In Windows OS, there is a Temp folder in which temporary files are stored (these are temporary files that are created when installing programs, updating, files necessary during the operation of a program to store temporary data and cache, and other files that were necessary for the operating system or program as temporary data storage). During work, many unnecessary files accumulate in this folder, which are essentially garbage. The volume of these files sometimes reaches tens of gigabytes.
Naturally, there is no point in storing this garbage on your hard drive. It is useful to clean your hard drive of debris from time to time. Below I will tell you how to properly clean drive C, so as not to harm the operating system and free it up as much as possible. unnecessary files local disk.
There are 2 options for disk cleaning. The first option is to clean the disk using special utilities, the second is cleaning the disk manually.
Cleaning the disk manually is a more effective and reliable method, but at the same time it requires more steps and at least minimal preparation. Cleaning using utilities does not require much time, fiddling with system settings, or any computer knowledge. However, this method is not always effective in cases, for example, when viruses are hidden in the trash folder. In this case, the virus files will most likely remain in place.
Cleaning drive C from debris using CCleaner utility
Let's look at how to clean a disk of debris using the CCleaner disk cleaning program. You can download it.
Unpack the archive and run the program (no installation required).
On the left side of the program window, select the tab Cleaner(hard drive cleaning). Checkboxes mark items to be analyzed for the presence of unused files and garbage. It's better to leave everything here unchanged. Click the button Analyze to start analysis.
After analyzing the files on your hard drive, the program will display a list of unnecessary files and the approximate total amount of freed up space on drive C. Click the button Run Cleaner to start cleaning the disk from debris.
A window that appears warns you that the deleted files cannot be restored. Click OK to continue cleaning.
After finishing cleaning hard disk, a report will be displayed. The program can now be closed. In the above example, almost 4.5 gigabytes were freed disk memory on drive C.
How to properly clean local drive C manually
To clean drive C manually, you must first open access to system and hidden folders and files. Now you need to manually remove garbage from Windows temporary folders. It is advisable to clean the system disk after booting into safe mode. To do this, when you turn on the computer, press the F8 key and select the line Safe mode.
The folder locations for storing temporary files are different in Windows XP and Windows 7. Below are the folders that need to be cleaned in Windows XP and Windows 7.
To clean your system disk of debris, go to each of the folders below and delete all attached files and folders in them. To select the entire contents of a folder at once, go to it through My Computer and press the key combination CTRL+A (or CTRL+F for the Russian keyboard layout). All files and folders will be highlighted. After that, press SHIFT+DEL to permanently delete these files instead of moving them to the trash. After emptying the folders, empty the Trash.
In Windows XP these are the folders (some may not exist):
1. C:\Windows\Temp
2. C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temp
3. C:\Documents and Settings\FOX\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
4. C:\Documents and Settings\FOX\Local Settings\Application Data\ Opera\Opera\cache
5. C:\Temp
where %username% is the user name
IN Windows Vista and Windows 7 these are the folders (some may not exist):
1. C:\Windows\Temp
2. C:\Temp
3. C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp
4. C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera\cache
5. C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp
6. C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera\cache
where %username% is the user name
Disk Cleanup is a built-in tool of the Windows operating system (any version except Windows XP), which allows you to delete unnecessary and irrelevant program files, temporary files, as well as some system files, which are no longer required by the system.
Sometimes these files can “eat up” a lot of space on your system disk"C", which could be occupied by your personal files, for example: documents, photos, videos. Therefore, it is important to know how to clean a disk, especially since it is very simple to do!
Examples of files that tend to take up the most space:
Windows Updates. About 10 GB can accumulate. and more. These are copies of updates that Windows keeps just in case. But after successful installation, the system does not delete them and continues to store them. As a result, these files are unnecessary and simply take up space on your disk.
Old control points Windows recovery . Can take up tens of gigabytes, depending on how much space you have allocated for these restore points.
Checkpoints are saving system states at the current point in time (at the time when the point is created), allowing you to restore the computer to this state in the event of failures and generally incorrect operation.
Learn more about working with the system restore tool from checkpoints.
Basket. I think it's clear here. These are files that you deleted from the system and that are accumulating in the trash. The size of the files in the recycle bin depends on the size of the recycle bin itself (you can set any size in its properties).
However, empty the trash or delete separate files from it, you can directly open it without using the Disk Cleanup tool.
Sometimes space and other files may be essential, depending on how you use the system. Disk Cleanup allows you to clean 13-14 Windows partitions, thereby deleting, sometimes, a significant amount of unnecessary files.
Let's move on to the process of performing disk cleanup...
How to perform disk cleanup?
In all Windows operating systems (starting from Windows 7), Disk Cleanup works the same and the interface of this tool is also the same.
Let's look at the disk cleanup tool using Windows 10 as an example (it's similar in others!).
In this article, as in others, I do not consider Windows XP, since it has long been outdated and unsupported. By the way, if you are still working on it, I recommend switching to at least Windows 7, if your computer meets the requirements to work in it.
Open Windows search and type "Disk Cleanup", then select the found program:
In the first window when starting the program, select the disk that we will clean. This will be drive "C", since it is the main one - the system one.
