Local disk cleaning methods c. Removing unnecessary files using the Disk Cleanup utility. The order of interaction between OS and RAM

Hello dear friends. In this article I will show you how to clean the C drive of unnecessary files. When it is packed to capacity, the computer may malfunction due to the fact that it does not have enough memory. If Windows is slow, slows down, or does not even load, then you can delete programs and other data to free up space on the system drive.

Information can be deleted manually or using Disk Cleanup, a built-in operating system utility designed to clean up a large number of unnecessary files. You can also consider uninstalling programs that take up a lot of disk space but are hardly used.

Now we will analyze the necessary steps to free up space on the C drive from garbage.

This requires:

Open the Start Menu by clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.
Find "Control Panel" on the right side of the menu.
Alternatively, you can go to My Computer if you already know exactly what you want. clean up system drive "C".
Right-click on the Local Disk (C :) icon.
Select Properties to open the pop-up menu. The General tab displays a pie chart showing the used and free space on the C drive.
Click the Disk Cleanup button to see how much space you can free up.
Then go to the "Control Panel", select "System and Security". The screen will open a window containing the option "Free up disk space", which, in turn, activates the built-in cleaning program. This menu also contains information that you can use to view and change the system status, back up data and system settings, update your computer, view the amount of RAM and processor speed, and check the firewall.

The whole process of cleaning drive "C" in more detail, see several videos in this article.

How to clean the local drive C and what is needed for this

Select the "Free up disk space" command.
Find the link in the little text under the Administration heading at the bottom of the page that will ask you to select a drive.
Select drive for cleaning. Here you will be offered the opportunity to clear local drives "C", "D", etc. Select the "C" drive, provided that Windows XP is not installed on any other. Typically "C" stores system data, and "D" contains all documents, records and program files.
After selecting a disk, click the "OK" button to continue.

You must avoid damaging the system data stored on the C drive as it is essential to the normal functioning of your computer. If the file looks strange, then it may turn out to be a virus. In this case, I advise you to check the entire system disk or a specific folder with such a suspicious file using the utility. You can also try to identify it using a search engine on the Internet. Surely someone has already encountered a similar problem and was looking for an answer on the net.

Choosing information to delete

How do I clear my local C drive? You need to wait while Disk Cleanup calculates how much space it can free up. This process can last from a few seconds to several minutes. The more information is stored on disk, the longer it will take to scan. A pop-up should appear informing you that Disk Cleanup is calculating how much space can be freed up on local drive C.

We select the data to be deleted. We select each option to see what information is included in this category, and what exactly we will delete. Here you can see how much memory each file type is taking up. If the temporary Internet data is only a few kilobytes, then deleting it is unlikely to change the interface. The user must independently decide whether the deletion of this data will affect his work. If you are in dire need of free disk space, then do not hesitate to select all items from the list.

How do I clean drive C? We delete the downloaded program files. This folder includes ActiveX and Java controls that are loaded automatically when you view certain pages. They are saved in the downloaded program data folder on the hard disk. If you clear them, then they will be loaded if necessary when visiting the corresponding pages. We clean temporary Internet files. These copies of websites are stored on your hard drive for quick viewing. You can safely delete this folder, since you will not lose your personalized settings and registration information for web pages.

You can now clear game news and statistics. This data takes up a lot of memory only if the user frequently launches computer games. All of this can be removed to free up space. What functions does all this data perform? Game news files make it easy to deliver RSS feeds to your personal game library. If a lot of games are not installed on your computer that are regularly updated, then you do not need to delete this. Game statistics data is generated to support various applications. All this can be safely removed along with the news.

Shopping cart and temporary data

What if the C drive is full? It's time to empty the trash can as it contains all the files that have been deleted. They are not permanently deleted until you clear this folder. The Trash can be full or nearly empty, depending on how many files were recently deleted and how often this folder is emptied.

Now we delete the temporary files. Clearing this category often frees up a lot of disk space. The operating system automatically creates these temporary files to protect the information we work with. These files can be associated with Word documents, edited images, unfinished or canceled downloads (from browsers and applications downloading updates, plugins, etc.). Delete all temporary files that have not been changed for at least a week.

