Running out of disk space? It’s the perfect moment for disk spring cleaning. It’s time to rediscover files and programs long forgotten and taking up all the space. With these quick and easy methods, you can find and remove all the clutter.
Check the Recycle Bin or Trash. Just because you pressed that delete button doesn’t necessarily mean the file is gone for good. It’s still there occupying space until you decide to permanently erase it from the system.
Use system utilities. Computers running Windows have a Programs and Features section in the Control Panel that lists all programs and their sizes. There you can uninstall programs you don’t use anymore. In Mac computers, the Applications folder contains all installed programs. Users only need to drag an app from there to the Trash folder to uninstall it.
Use third-party tools. SpaceSniffer, CCleaner, WinDirStat and TreeSize Free are just some of countless utilities you can use to find space hogs. Some of them make a visual presentation of files and folders so you can discover large files and duplicates.
Once you determine the culprits that are hogging the disk space, you have a variety of options on what to do with them. Obviously, you can delete duplicate files and folders and uninstall unnecessary programs and bloatware. If that isn’t enough, here are more ways to clear more space:
Transfer files to an online storage. Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, and DropBox offer free space from 2GB to even up to 50GB on special promotions and events. If those sizes still aren’t enough, you can always pay for storage expansion.
Transfer files to an external drive. USB flash drives and hard drives are relatively cheap these days. They’re quite useful especially for files that are too large for cloud storage. Use them for storing photos and videos that you seldom use but will someday be invaluable for nostalgia.