloaded files to:

for Chrome: Chrome menu (toolbar) -> Settings -> Advanced settings:

for uTorrent: Settings -> Program settings -> Folders

For other programs that download anything from the Internet or local network, the setup principle is the same.

5. Mail program databases (TheBat, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Office Outlook, etc.)

With intensive exchange of information using email programs, the size of their databases can grow to incredible sizes over time. It is advisable to take this point into account at the stage of installing and configuring these programs, but if you haven’t done this, it doesn’t matter, you can still fix it.

for TheBat: Mailbox -> Mailbox Properties -> Files and Directories:

for Microsoft Office Outlook: Tools -> Email Accounts -> View or change existing accounts-> Create Outlook data file:

You can check whether everything is correct and at the same time delete an unnecessary file from drive “C” here: Tools -> Options -> Mail settings-> Data files:

For other email programs, everything is configured according to the same principles.

7. Temporary program files

Programs that work with large amounts of data, such as disc burning programs (for example, Nero Burning ROM), video (for example, Pinnacle Studio), audio editors, image processing programs (for example, Adobe Photoshop) during their work create temporary files of large size (the so-called “cache”) and, if there is not enough free space to create them, they refuse to work normally, and various failures occur. To prevent this, you need to promptly transfer their temporary files to another disk:

Nero Burning ROM: File -> Presets -> Cache:

Pinnacle Studio: Settings -> Project Options:

Adobe Photoshop: Editing-> Settings -> Performance:

8. Games

From the very beginning of using a computer, you should make it a rule: “If possible, do not install games on drive “C”! Moreover, modern games take up several DVDs, and after installation they can take up several tens of gigabytes. After installing several of these games, you will run out of free space on any disk, no matter how large it is:

9. My Documents and Desktop

This problem dates back to the dinosaur days of the very first versions of Windows. 8 generations of the operating system have already changed, and user folders are still located on the system drive. Moreover, it has worsened: starting with Windows Vista, additional folders have been added to them, such as “Pictures”, “Videos”, “Music”, “Downloads”, “Games”, “Contacts”, “Searches”, “Links” ...

There is also no standard procedure for transferring all user folders to another local drive. There are only a few possibilities, for example, in Windows XP you can move the “My Documents” folder:

Quite experienced and novice PC users have a bad habit of saving the necessary and most needed files on the desktop. A dozen or two gigabytes of information on your desktop is, unfortunately, not at all uncommon! What can you recommend? There is only one thing - to completely refuse to use these “wonderful opportunities” and keep all important information NOT on drive C. Moreover, the probability of losing information stored on drive “C” is much higher than on any other logical drive.

10.Programs

Review the list of installed programs and remove those that you will no longer use, especially large ones:

11. Sleep mode

If all else fails, disabling the use of sleep mode will save from 1 to 5 additional gigabytes.

for Windows XP: Start-> Control Panel -> Appearance and Themes -> Screen -> Screensaver -> Power -> Sleep Mode. Uncheck " Allow use of sleep mode»

for Windows 7, Vista: Start -> Control Panel -> Power supply -> Setting up a power plan -> Put your computer into sleep mode -> « Never". You can also disable the sleep function. Select "Change advanced power settings" and in the window, find sleep mode and turn it off. After disabling Sleep Mode, you can delete the hidden hiberfil.sys file in the root directory of the system disk. It’s a little easier to do this with help: just enter the command “ powercfg -hibernate -off«.

12. Other

Large files can appear in any other place on the system disk, where you wouldn’t expect to see it:

• log files of some programs can grow to many tens of gigabytes;
• one of the users may safely hide and forget the “collection of videos”. Where is the best place to do this? Of course, somewhere in the wilds of system folders on drive “C”;
• some program or plugin for Photoshop stores its database (10-100 GB in size) in a user folder;

In such cases, it is necessary to check the size of all folders (including hidden and system) and find the “culprit” by eliminating. Using the Total Commander program, this is again easier to do: just press the Ctrl+Alt+Enter key combination in an open folder and the size of all attached files and folders will appear in the palm of your hand:

Another case: the folder for temporary files of Avira antivirus has grown to an incredible 16 GB:

13. Basket

Emptying the Recycle Bin is a fairly obvious way to clean up disks of already deleted files, but sometimes quite a large number of files accumulate there, which also negatively affects computer performance.