Usually the system deletes temporary files when the computer is turned off. If it crashes, shuts down unexpectedly, or fails, then these files are not instructed to remove and are delayed indefinitely. If the user does not turn off the computer often enough, but instead puts it into sleep mode, then he may notice a build-up of temporary files.

Thumbnails, system information and other data

How do I clear the memory? Delete the thumbnails. Windows XP keeps a cached copy of all thumbnails of photos, videos, and documents. This allows the system to display files faster when opening a folder. However, these files can accumulate when we create new folders and stop using old directories. If you delete these thumbnails, the system will automatically recreate them as needed.

Now you can start cleaning up the system files. The Disk Cleanup menu has a System Files Cleanup button. We select it if we want to clear extra space, and wait while the program calculates how much information can be safely deleted. Within 1-2 minutes, the same Disk Cleanup menu should appear with additional categories of files that need to be deleted. You need to think about what each of these file types mean and decide if you can delete them.

How do I free up space on the C drive? Service pack backup files are old versions of data that Windows stores. Keep in mind that once these files are cleaned up, you will not be able to uninstall service packs. Windows temporary installation files are information used by the operating system installation. These files remain after installation, but they are no longer needed, so you can delete them.

A Windows Update Cleanup is a backed up copy of each recently installed Update Center that is generated after a newer version is received. This function removes old versions of updates that are no longer needed but take up space on your hard drive. You need to be prepared to restart your computer after the system is cleaned up.

Unnecessary files

How do I quickly clean up drive C? When everything is ready, all that remains is to click "OK" to delete. You need to make sure that the checkboxes next to all the categories of files to be cleaned are checked. The program will ask if we want to permanently delete these files. We check all the selected files again. If you are sure, then you need to click "Delete" to shut down and clean the disk with Windows 7. If you are not completely sure, then you need to return to the file selection window and make sure that the correct categories are marked.

We are waiting for the program to free up disk space. After clicking the Delete button, a pop-up window will appear informing you that the cleaning utility is deleting unnecessary disk files on your computer. Observe the green progress bar to see how far the removal process has progressed. Depending on the amount of information to be deleted (in the worst case, it can be several GB), the utility can run from 1 to 20 minutes.

If for some reason you change your mind, you can click the "Cancel" button to the right of the green status bar. Files that have already been deleted will disappear, but the program will retain the remaining information for the freed disk. Below the progress bar, you can see which files are currently being cleaned up. This can help us measure progress and decide whether to cancel the process.

Old apps

How do I completely clean up disk space? Remove old applications to free up disk space with Windows 10. Open the Programs and Features menu by clicking the Start button. We select "Control Panel", "Programs", "Programs and Features". We are waiting for the list to display all applications installed on the computer.

We are looking for programs that take up a lot of space and are not used often. Select any of them and click "Delete". Some applications will also offer change or restore functions in addition to uninstalling. To change the program, select "Change" or "Restore".

The following equivalence rules must be learned:
1 kilobyte (KB) \u003d 1024 bytes;
1 megabyte (MB) \u003d 1024 KB;
1 gigabyte (GB) \u003d 1024 MB;
1 terabyte (TB) \u003d 1024 GB.

The sizes of your programs are probably in the 100GB range. If you are prompted to enter the administrator password, you will need to do this. If you do not know the password, you should contact your computer administrator for help. How to free up space on the system drive? Now all that remains is to delete the old installation files. When we download an application from the Internet, in most cases it is an "exe" file named "setup". After running this file and successfully installing the program, it can be safely removed.

How do I clean up the C drive? Please be patient before freeing up hard disk space, as individual processes can take 1 to 20 minutes. It is normal for the monitor screen to flicker slightly when files are deleted. Be careful not to delete important programs or other valuable information. If you are not sure about the advisability of deleting a file, then it is better to leave it alone.

Hard disk completely - to produce it. You can do this directly from under Windows by going to My and selecting the desired disk right-click. In the drop-down list, select the "Format" command. After selecting clusters and formatting speed and depth, click OK. After a while, the operation will be completed, and disk cleared. However, if hard diskfrom which you need information, system, and, if necessary, completely clear hard disk without the possibility of recovery, the described option is not suitable.

