Any computer that has been used for a while will likely have a significant collection of files. These will include photos, videos, documents, and several programs that make PCs more useful. Depending on the size of your computer hard drive, you will probably see the “low disk space” notification pop-up on your taskbar at some point, regardless of the operating system you are using. Fortunately, these problems can be easily fixed.
There are a number of reasons why your hard drive may not have sufficient available disk space. The most common reason is lack of proper hard drive maintenance.
A lot of the daily tasks performed on computers, including surfing the internet, will use up some amount of hard drive space. When you visit a website, for instance, cookies and temporary files are usually stored on the hard drive for quick or later access or to save information, such as passwords or form fields.
Without proper maintenance tools, your computer will eventually run out of hard-disk space and this could also translate into slower performance. This is because a full hard drive needs more time to sift through numerous unnecessary files to find a photo or load a program.
Your computer hard drive stores all the information and files you access. Most hard drives contain a physical disc that rotates like a CD, but the data on a hard drive can be written, accessed or deleted. The best way to clear up some of the disk space on your hard drive for better performance and increased storage is to use a disk cleanup tool.
A simple one is the free Disk Cleanup tool built into all versions of Windows. Microsoft provides a great support article to guide you through the Disk Cleanup process. This software utility enables users to get rid of files that are no longer needed or that can be safely deleted, including temporary internet files, old downloaded program files and files in the recycle bin.
If you have never performed a disk cleanup, running this tool can free up much hard drive space. On the other hand, if you still don’t have enough free space after running the tool, you might need to backup and then remove some files, or even uninstall some software.