13. Cleaner programs

There are a huge number of programs that promise, with the click of one or maximum two buttons, to solve all the user’s problems with computer performance and raise it to unprecedented heights. As practice and common sense show, these programs can only solve some (or rather only 1, 2 and 3, and some other little things) from the problems described above, which in this particular case may well not be the most important problem. Although automating this process saves time: it is much faster to automatically delete temporary files than to clean them out manually. Standard disk cleanup program ( Start -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup) is slightly worse than alternatives (eg CCleaner).

14. What else do they write about on the “Internet”

On “our Internets” there are also many fables, myths, unverified facts and outright misinformation. These, from my point of view, include:

• deleting, resizing, moving the swap file;
• deleting backup copies of system files, drivers;
• removal or modification of operating system components;
• removing duplicate operating system files;
• formatting drive C.

It is not advisable to touch operating system components without a clear understanding of what exactly you are doing and why.

15. Summary

Long gone are the days when you could put Windows, a bunch of programs and a lot of data into a 1 GB hard drive and still manage to work and play games. The amount of memory on the average user's hard drives has already crossed the mark of several terabytes, but the problems remain the same. Well, artificial intelligence will not soon replace experience and common sense. Keep an eye on the free space - for comfortable operation of the operating system there should be at least no less than 1/3 of the disk capacity, or no less (or preferably more) several gigabytes. The final step of this work is to achieve an even better result.

During its operation, the Windows 7 operating system accumulates a lot of garbage and unnecessary files. This is usually a consequence of system updates, unpacking archives and browsing the Internet. The system itself has standard utilities for removing junk, but they do not start automatically and periodically you need to clean it manually.

Manually deleting temporary files via the command line

Removing unnecessary files and directories from the hard drive is done using the internal “DELete” command. This can be done both from the operating system and when starting the computer when Windows 7 is not yet loaded.

To delete an individual file, enter the “DEL” command and the file name. To delete a group of files (for example, all temporary files that have the TMP extension), you can use the wildcard character: “DEL *.TMP”.

To delete temporary files via the command line, do the following:

1. Click on the "Start" button, enter "cmd" in the search and launch the command line.

   Launch Command Prompt via Windows Search

2. In the window that appears, navigate to the root system of the disk using the “CD..” command. Two dots indicate a higher-level directory, and one dot indicates the current one.

   Navigate to the root system of the disk using the "CD.." command

3. Enter the command “DEL C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.TMP” or “DEL C:\WINDOWS\*.TXT” and then confirm the deletion.

   Enter the command “DEL C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.TMP”

In the same way, you can delete unnecessary directories, but instead of the “DEL” command, “DELTREE” is entered.

Using DOS wildcards - simple, but powerful and dangerous. This method requires precise knowledge of the location of files and directories - it is not entirely suitable for untrained users.

If you are not using any of the file shells in which directory files are visible, it is recommended that you view their listing with the “DIR” command before deleting files. For example, if you intend to delete all files with the TXT extension, before entering the “DEL *.TXT” command, you should play it safe and view them with the “DIR *.TXT” command.

Manually clearing the Temp folder

In the Windows 7 operating system, there is a separate folder for storing temporary files. It contains files and directories that remain after installing programs, unpacking various archives, and surfing the Internet. To remove them, do the following:

You can also get to this folder as follows:

Removing unnecessary files using the Disk Cleanup utility

Disk Cleanup is a program built into the operating system that removes unnecessary junk from your computer. With its help, you can find many files that have not been used for a long time. Removing them will increase the efficiency of your computer. All temporary and unused system files will be deleted and the recycle bin will be emptied.

To start cleaning, do the following:

1. Open the Start menu and click on All Programs.

   Expand "All Programs"

2. Go to the "Accessories" folder, then "System" and run the "Disk Cleanup" utility.

   Run the Disk Cleanup utility

3. Select the disk to clean and click OK.

   Select the disk to clean

4. Mark the items you are interested in and click OK.

   Check the items you are interested in and click OK

You can also access this utility in the following way:

Removing unnecessary programs using a standard utility

In addition to system garbage, long-forgotten programs or virus software may be installed on your computer. To remove them, do the following:

1. Open the Start menu and go to Control Panel.

   Open Control Panel

2. Click "Uninstall a program."

   Click "Uninstall a program" when categorized

3. Right-click on the program you don’t need and select “Uninstall.”

   Remove all unnecessary programs

4. After regular uninstallation, go to the Program Files park on drive C and erase the folder belonging to the deleted application, if it is there.

