Windows 7 Users: Learn How to Free Up C Drive Space with These Easy Tips
As you know, to maintain the computer, it is necessary to clean the C Drive regularly so that more usable space is available to you and also to clear the remaining part of the information that you have already deleted. You have Windows 7. To achieve the above goal, you can use independent software such as CCleaner, which is designed for this purpose, or you can delete additional data manually using the tools available in Windows 7.
This article guides how to free up C Drive in Windows 7 from old data. The freeing process does not take more than a minute, and it is recommended to do this process once a week or whenever it seems necessary.
It should be noted that programs like CCleaner have additional features for cleaning temporary files that the standard drive-freeing tool in Windows 7 lacks. Therefore, many times it is more beneficial to use them. But in many situations, such programs may not be available for us to use, and of course, it is always good to know how to fix a problem without independent software and using Windows tools.
One of the ways to increase the speed in Windows is to delete unnecessary files from the drive. One of the factors that slow down Windows is the presence of additional and temporary files. Generally, extra, unnecessary, temporary, duplicate, and old files accumulate on the C Drive and occupy a lot of C Drive space. Expanding the number of files, in the long run, slows down the system’s performance. Therefore, it is better to increase the performance and efficiency of your system by removing additional Windows files.
Freeing up C Drive space
Every time you install and remove different software, different files of that program remain on the C Drive. But even after uninstalling the software, these extra files stay on the system. Because when deleting a software, only specific files of that software are deleted. In such as situation, deleting additional Windows files will free up C Drive space.
Some Windows files are previews of other files, which are called Thumbnails. These files are mainly used for images and video previews. If you have a lot of photos and videos, the number of these files will naturally increase, and as a result, they will occupy more drive space. For this reason, it is better to delete old and unnecessary files and free up C Drive space and also solve the problem of reducing the volume of C Drive or windows drive. In the following, we will introduce some practical methods for freeing the computer C Drive.
You can use Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files and other unnecessary items, and you can also delete unused programs from the Control Panel.
1.Using Disk Cleanup
1.Open Start.
Click on the colored Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the desktop. A menu will open.
2. Select search bar.
It’s at the bottom of the Start menu.
3. Search “disk cleanup” at search bar.
By doing this, your computer will search all versions of Windows 7 to free up the disk.
4. Select Dis Cleanup.
It is at the top of the start menu, and by doing this, the Disk Cleanup window will open.
5. Select Cleanup system files.
This section is located on the left side of the Disk Cleanup window
Tip: If you are not in the administrator account, you cannot do this.
6. Select YES in the new window.
By doing this, Disk Cleanup will be restarted with additional options.
7. Delete some things by selecting some items. Select the checkbox next to each category of files or items you want to delete from your computer. Some of the categories are as follows:
- Windows Update — Delete the last Windows Update files from your computer.
- Downloaded Program Files — Delete unnecessary files from programs.
- Temporary Internet Files.
- System created Windows Error Reporting — Delete error reporting files.
- Temporary files — Delete other temporary files.
- User file history — Delete history of browsing.
- Recycle Bin — Delete any files stored in the Recycle Bin.
- In this section, everything can be deleted safely and without worry, but you should note that deleting things such as the cache of Windows Update will make you unable to go back to the previous version of Windows Update.
You can go through the download folder to clear the excessive space on your computer.
First, you should open your download folder, then check all the files in it to find out if there are any items in this section that you no longer need. I suggest you look for files with extensions called MP4 or MOV.
Because these files take up a lot of space in your C Drive, and if you don’t need these files, you can put them in the recycle bin, and when you’re done, go to the recycle bin and empty it.
If you don’t empty it, those programs will be placed on your hard disk and occupy a lot of space.
8. Select OK.
It’s at the bottom of the window.
9. Click Delete Files when prompted in the new window. By selecting this option, you will allow the computer to delete files and free up hard disk space. After the process is finished, Disk Cleanup will close automatically.
It may take a few minutes to an hour for Disk Cleanup to finish its erasure operation.
2. Removing programs
1.Open Start.
Click on the colored Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the desktop. A menu will open.
2. Click and open Control Panel.
It’s on the right side of the Start menu.
If you don’t see Control Panel here for some reason, type control panel into the search bar at the bottom of the Start menu, then open Control Panel in the search results.
3. Select the “View by” drop-down box.
You’ll see this in the top-right corner of the Control Panel page.
4. Select Category.
It’s in the drop-down menu.
5. Select Uninstall a program.
This is under the “Programs” heading in the bottom-left side of the list of options.