The remaining disks (D, E and others), if you have them in the system, generally do not contain any data that requires cleaning through this program. Is it just "Basket". The rest is your personal files that you need to clean up yourself.
A window will open with the ability to select partitions and files to clean. But it’s better to immediately click the “Clean up system files” button so that the program finds more data to clean, including recovery checkpoints.
After clicking this button, you need to reselect the disk and this time the program will take a little longer to launch, since it will look for everything that can be cleaned.
Now you will see the same window, but it will have more sections and options for files to delete, and another “Advanced” tab will appear. Go straight to it if you want to clear recovery checkpoints ().
The program deletes all checkpoints except the very last one.
If several points were created and you have a lot of disk space allocated for them in the settings, then this procedure can free up a significant amount of free space in gigabytes.
Click "Clear" to delete control points.
The rest don't necessary files cleaned through the "Disk Cleanup" tab. Check the boxes next to the sections you want to clear:
You can safely empty everything, but be careful with emptying the recycle bin, in case you still have something you need there that you would like to restore... If not, check this box too.
You can see a description for each section/selected files for cleaning by clicking on them. This way you can find out what exactly will be cleared if you check the box next to one or another section.
Click "OK" to clear.
After a few seconds, your selected data will be cleared.
Now, just in case, run the program again and select another local drive, if you have one, to make sure that there is not a large amount of unnecessary system data on it to delete. If there are any, remove them in the same way.
Let me remind you that on other systems the Disk Cleanup program looks exactly the same and has the same set of functions! Unless you search to find the Disk Cleanup program in different Windows versions It opens a little differently. You can read about this in detail
Conclusion
Disk Cleanup is an excellent tool for regularly cleaning your computer. It is easy to use and there is no need to download and install it separately, since it is already built into all Windows (after Windows XP). Allows you to clear all the most basic things, so as not to resort to the help of third-party programs, for example, such as the well-known TuneUp Utilities.
Run the Disk Cleanup tool when you see that there is little space left on the system disk (C) or when you feel a drop in the speed of your computer, and one of the reasons for this may be that it is clogged Windows unnecessary and irrelevant files.
But remember about your personal files, which can also take up a lot of space on the system drive. Monitor this so that drive “C” is not clogged to capacity, otherwise this will lead to slowdowns or even worse - various system failures.
You can familiarize yourself with the set of measures for complete PC maintenance
Do you use Disk Cleanup in Windows or do you prefer other programs? If others, please write why? :) It’s interesting to know your opinion and discuss this topic;)
The normal operation of your laptop is influenced by many factors, including the availability of free space on HDD disk your computer.
It so happened that when using a computer with OS installed Windows any version, a lot of “garbage” is generated. Such garbage is considered to be: temporary files and folders, registry entries, and much more. For reliable operation of the Windows system, a reserve of free space of about 10-20 gigabytes is required. After all, it is impossible to install either a program or a game on a completely full hard drive.
What should you do if your laptop suddenly starts lagging and freezing, programs run slowly and often incorrectly, and photos, videos and music no longer want to be downloaded?
Clean and clean the hard drive of your laptop again!
In this publication we will tell you how, without resorting to outside help, you can carry out Windows tools or using third party programs and utilities.
- On the keyboard, simultaneously press the “R + Win” keys (Windows logo key).
- In the "Open" field, enter the command "cleanmgr". This is the command to allow calling system utility to clean the disk.
- Click " OK "to confirm your action.
- From the list that opens, select the disk with which we will work (I advise you to start cleaning from the system disk).
- We wait while the system analyzes the disk directory.
- Next to the files you want to delete, check the boxes and click “OK”.
Attention! Enabling the “Delete” item Windows update» Allow you to delete a system file, which will save you from old system updates.
- Also in the “Advanced” tab, you can configure additional settings for freeing up space on your laptop.
- Removing unnecessary components and programs. In the window that opens, select unused programs and, following the instructions on the screen, delete them without a twinge of conscience.
- Recovery files take up a lot of memory, so don't be afraid to delete all system restore checkpoints except the last one.
Cleaning temporary files and folders. Folder "Temp"
The “Temp” directory is a repository for all kinds of garbage (temporary folders and files), so feel free to delete all the contents of this folder.
- Open the Run window as shown at the beginning of the post.
- In the window that opens, write “%temp%” and press “Enter”.
- IN active window press "Alt".
- Open the “Tools” tab, click on “Folder Options”.
- In the “View” tab, check the box next to “Show hidden folders, files and disks."
- Don't forget to click the "Apply" and "OK" buttons. Now all the files and folders that were previously hidden from you are visible on your disk.
- We select all files using the key combinations “Ctrl + A” and by clicking the right mouse button or touchpad we use the “Delete” function.
- After deleting files, do not forget to empty the trash. To do this, click right click mouse over the “Trash” icon and select the “Empty” action.
Cleaning "bulky"system files
Important! Before starting work, make sure that you do not need these files, but only take up useful space. For advanced users.
Pagefile.sys (RAM swap file)
- In the taskbar, click the "Windows" button.
- Select “Control Panel”.