   Overwrite the remaining folders

How to clean a disk of junk on Windows 7 using third-party programs

Using specialized programs, you can clean your hard drive most effectively, maximizing your computer's performance.

• Wise Care 365;
• Glary Utilities;
• 360 Total Security;
• Your Uninstaller.

You can easily find all the above software on the Internet.

Wise Care 365

Wise Care 365 comes in free and paid versions. It cleans the registry, local disk, allows you to edit startup, optimizes the operation of many applications and the operating system itself. If you use it constantly, you can avoid various crashes and freezes on your computer.

1. Launch the program and click the "Check" button.

   Immediately after starting the program, run a system scan

2. After completing the check, proceed to correct all errors found.

   After receiving the scan results, correct any errors found

3. Go to the “Cleaning” tab and click on the big green button in the “Registry Cleaner” section.

   Click on the "Cleanup" button to heal registry errors

4. Now open the “Deep Cleaning” section and run a scan.

   Click "Scan" under "Deep Cleaning"

5. Then click “Cleanup” to fix any errors found.

   Once the deep scan is complete, click "Cleanup"

6. Go to the “Optimization” tab and run defragmentation of the hard drive.

   Run hard drive defragmentation

7. Now disable autorun programs in the appropriate section.

   Disable startup programs

Glary Utilities

Glary Utilities comes in free and paid versions. This program cleans and restores the registry, analyzes disk space, deletes temporary files, defragments the disk, and also has many other functions.

1. Launch the program, go to the “1-Click” tab and click “Find problems”.

   Go to the 1-Click tab and click Find Issues

2. Wait until the scan is completed, go to the “Modules” tab and click “Erase traces”.

   Click on "Erase traces"

3. Wait until the analysis is completed and click “Erase traces.”

   Click "Erase Traces"

4. Check the required items in the left panel and close the window. Then restart your computer.

   Mark the items that interest you and close the window

360 Total Security

360 Total Security is a free antivirus program based on the Avira and Defender engines. This program does not conflict with other antiviruses and has a number of additional advantages. It allows you to clean the system of unnecessary files, optimize startup applications, search for vulnerabilities, compress the disk, and can generally speed up your computer.

1. Immediately after starting the program, run a system scan.

   Run a system check

2. Once errors are found, click "Fix".

   

Ten years ago, when the Windows XP operating system appeared and instantly became popular (official support for which is ending very soon), no one was particularly worried about the size of the system disk. 20-30 GB on disk "C" was enough to install both the system itself and the software. With the advent of Windows 7, PC owners for the first time were massively faced with the problem of lack of space on the system disk - this operating system itself occupied about 10 GB, and programs absorbed approximately the same amount, registering and constantly updating. The 20-25 GB system disk filled up very quickly. And many even had to resort to repartitioning their computer disks in order to increase the system disk at the expense of another disk.

To ensure that there is always enough free space on the system partition, it must be kept clean and tidy and periodically monitored to see if it is cluttered. If Windows reports that there is not enough free space on the system disk - usually on drive C - it's time to clean it up. Let's look at 7 ways to clean the system disk with Windows 8 installed below.

Before you start cleaning up your disk, you need to remember how much free space is currently available on it. In the future, this will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the work done by comparing the initial and final figures.

1. Removing unnecessary files from the system disk

First, you need to check whether files are stored on the system disk that, in principle, may not be stored there - these are media files, folders with documents, disk images, program installation files, etc. All this can be transferred to a non-system drive; moreover, it is even recommended that all important files be stored on a non-system drive (D, E, etc.), so that if an unexpected system failure occurs and it has to be reinstalled, this data were not destroyed during formatting of the system disk.

As a rule, all files downloaded from the Internet are stored in download folders assigned by default by browsers on the system drive. To prevent the system drive from becoming cluttered with downloaded files in the future, you need to assign a different folder for downloads in the browser settings, but on a non-system drive.

Under no circumstances should you transfer system files to another drive, which means that you should bypass the Windows folder on the tenth route.

To search for media files and documents, you can use Windows Search and set search criteria for the desired file types within the system drive.

Check the found files further, cut out the necessary ones and paste them on a non-system drive using the context menu, and simply delete the unnecessary ones.

Remove all those programs and games that you do not use. As a rule, after removing large resource-intensive games, quite a lot of space is freed up. To correctly remove software and clean the system from remaining traces, use special software - uninstallers.

