How to Free Up Space on Laptop – Guide

If you’re having trouble downloading or working with a new game or file, here’s how to free up some space on your computer.

A DISASSEMBLED HARD DRIVE IS LIKE A DESTROYED MIND. If you’re constantly 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, take a look at the big picture. Deleting a few 50MB files here and there won’t make much of a difference as long as you clean up an 80GB folder of old TV shows or uninstalling some games. The real benefit is cleaning up an entire folder of old media. This can free up space on your computer quickly, and you can always reinstall later if you need to.

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. Windows 10 has a feature called “Storage Sense” that can help you free up storage space on your device. By default, Storage Sense tries to free up space by deleting old files and apps that you no longer use. If you find that some folders are taking up more space than others, you can click on the “Other” category in the Storage Sense window to see which folders have large files inside them. Finally, if there are any items in those folders that you want to keep, simply drag and drop them into another folder on your device or onto your desktop so that they’re no longer taking up storage space on your device. ..

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’re looking for a more advanced way to monitor your storage space, there are a few options out there. One is WinDirStat, which can search for files and folders in any location on your computer. Another option is Disk Inventory X, which can list all the files and folders on your hard drive by type, size, and date.

To clean Up Temporary and Duplicate Files

Windows and macOS both store temporary files that can be deleted for free up space. However, these files will eventually come back, as this is how the system was designed to work. Clearing your own personal file vault may free up more space than deleting temporary files. ..

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.

Storage Sense is a new feature that can be part of your Windows 10 operating system. This feature will allow you to manage your storage by deleting temp files over a certain age or moving rarely used files to OneDrive. You can change the switch at the top to On when done and choose how often Storage Sense should run. ..

Windows and Mac users can run free programs like CCleaner to clean up temporary files. Most of this stuff will come back anyway, so 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. Deleting a bunch of smaller files won’t release up a lot of space, and the more stuff you delete, the more risk you take of deleting something important. ..

Windows hiberfil.sys and system restore files can be used to roll back your computer if problems arise. Hiberfil.sys stores system contents during hibernation, so deleting these files can cause your computer to crash. However, I don’t recommend using these features as they are useful enough that I don’t really recommend them 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 by keeping 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, be sure to back up your files to the cloud if they’re 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 somewhere. ..

If you’re thinking about upgrading your computer’s hard drive, now is a good time to start saving. Prices for new hard drives have been dropping steadily for the past few years, and there’s no telling how low they’ll go in the future. ..

The biggest challenge with deleting files is that it’s a temporary solution. Files will come back, and you’ll have to do it again and again. The best way to avoid this is to keep your files in a safe place where you can access them easily.

When you get 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.

Final note

How to Free Up Space on Laptop If you have a laptop, it is important to free up space on it as much as possible. This will help you save time and energy, and make your computer run more efficiently. Here are some tips to help you do this:

  1. Delete unnecessary programs and files: This is one of the most important things you can do to free up space on your laptop. By deleting programs and files, you will reduce the amount of data that your computer needs to store and process. This will also help improve your computer’s performance.
  2. Use a clean desktop environment: Another way to free up space on your laptop is by using a clean desktop environment. This means that all of the programs that are installed on your computer are located in one place, and there are no icons or folders scattered around the desktop. This will make it easier for you to find what you need when you want to use a program or change something about your computer.
  3. Disable background processes: If you disable background processes, then your computer will not need as much power when it starts up, which will free up more space on your hard drive for other activities. You can also try disabling cookies and other tracking cookies if this is something that bothers you.