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How to Free Up Space on Laptop – Guide
Are you running out of space to download this new game or work files? Here it is how to free up some space.
A DISASSEMBLED HARD DRIVE IS LIKE A DESTROYED MIND. (I believe Albert Einstein said that.) If you’re continually getting the message “Low disk space,” it’s probably time to do a general cleanup. Here it is how to find out what’s going on up space on your PC or Mac, as well as what to do with files you can’t get rid of.
Scan your hard drive for storage hogs
Before you start deleting things whether you like it or not, you should step back and look for the big gains. Deleting a bunch of 50MB files here and there won’t make any difference as big as cleaning up an 80GB folder of old TV shows or uninstalling some games. (Seriously, if you are a gamer, clearing old titles can unlock up huge chunks of space instantly – be honest about what you’re actually going to play. You can always reinstall later.)
If you are on a Windows 10 machine, open up Settings> System> Storage to see a breakdown of your drive and which folders it is taking up more space. You can click on any category to see more information, especially the “Other” category, which will show individual folders with large files. Find things you no longer need and get rid of them – it’s not always easy, but it’s the best thing you can do to release up space.
If you’re on a Mac, you can scan your drive for large files by clicking the Apple menu in the upper left corner and going to About This Mac > Storage. Click on the Manage button button and you will see different categories in the sidebar that you can select for a list of large files. Right click on the files to delete them and empty the Recycle Bin when done.
If you find these tools a little too basic, third-party alternatives like WinDirStat and Disk Inventory X can search even further to find out exactly which folders and files are using your storage space. You may find old iPhone backups you no longer need, videos you may have stored in the wrong folder, or disk images from that old Raspberry Pi project. For most people, the built-in disk analyzer is fine, but these third-party tools can come in handy if you have large files hidden in unconventional folders.
To clean Up Temporary and Duplicate Files
You’ve probably heard this advice before: both Windows and macOS store temporary files like thumbnails, old update packages, or cached internet files that you can delete for free up space. And that’s true, but I’m going to be a little annoying here: these files will eventually come back, as this is how the system was designed to work – these caches help your computer run faster. So while this might take a little extra space for now, it’s not a permanent solution and probably won’t free up up almost as much space as clearing your own personal file vault.
In Windows 10, click on the Start menu and search for Disk Cleanup. You will get a list of files that you can delete, and then just click OK to release up that space instantly – or click “Clear Up System files” for a few more options.
A new feature called Storage Sense can be part of this automatically. Go back to Settings > System > Storage and at the top click the Configure Storage Sensor link. This will give you a few options, like deleting temp files over a certain age or moving rarely used files to OneDrive (more on that soon). Change the switch at the top to On when done and choose how often you want Storage Sense to run. Personally, I like to keep that out and manage things myself, but for each of them.
Macs don’t have a similar tool for cleaning up temporary files, but Windows and Mac users can run free programs like CCleaner to perform these tasks. Again, most of this stuff will come back anyway, and if you go crazy with programs like these, it can cause as many problems as it solves (I recommend staying away from the registry cleaner). But it might be able to point to large files that you would have missed otherwise – it also has a built-in Duplicate Finder that might be able to find large files you’ve stored twice (like a movie you accidentally copied to two locations). Again, focus on large files rather than trying to delete a bunch of smaller files. you will not release up a lot of space with the last one, and the more stuff you delete, the more you risk deleting something really important.
Finally, be careful when deleting system files such as Windows hiberfil.sys, which stores system contents during hibernation, or system restore files, which allow you to roll back your system if problems arise. both these features they can be turned off to save space, but they’re useful enough that I don’t really recommend them, especially for less advanced users.
Download files to external or cloud storage
If you find files that you’re not ready to get rid of, you can move them elsewhere to keep them safe. For example, I have gigabytes of tax and employment documents that I rarely need to access, but I want to keep them for a few years, and my wife has some projects from her graduate school days that she wants to access if she needs to. You don’t need to waste precious storage on your laptop keep these sorts of things close at hand – put them on an external drive or upload them to a cloud storage service like Dropbox or OneDrive. Windows can automatically move unused files to OneDrive using the storage sense mentioned earlier feature, but again I prefer to have manual control. Keep in mind that if you use a service like Dropbox, it can sync these files to your computer automatically, so you’ll have to go into the program’s settings and uncheck these files so they’re only stored in the cloud.
If you choose the external drive option, remember that you must also go back up those files to the cloud if they’re really important to you – external drives can and will fail like normal hard drives, and if this is your only copy of the data, you still need a backup up somewhere.
Start saving for hard drive upgrade
Ultimately, most of these solutions are temporary. Temporary files will return, your cloud storage will fill up, and you will continue to collect music, movies and other files. You can repeat this process every few months, but eventually it’ll get tiring – or you’ll run out of things you want to delete.
So when you start getting the “Disk Full” warning, be aware that you will likely want a larger drive in the near future. If your laptop and storage is upgradeable, you can easily buy a larger drive online – a 2.5-inch SSD or an M.2 drive, whichever it is laptop supports. you may need to look up what kind of M.2 drives your laptop requires, but once you’ve done that, you can even exchange it for a small screwdriver kit. if your laptop storage cannot be upgraded, you will need to secure the next laptop the update includes all the storage you think you’ll need in the future. will cost more up ahead, but it will save you money in the long run. Oh, and in the meantime, you can take a low-profile SD card or flash drive and just leave it connected to yours. laptop for extra onboard storage – some are so small you won’t even notice they’re there.
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