Computer Tips for ‘Regular’ People — How to Create More Space on Your Hard Drive

2008 August 9

by Urbain

Hard drives fill up fast these days. Digital photos, movies, mp3 audios and all the other fun downloads take up a lot of space.

The Practical Solutions

Obviously, the first thing you may want to consider to free up space on you computer is to delete files that you never use. If you don’t want to part with your files, transfer them to CD, USB flash drive, or disk. For me, the best storage device for the price and ease of use is the an external USB drive that store huge amounts of data. Seagate has a portable hard drive model that holds up to 1.5 terabytes; the one I use is just 500 GB, but that’s plenty for right now. For the cost, “plug and play” ease of use, and simplicity in transferring files, you just can’t beat the portable hard drives as a backup storage device.

The Built-In Solutions in System Tools

If you have a PC that has a Microsoft operating system (i.e., any kind of Windows program), there is a disk cleanup utility that you can use. To access it:

Accessing Your System Tools and Cleanup

Click the START button at the lower left hand side of your computer screen.
A menu will pop up. Double click on PROGRAMS.
From the programs menu, select ACCESSORIES.
From the accessories menu, double-click on SYSTEM TOOLS.
Click the DISK CLEANUP option from System Tools.

When you start the disk cleanup program, a menu will pop-up that looks like this:

Disk Cleanup

Make sure that you have selected the drive that is your hard drive (usually, this is Drive C and will show up by default). Click OKAY, follow the prompts, and you’re done. It’s very easy to do this, but you might not free as much space as you would like.

Compressing Your Files

Your Windows program can compress your files and create a lot more space on your hard drive. The first thing you want to do is open “My Computer.” There should be an icon for “My Computer” on your desktop. Just double-click it and it will open.

My Computer

If My Computer does not show up on your desktop, you’ll need to access it by clicking the START menu on the lower left hand side of your computer screen.

After you have opened My Computer, you will see the list of your computer’s drives. You’ll want to select the hard drive, which is generally Drive C on a computer: