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Sunday 22 February 2009

Where has all my hard-drive space gone? - Reloaded

Just as you can never have enough cupboard space in your home, you can never have enough hard-drive space. Nevertheless, occasionally we all have to sort through our storage and throw out a few things to make some more room. This is often easier said than done when it comes to your PC as it is not always clear what is taking up all the space.

The free version of TreeSize provides a graphical representation of how much hard-drive space your folders are using. Simply right-click on a particularly bloated folder and click on 'Explore' from the menu. This will open up that folder so you can set about deleting any files that are surplus to requirement. Remember to empty the recycle bin when you are finished. I would suggests that you leave the 'Program Files' and 'Windows' folders alone unless you know what you are doing.

If you use Internet Explorer you may want to delete its cache of temporary files. From the 'Tools' menu select 'Internet Options.' If you use IE version 6 or earlier, click on the 'Delete Files' button. For later versions click the button marked 'Delete...' in the 'Browsing History' section. Click the 'Delete Files' button on the box that opens. You will then be asked whether you are sure, click 'Yes.' Deletion of all the temporary internet files may take a while.
In Firefox, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Options..' Click on the 'Advanced' icon. Click on the 'Network' tab. There you will find a button labelled 'Clear now', pressing this will empty the cache.
Also, the save files of many computer games can be quite large. You may want to delete a few of these and the best way to do so is within the game. Usually this facility is located on the 'load game' screen. See these related posts for more ways to recover drive space:-
Spring Cleaning: How to clear out temporary files
Time for a purge: reclaiming hard-drive space

This post comprises amended information from two earlier posts Where has all my hard-drive space gone? and Keyboard shortcut of the week: refreshing changes both posted on 30th August 2007

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Grace said...

I just want to say that I'm here... reading and dropping EC. :)

Borkiman said...

TT&H: Consider it done. Please let me know when you have added a link to Bloody Computer! to your blog.

Grace: Glad to have you here. I hope you enjoy your visit.

Thanks for the comments.

Anonymous said...

I just want to say that you're a good blogger. Because you provide great information to your readers while letting them know some of your personal updates. Way to go!

Anonymous said...

I was just here to drop EC and read a few of your blogs. Just wanted to say they are pretty good and useful and to keep up the good work.

Borkiman said...

Jewel and Jare : Thank you for the kind words. Glad to be of service.

Anonymous said...

We use FolderSizes (www.foldersizes.com), which is a commercial application that is extremely powerful. Highly recommended for professional use.

Desktop Hard Drive said...

I am using vista i have not used much of the my computer memory and for no reason it is occupying 75%of my hdd ,
I tried the technique that u have told,cleaned hdd removed temp files etc etc however it does not show the missing Hard Drive space, i hope my hard drive is not screwed ..

Borkiman said...

DHD: Did you try using TreeSize to identify which folder where taking up all the space?

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