For with diskat a deeper level, you need section manager programs. For example, Partition Logic, Partition Manager, BootIt Next Generation, Acronis Disk Director. It is best to use special boot disks with such programs. Having booted from it (having previously set the primary from the CD-ROM in the BIOS), you can both the system one and any other installed one. Thus, the data from them will be deleted.

In case you need to completely clean the hard disk without the possibility of information recovery, run Acronis Disk Director. In the window where the list of installed hard drives and partitions on them is presented, select the required disk right-click. In the drop-down menu, select the "Delete data" item. In the window that appears, enter the settings for the delete operation and click OK.

Timely hard cleaning and personal computer allows you not only to free up some free space, but also to improve the performance of the operating system. The presence of a large amount of unallocated space sometimes increases the speed of writing information to the hard drive.

You will need

- Smart Defrag;
- CCleaner.

Instructions

Use the Windows tools to delete unused files from the system partition of the hard drive. Open the "My Computer" menu and find the local drive C icon. Right-click on it and select "Properties".

Now click the Disk Cleanup button and wait while the system prepares a list of files to delete. After launching the new menu, open the "Advanced" tab. Click the Clean button located in the Programs and Features menu. Highlight the unnecessary program and click the "Uninstall" button.

Remove other programs and utilities in the same way. Return to the Disk Cleanup menu and click the Ok button. In the new window select "Delete files".

From clogging up your local disk, all processes on the computer may become slower, and there will be no more space for anything new. You can clean Disk C manually, going through the folders one by one, but it is better to use special programs that will help you with this. Don't forget about the cache, registry cleaning and timely deletion of the contents of the recycle bin. In this article, you will learn how to erase the contents of a local disk as quickly and conveniently as possible, as well as how to format it completely. You may need to format your hard drive for various reasons, and this process will not take much time. Take on board all the tips in this article.

How to clean local drive C

Even if you don't have a lot of information stored on your hard drive C, it can get clogged and inevitably cause problems when using your computer. To complete the complete cleaning process, you need to follow these steps:

Manually clear folders from unnecessary media.
Erase downloads.
Remove old unnecessary programs.
Clear computer cache.
Clean up the registry.

After that, you can free yourself from several gigabytes to hundreds, depending on how many unnecessary files you have accumulated.

Empty your media folders

You may have downloaded movies to watch, music, and lots of pictures. It's time to delete all these files, especially if you no longer use them.

Delete any files that may be in the Pictures, Videos or Music folder. You can also have your own folders for this purpose.

Erase downloads

In the folder "Downloads" or "Downloads" always accumulates a huge amount of old files. You may not even remember about the existence of such a folder if you changed the download settings, and now all downloads are saved on your desktop. Go to "Downloads" in the "Users" folder and clear it of old files, sort the ones you need, and just delete the rest.

Empty the basket regularly

The trash should be emptied regularly, or right away if you delete large files. After cleaning downloads, multimedia and other large files, immediately right-click on the trash can icon and click on "Empty Trash".

The size of the files in the recycle bin may surprise you a lot. As you can see, in the screenshot below, 25 Gigabytes of files fit into the basket.

Download CCleaner and clear your cache

The most convenient computer cleaning program of all is CCleaner. With it, you can not only clean the system and application cache, but also delete files you do not need.

Download the program from the link and install it on your computer.

Once you open the utility, go to the “Tools” section. It displays a list of all programs that are installed on your computer. Select the one you don't need for a long time and click on the “Run Uninstaller” button. Repeat for each program.

Now go to the “Cleaner” tab and first clean the contents of the “Windows” section by clicking on the “Run Cleaner” button.

And then the “Applications” section, repeating the steps. This not only uninstalled unnecessary programs, but also cleared the cache on your computer.

Clean up the registry

This is an important point, but it is also the most crucial. If you click on the wrong folder and delete it, the consequences can be dire. Follow the instructions exactly.

Open Start and type Regedit into the search bar. A file will appear at the top to click on.

Wait until the Registry Editor window opens in front of you. Open the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” folder. Look closely at the title.