Here are some popular uninstallers:

• Your Uninstaller;
• Revo Uninstaller.

3. Windows Disk Cleanup service

The Windows operating system is equipped with a standard service that analyzes the space on the system disk and identifies files that can be deleted to free up space without causing harm to the system.

In Windows 8 Explorer, open “My Computer” and open the context menu on the system drive. At the end of the list, click “Properties”, and in the window that appears, click the “Disk Cleanup” command. In the “Disk Cleanup” window, check the boxes next to the files that you want to delete - Recycle Bin files, temporary files from Temp folders, temporary Internet files, etc.

Then click “Clean up system files.”

4. Manually cleaning Temp folders

If the system disk is not periodically cleaned, up to 5-6 GB can accumulate in the Temp folders over a long period of time. And the Windows Disk Cleanup service, as a rule, deletes only some of the files from these folders. Temp folders can be cleaned manually by completely deleting their contents.

What is the “Temp” folder for in general? Temporary files are stored there that Windows and various programs installed on the computer create for their work. Most of these files become unnecessary over time because they are not used in work.

Temp folders are hidden, and the easiest way to get to one of them is using standard Windows Explorer, or the popular Total Commander file manager, since most builds of this program have a pre-installed “Hidden Items” button in the toolbar. It displays all hidden files and folders on the system. Click this button and open the root folder of the system in Total Commander and find the “Temp” folder there:

You can open the “Temp” folder in the same path in standard Windows Explorer, but before that you also need to configure the display of hidden folders.

In Windows 7, click the Start button, then Control Panel, then Appearance and Personalization, then Folder Options. In Windows 8, you can get to the “Folder Options” section directly from the “Control Panel”.

In the “Folder Options” window that opens, immediately go to the “View” tab and check the “Show hidden folders, files and drives” option in the additional settings.

Then click "Apply" and "OK".

In the “Temp” folder, select all existing files and press “Shift + Delete” so that the files are completely deleted from the computer, bypassing the “Trash”.

But there is more than one “Temp” folder on the computer: in addition to the one located in the Windows root folder, another “Temp” folder can also be found in user files on the system drive:

C:\Users\Windows Account Name\AppData\Local\Temp.

You can follow this path in a file manager or Windows Explorer, but it is much easier to enter the command %TEMP% in the address bar of Explorer and press the Enter key.

Select all the files that are there and delete them.

Not all files from this “Temp” folder will be deleted, some of them may be currently used for the operation of the system and programs, so just skip them.

Over time, a large number of unnecessary files accumulate on the main partition of the hard drive, which is called the letter C by default, taking up a lot of space. Since the disk allocated for the system and system elements most often has a small volume, the presence of temporary files and files left over from deleted programs can lead to the fact that free space on the disk becomes catastrophically low. Manually deleting files from this drive is very difficult because they may be located very deep in the folder system, and it is also dangerous because you can accidentally erase items that are necessary for the computer to function correctly. To safely clean up your system disk in Windows 10, your best bet is to use the built-in Disk Cleanup program.

Windows 10 Disk Cleanup: Built-in Tools

There are several ways to open the Disk Cleanup program in Windows 10. Remember that you should only use it if drive C is full and there is no way to clean it by removing third-party programs.

Through command execution

Via control panel

How to use the program

1. In the “Disk Cleanup” block, you need to check all the departments that you want to clean.
2. Having selected a department, you can read all the information about what it contains, as well as view the files that belong to this section by clicking the “View files” button.
3. To proceed to removing system files, click the “Clean up system files” button. You will need administrator rights to access this feature. But it is better not to remove any elements of the system, as this may lead to system breakdown or incorrect operation.
4. In the “Advanced” tab, you can proceed to remove unnecessary programs by clicking the “Clean” button in the “Programs and Features” block.
5. In the “System Restore and Shadow Copies” block, you can click the “Clean” button to proceed to deleting unnecessary recovery points that also take up space on drive C. It is not recommended to delete all points, and it is also better to save one or two of the last ones in order to always have the ability to roll back the system if some error occurs that cannot be corrected by other methods.
6. Once you have selected which partitions you want to clean and have ticked them, click the OK button to begin the process. Do not interrupt the cleaning process or turn off the computer so that no errors occur and all files are deleted correctly.

Advanced Cleaning

Each user with administrator rights has the opportunity to launch the Disk Cleanup program with more options than there are during normal startup.