6. Select a program.
Scroll down for find the name of the program that you want to uninstall, then click the program’s name to select it.
7. Click Uninstall.
It’s at the top of the window.
Some programs will require to click Change / Uninstall instead.
8. Follow the on-screen prompts.
Usually, you have to confirm that you want to uninstall the program and then follow the prompts to uninstall the program.
Sometimes, you may need to restart your computer before the program in question is completely removed.
9. Wait until the uninstallation process is complete.
After the uninstallation is finished, you can uninstall another app if you want.
But there are ways to prevent the C Drive from filling up. We will explain some methods to you in this article.
1.Keep the desktop blank
One of the austerest points that many users do not pay awareness to is that the desktop space is a part of Windows, and whatever you copy to it, the free area of the computer also decreases. Naturally, sharing files with kilobyte volumes will not have any effect on the system; but multi-gigabit videos, souvenir pictures, and other files that many people save on the desktop causes the Windows drive to fill up and slow down the computer.
2. Empty the Windows Recycle Bin
Like the desktop screen, the Recycle Bin is also part of the system, and until the information inside is deleted, the hard disk space will not be freed. For example, if you delete some 5GB videos from your desktop and move them to the Windows Recycle Bin, there will be no free space on the C Drive. This also applies to other drives.
Try to forever delete bulky files in the Recycle Bin.
3. Disable Hibernation
The Hibernate feature allows you to turn off the computer while the programs are running, and after turning it on again, continue your previous activity without any problems. But how is this done? By saving the content of RAM on the hard disk in the form of a file called hiberfil.sys in the C Drive.
By disabling Hibernation in Windows 7, you can partially prevent the C Drive from filling up. For this job:
1. Search for Cmd in the start menu; Then right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
2. Type powercfg /hibernate off and then press Enter.
After doing this, the sleep feature in inactive Windows and the free space of Windows C Drive will increase. To reactivate this feature, in the second step, enter powercfg /hibernate on. However, we do not recommend this because it disables one of the best features of Windows.
4. Sort downloads folder
One of the best and easiest ways to increase the free space of your system hard disk is to organize the downloads folder. Many of us have downloaded audio and video files that we have only heard or seen on time.
By deleting unused download files, you can free up a significant amount of hard disk space.
5. Get help from an SSD
If the overall performance of the operating system is noticeably slowed down and this problem is not solved even by reinstalling Windows, probably buying an SSD and installing Windows on it will solve many problems.
Windows files are placed on the SSD, and the effects of filling up the hard disk on the overall performance of the system are minimized.
SSDs are available today at a relatively affordable price, and according to your needs, 256 or 512 GB capacity can be a good choice.
6. Cloud storage
Finally, it’s nice to know that you don’t have to store all your files on your computer’s hard drive! Hard disk filling is one of the reasons why many computer experts recommend holding your necessary files in a dedicated cloud space.
By storing in the cloud, you will not only increase the free space of your hard disk but your data will not be lost in case of any problem with the hard disk.
However, remembering to regularly back up data and store it in the cloud is usually difficult for most people. If you forget to take a few backup steps, you will end up having to save a large number of files in the cloud at once, which is not an enjoyable situation considering the speed of the Internet.
For this reason, special tools have been designed for this purpose, which makes backing up the information of a folder or partitions an automatic process. This way, you don’t need to worry about reminding yourself to back up your data daily or weekly.
Windows offers its solutions for continuous backup. By referring to the computer and Windows settings, make sure that the backup process is performed at least weekly.
If you have limited internet volume and you need to transfer your data very quickly, moving them to an external storage device such as an external hard drive or an external SSD can be a good option.
External memories are safe and affordable and can be easily used anywhere. In addition, important information is available to you at any moment.
The importance of continuous maintenance
Freeing up storage space on your hard drive can be time-consuming, but it’s a necessary part of maintaining your desktop or laptop computer.
The more and more regularly you do these things, the more time you have to spend on each step will be significantly reduced, and in addition, the overall performance of the system and hard disk will be better.
For this purpose, you can use techniques such as identifying duplicate files (for example, several copies of a photo or song) on a weekly or monthly ground.
Do not forget that the process of freeing up storage space on the hard disk is completed when you also clear the contents of the Windows trash.
Conclusion
In this way, a significant part of the computer C Drive space will be freed. The presence of extra and unnecessary files will occupy the Drive and reduce the size of the drives, so it is better to delete extra files in Windows and clean Windows at regular intervals.
Have you ever encountered the problem that after some time the speed of Windows slows down and the computer C Drive is full for unknown reasons?
What other ways do you know to free up the C Drive?