Here in the long list you will see the subsection “Software”, where all residual files from uninstalling programs are located. The user does not always know that by uninstalling a program, he still leaves data about it on the computer. To get rid of them completely, you need to clean the registry. Find the folder with the name of the program you deleted and erase it. Repeat this with all the folders that bear the names of already deleted programs.

How to clean drive C completely

When it comes to fully formatting the system, everything is extremely simple:

You need to go to your computer.
Right-click on the local drive.
Select the line “Format”.

If you do this for a complete reinstallation of the system, then formatting can be done during the reinstallation, and not beforehand. It is better to take a USB flash drive and first drop your important files onto it.

Every PC user at least once faced the problem of lack of disk space. When such a situation occurs, a person begins to frantically remember what information he will no longer need and what can be deleted in order to make the next update or install the necessary program. Well-known tweakers and cleaners may be able to help you, but they often don't work very well.

In this article, you will learn in Windows 7 (64-bit system).

Removing trash with Disk Cleanup

How to completely clean drive C (Windows 7) so as not to disrupt disk operation "is one of the safest programs among all tools that help to get rid of computer junk. You can use it to clean your hard drive, but delete something important is almost impossible because you will receive a warning signal Other utilities offer a quick cleanup but cannot offer any security guarantees.

To understand how to clean up the C (Windows 7) drive of unnecessary files with Disk Cleanup, you need to understand what this function is for. It reduces the number of files that have not been used for a long time, but are on the hard drive. 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 emptied.

You need to start work by starting the program. To do this, go to "Start", select "All Programs", go to "Standard", "System Tools", and then click "Disk Cleanup". In the "Disk Cleanup Options" window that opens, you should select what you want to do: clean your personal files or all files that are on the device. If prompted for a password, you must enter it.

In the window you need to go to "Select disk" and determine which disk will be cleaned. After that, click "OK" and mark the selected files. This action must be approached responsibly so as not to delete important files. After that, you must confirm the cleaning.

The Advanced tab includes two more methods that can help you free up space on your hard drive. But it is available only when the option to delete files for all users of the device is checked.

The next step leading to the knowledge of how to clean up the C drive (Windows 7) is to open the "Programs and Features" item in Control Panel. In it, you can delete everything that is not used. In the Size column, you can see how much disk space each program takes up.

With System Restore, you can revert using restore points to an earlier state in order to revert system files. If your computer is performing well, you can delete previous return points to save disk space.

Removing garbage manually

To know how to properly clean the C (Windows 7) drive 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 using the device, this is "% userprofile% \\ AppData \\ Local \\ Temp".

Files located in these folders can be deleted without problems. If you try to uninstall an important and necessary program, Windows will not let you.

Windows Search Services and file reduction

Disk C cleanup (Windows 7) can be done using the Windows Search Service, it caches all information about files on hard drives and transfers it to the database, which is located in the% ProgramData% \\ Microsoft \\ Search \\ Data \\ Applications \\ Windows \\ "and is called" Windows.edb ".

The point 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 hard drive search very often can free up space using the following method, which will not only make the file smaller, but also be able to keep track of its size.

You need to enable "services.msc" and put "Window Search" in the disabled state. Then you should start again. In the "Indexing Parameters" you need to click "Change" and select the appropriate mode, and then confirm all actions.

Working with file size

How do I clean up the C (Windows 7) drive and free up space on it? This can be done by reducing the volume and also relocating it to another disk. The optimal dimensions depend on the characteristics of your device.

Cleaning the installation

Most updates that are installed on a computer tend to leave the installation programs in a separate folder. This leads to the fact that its size increases significantly. You should not completely delete these files; such a measure may lead to incorrect operation of the device. But if free space is urgently needed, then removing them will be a way out of the situation. In the future, you should use software distributions or remove applications.

Antivirus software

It is clearly better to explain using the example of the popular antivirus "ESET NOD32". When he finds infected files, he sends them to the "Quarantine" folder. Its location can 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. You can solve this situation by clearing the "Quarantine" folder.

Disable sleep mode

The system disk contains the file "hiberfil.sys", which always takes up space. It can come in different sizes depending on the configuration of your computer. If you don't need hibernation, you can always turn it off. But you need to do this in sleep mode.

