Every PC user has at least once encountered the problem of running out of disk space. When such a situation occurs, a person begins to frantically remember what information he no longer needs and what can be removed to make another update or install the necessary program. Famous tweakers and cleaners may be able to help you, but often they do not work very well.
In this article, you will learn how to clean up drive C in Windows 7 (64-bit).
Removing garbage using Disk Cleanup
How to completely clean the C drive (Windows 7) so as not to disrupt the system? Disk Cleanup is one of the safest programs among all the tools that help get rid of computer debris. With its help, you can clean the hard drive, but it is almost impossible to remove something important, since a warning signal will be received. Other utilities offer quick cleaning, but they cannot offer any security guarantees.
To understand how to clean the C drive (Windows 7) from unnecessary files thanks to the "Disk Cleanup" function, you need to understand what this function is for. With its help, the number of those files that have not been used for a long time but are located on the hard disk is reduced. Such measures lead to an increase in the efficiency of the computer. All temporary and unused system files will be deleted and the recycle bin will be emptied.
You need to start work by starting the program. To do this, go to the "Start", select "All Programs", go to "Standard", "Utilities", and then click "Disk Cleanup". In the "Disk Cleanup Options" window that opens, select what you need to do: clear personal files or all files that are on the device. If a prompt appears with a password, you must enter it.
In the "Disk Cleanup" window , go to "Disk Selection" and determine which disk will be cleaned. After that, click "OK" and set notes next to the selected files. This action must be approached responsibly so as not to delete important files. After that, confirm the cleaning.
The Advanced tab includes two more methods that free up space on your hard drive. But it is available only when the option to delete files of all device users is checked.
The next step, leading to the knowledge of how to clean the C drive (Windows 7), is to open the "Programs and Features" item, which is located on the control panel. In it, you can delete everything that is not used. In the column "Size" you can see how much disk space each program takes.
Thanks to System Restore, you can return to an earlier state with the help of restore points in order to restore system files. If the computer is functioning properly, the previous return points can be deleted, this will save disk space.
Manually removing garbage
To know how to properly clean the C drive (Windows 7) from unnecessary files manually, you need to have information about where the temporary folders are located. They can be found at the following addresses: "% windir% \ Temp" or "% ProgramData% \ TEMP". For everyone who uses the device, this is "% userprofile% \ AppData \ Local \ Temp".
Files located in these folders can be deleted without problems. If you try to remove an important and necessary program, Windows will not allow this.
Windows Search Services and file reduction
Erasing C drive (Windows 7) can be done using the Windows Search Service, it caches all the information about the files on the hard drives and transfers it to the database, which is located in the folder "% ProgramData% \ Microsoft \ Search \ Data \ Applications \ Windows \ "and is called" Windows.edb ".
The thing is that if the amount of data on the hard drives increases, then the database file also increases. It can be several GB. Those users who do not use the hard drive search very often can free up space using the following method, which will not only reduce the file, but also be able to monitor its size.
You must enable "services.msc" and put "Window Search" in the disabled state. After renaming the file , run it again. In the "Indexing Options" you need to click "Change" and select the appropriate mode, and then confirm all actions.
Work with file size
How to clean up C drive (Windows 7) and free up space on it? This can be done by reducing the size of the swap file, as well as relocating it to another drive. Optimum sizes depend on the features of your device.
Installation Cleanup
Most updates that are installed on the computer have the ability to leave installation programs in a separate folder. This leads to the fact that its size is significantly increased. It is not worth completely deleting these files, such a measure may lead to incorrect operation of the device. But if free space is urgently needed, then their removal will be the way out of the situation. In the future, you should use software distributions or remove applications.
Antivirus software
Clearly better to explain the example of the popular antivirus "ESET NOD32". When he finds infected files, he sends them to the Quarantine folder. Its location may vary, so you need to look at a specific computer.
If there are a lot of such files, then the size of the folder will increase. This situation can be resolved by clearing the Quarantine folder.
Turn off sleep mode
On the system disk is the file "hiberfil.sys", which always takes up space. Depending on the configuration of your computer, it can reach various sizes. If you do not need hibernation, you can always turn it off. But you need to do this in sleep mode.
To do this, you must log into the computer using administrator rights. On the control panel, select "Switch to sleep mode." In the context menu, click to create a shortcut. In the field that opens, specify "powercfg -h off". Then confirm your actions. Next, run the shortcut on behalf of the administrator and agree to the actions in the "UAC" request.
Helpful hints and tips
Another good tip is how to clean up C drive (Windows 7) to free up space in the system partition. To get rid of possible problems in the future, it is necessary to control the availability of free space. This applies to user folders.
For this method to work, you need to have several hard drives or partitions on them that will be on the same computer. It is more expedient to carry out this procedure right after reinstallation of Windows. This is due to the fact that there should always be free space, which is necessary for defragmentation. It can be carried out both automatically and if necessary. Defragmentation not only reduces hard drive wear, but also improves the performance of the computer as a whole.
After installation (which requires drive C) of Windows 7, you need to create several system folders. They should be located in the root directory. Some of them may not be displayed. But the necessary, "Users", is always visible.
After entering this daddy you can see all the names. The number of users may vary depending on the circumstances. You need to select the folder that is named after the name of the user you need. It will contain all personal documents and user data.
Almost each of these folders will increase in size as you add photos and other files. If you pay attention to the picture, you can see which one is crowded and needs to be cleaned.
That folder, which is filled as a result of various downloads, is more appropriate to remove from the hard drive and move to another location. To do this, it must be cut out and transferred to the next disk, which has more free space. On this disk, you need to create a folder with the username and paste all the data there.
If there are many users, such a procedure must be done for everyone. This will allow you to control the system partition, as well as improve the performance of the entire system.