What to do if the application does not start

The program may not open using any of the above methods only because the file responsible for launching the application is not in the default path. Try to find this file manually, it may be located in the following path: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386. If it is not there either, or the folder itself does not exist, then there is only one thing left to do - use third-party programs to clean up the disk.

How to clean up drive C on Windows 10 using third-party programs and applications

There are many programs that allow you to clean your hard drive from unnecessary and temporary files. Many of them are distributed on the Internet for free and are in no way inferior to the built-in Disk Cleanup program. Next, we will consider the most popular, convenient and easy-to-use applications.

CCleaner

The positive aspects of this program include the following qualities:

Kaspersky Cleaner

A program from a well-known campaign that previously specialized only in antiviruses, but has now started producing applications with other tasks. You can download Cleaner from Kaspersky from the official website by finding it in the general list of all programs -

The main advantage of the application is its simple design, which allows you to complete all the necessary tasks by pressing one “Start scanning” button.

Also, if you don’t like the changes made by the program after the last session, you can cancel them by clicking the “Cancel Changes” button in the main menu.

What can cause your hard drive to fill up?

If you have cleaned up your disk using one of the above methods, but have not freed up enough space, try the following:

• Manually go through all the files stored on the drive and see which ones can be moved to another drive or deleted. Do not touch system files and programs; you can only move and edit elements that you personally added.
• Remove unnecessary third-party programs that are definitely not useful to you.
• Check your computer for viruses. Perhaps the virus itself takes up some of the free space or regularly downloads advertising files and applications that clog up the disk.

It is recommended that you clean out the C drive regularly, as how busy it is will determine how quickly the computer can find the files you need and present them to the user. That is, if drive C is overloaded, the system runs slower. And also, all browsers and other programs send temporary files and cache to the main disk by default, and if there is no space on it, then there will be nowhere to store the necessary elements. Based on all the problems described, we can conclude that it is worth cleaning the disk using special programs at least once a month.

Hello all friends!

If you care about the fast operation of your computer, then at least every three months you need to carry out a global cleaning of the system from various types of garbage. If you don't do this, your computer will simply slow down.

After using your computer for a long time, a lot of garbage accumulates. By getting rid of it, you can free up gigabytes of free space on your hard drive. Let’s clear the disk of garbage in three steps. This article is for beginners. Use it and you will really notice the difference BEFORE and AFTER cleaning your hard drive. The most interesting thing is that we will get rid of the Temp folder. Learn more about it:

Step 1) cleaning your computer from junk - manually

Cleaning the system drive “C” in Windows 7 is a fairly simple procedure, but before using the programs, let’s prepare our computer. To do this, we will use standard system tools. Let's go to " Start» —>» Computer"and we see our disks. Point the mouse at drive C and press the right mouse button. Go to properties and run disk cleanup.

The cleaning program will start, it will evaluate the volume, and prepare the files for deletion.

Attention! If you are cleaning the disk for the first time, this may take a long time, up to several hours. Therefore, for especially “Neglected Patients” it is necessary to perform cleaning at night.

We check all the boxes before cleaning. Look in the trash, maybe you still have the files you need there.

Don't forget to go to the Advanced tab, where you can remove unnecessary programs and restore points. Click " OK"—> « Delete files» unnecessary garbage has been removed. The preparation of the system is completed, let's move on to the “heavy artillery” - we will use a powerful program to remove residual debris.

Step 2. CCleaner - continue disk cleaning

We continue cleaning. And a cool program called CCleaner will help us with this. This is the most popular utility among garbage cleaners. Download the portable (portable version does not require installation) program. The download will start automatically. Launch the program, click " Analyze" (Analysis), after scanning " Run Cleaner“(Cleaning). The program language changes like this: Options» —> « Settings» —> « Language» —> « Russian«.

You can also clean the registry, I think you’ll figure it out - the interface couldn’t be simpler. Let's move on to the next step.

Step 3. FreeSpacer - completely clean your computer disk of debris

The program is called FreeSpacer and install it on your computer. I'll say a few words about this wonderful program.

I have been using FreeSpacer for a very long time, what I like about it is that it has no complicated settings, it all comes down to two actions: search and delete, it is distributed free of charge and does not delete anything unnecessary. I also want to say about its effectiveness; it removed my friend’s 20 gigs of garbage and that's not the limit.

Launch the program and click " Search.» There should be no other programs or background applications running on the system.