To do this, you must log on to the computer using administrator rights. On the control panel, you need to select "Go to sleep mode". You must click in to create a shortcut. Enter "powercfg -h off" in the field that opens. Then confirm your actions. Next, you should run the shortcut as administrator and consent to the actions in the "UAC" request.

Another useful tip is how to clean up the C drive (Windows 7) to free up space on the system partition. To get rid of potential problems in the future, it is necessary to control the availability of free space. This applies to custom folders.

For this method to work, you need to have several hard drives or partitions on them, which will be on the same computer. It is more expedient to carry out this procedure immediately after reinstalling 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 wear and tear on the hard drive, but also improves the performance of the computer as a whole.

After installing (which requires drive C) 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 one, "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 named after the user you need. It is in it that all user data will be located.

Almost every one of these folders will grow in size as you add photos and other files. If you look at the picture, you can see which one is full and needs cleaning.

It is more expedient to remove the folder that is filled as a result of various downloads from the hard disk and move it to another location. To do this, you must cut it and transfer it 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, this procedure must be done for everyone. This will allow you to control the system partition and also improve the performance of the entire system.

Your PC's speed can slow down significantly thanks to the growing list of files that are stored on your hard drive. Especially if it's the same drive that contains your Windows operating system.

Of course, modern drives may not experience the same performance degradation as older models with lower bandwidth. Regardless, it's a good idea to work on unnecessary file buildup on all of your PC's drives in a timely manner.

How to use Disk Cleanup to remove unnecessary files

Using the instructions and disk cleanup schemes below, you will learn how to effectively remove unnecessary files from your computer. If you have multiple drives, just repeat the steps for each one. Note that the drive with Windows installed will usually have more folders to remove unless you are an advanced user and have moved them to another drive.

Clearing open sections

Drive selection

Select the drive or partition you want to clean up. Drive (C 🙂 is usually your primary drive, which contains your Windows operating system and your program files. Once your selection is made, just click OK. A window will appear showing that Disk Cleanup is currently scanning your drive.

Select files to delete

Finally, the real disk cleanup panel appears. Look at the Files to Delete field (highlighted in red), if you click on each one, a description will be shown below it. More detailed descriptions for each category. See the section below which files to select for deletion. In some (not all) categories, you can click the Browse Files button to navigate to the folder and view each individual file.

Permanently deleting files

After checking the categories you want to remove, left-click on the OK button. You will be prompted to enter a field asking "Do you really want to permanently delete these files?" If you want to continue, left-click on the "Delete Files" button. A progress window will open and after deleting the files you have selected, Disk Cleanup will close automatically. Congratulations, your Disk Drive has just been cleaned up and is now optimized for performance.

Which files should I select to delete?

Since the needs of each user will be different, there are no absolutes in the suggestions we can make here. We can provide information to help you decide which files to delete, but ultimately you will have to make the final decision yourself.
Downloaded program files. When you surf the Internet, websites usually place Java and ActiveX data on your disk. It can slow down your next visit to these sites if you delete them. We prefer to clear it as it contains data from websites that we will probably never visit again on our hard drive. In addition, ActiveX and Java can pose a security risk due to the nature of the files and the way they are used.
Temporary Internet Files. Every web page you visit is placed here for quick retrieval on subsequent visits. You may notice that when you go to a webpage that takes a long time, when you press the back button, it loads instantly. This is the result of your browser retrieving the saved page directly from your hard drive. Deleting temporary Internet files will NOT delete saved passwords and login information.
Offline web pages. If you save your web pages for offline viewing, they are saved in this folder. If you delete them, you will need to visit the site to sync them again.
Basket. Everything is clear here without comment.
Service Pack Backup Files - If you have gone through a major Windows Update, these are old files that were retained, so you can uninstall the service pack.
Temporary files - used to store temporary data while the program is running. The data is then deleted when the program exits. Sometimes, leftover data will still be used by the program after a restart.
Miniatures. When you open a folder such as the Pictures folder, you will see small thumbnails for each image. They are stored here for immediate download when the folder is opened. If you delete them, then the next time you open the folder, they will be recreated on the fly, slowing down the display speed, as if it were the first time.