- In the “System and Security” section, find the “System” subsection.
- Select the “Advanced system settings” section.
- Then open the “Advanced” tab. Go to the “Virtual Memory” section and click the “Change” button.
- Change the checkbox to “No paging file”. After making changes, confirm your actions by successively pressing the “OK” buttons.
Cleaning "Hiberfil.sys"
This system file stores all information about the system setup from the moment of its activation, this file can reach up to 5-10 gigabytes of dedicated ROM memory.
To remove it from the system partition, use the following steps:
CleaningHDDusing programs and utilities
There are many programs designed to automatically scan and clean your system of junk. They typically scan your Windows and perform offline cleaning. IN this section we will look at all the advantages and disadvantages of using programs to uninstall and free up free space on your laptop’s hard drive.
Among those available for free download V this moment The following programs and utilities are available:
- CCleaner;
- Reg Organizer;
- Soft Organizer;
- Revo Uninstaller.
CCleaner
One of the most accessible and easiest to download at the moment is the CCleaner program from the English developers Piriform LTD. It allows you not only to delete unnecessary files from your laptop, but also to correct errors in the registry and uninstall even programs that cannot be removed. In the cleaning sections you can select what you want to clear - cache, cookies, etc. Two versions of the program are available: “Free” and “PRO” (paid). Both versions have proven themselves very well and work perfectly both in active and in background modes. Russian and other versions available. The paid version has advanced features.
To run the program:
Reg Organizer
Another cleaner of yours hard drive from ChemTable. A paid and free 30-day trial version is available.
IN paid version thin available Windows settings, as well as other utilities and add-ons.
Soft Organizer
A universal utility from the developer ChemTable Software. Has English and Russian interfaces. Tracks all changes during installation and use of applications during Windows operation deletes them.
To work you need:
This software also helps to analyze the resource and disks.
Revo Uninstaller
One of the simplest and most advanced software products from VS Revo Group
Accessible and intuitive interface. Support service and advice for novice users.
Comparison of “cleaner” programs.
| Options/Program names | VS Revo Group | Soft Organizer | Reg Organizer | CCleaner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplicity |  | | | |
| Availability | | |
||
| Depth |  | | | |
| Convenience | | | | |
| Free version | | | | |
Note! Let your computer have only the files and programs you need! Closely monitor the condition of your computer and regularly check it for debris.
Video - How to clean the hard drive on a laptop
Sooner or later, the computer owner may be slightly disappointed. It's quite disappointing to discover that HDD suddenly it becomes completely overloaded, as the system itself actively declares. It’s even sadder if it’s the system disk that is overloaded.
When the hard drive is overloaded, it needs to be cleared of junk files
In this case, you don’t have to be surprised at all why the computer began to work slower, why it freezes and slows down quite often. If you also encounter this problem, then you need to help your computer get rid of unnecessary junk. Cleaning the hard drive or a separate disk space on it helps with this.
To successfully cope with such a task, an experienced user will need only a few minutes. For a beginner, such a task seems overwhelming and difficult to complete. However, this is only a prejudice arising from ignorance. It will continue until the beginner studies the instructions on how to clean the hard drive on Windows 7.
A lot of unnecessary things are stored in the “Temp” folder, and this is what you should clean out. To open the “Temp” directory, launch the “Run” utility by pressing the “Win” and “R” keys simultaneously, enter “%temp%” in the white window, then press “Enter”.
After opening a new window, click the “Alt” key. Now, in order for you to be able to see the “garbage” that needs to be removed, it is important to display it, since it is hidden.
To display hidden files, open the “Control Panel”, find the “Folder Options” line, click on it. Now a new window will open, in which go to the “View” tab. There you will find a block called “Advanced Settings”.
In it, scroll the slider down to find the line “Show hidden files", check the box next to it, click "OK".
Now all hidden files will be visible, select everything you see and delete. Of course, if there are too many files, it is unreasonable to select one at a time, so you can optimize the process of performing such actions.
Click on any file, and then hold down two keys: “Ctrl” and “A”. After deleting the selected files, be sure to delete everything from the Recycle Bin. Now you can make sure that the hard drive was able to get rid of excess “garbage”.
By the way, by getting rid of temporary files, users often also quickly get rid of viruses, which often choose the “Temp” directory as their temporary refuge.
Removing system files
System files are important for the correct operation of Windows, so you can’t just delete everything without understanding what the file’s purpose is and what its significance is. However, by following the instructions of experienced users, you can say goodbye to those system objects that are not directly needed for the operation of your PC.
You can completely disable the page file. Open the “Control Panel”, find the “System” parameter, click on it, now on the left side of the window that opens, find the line “Advanced system settings”, click on it too.
Now a new small window will open, in which go to the “Advanced” tab. In the first “Performance” block, click on the “Options” button. After this, a new window will open again on the screen, in which you will also have to go to the “Advanced” tab.
In the lower “Virtual Memory” block, click on the “Change” button. In the window that opens, find the line “No paging file”, place a dot next to it and finally click “OK”.
Some users decide to delete the hiberfil.sys file. It is responsible for saving all settings when the computer goes into sleep mode. hiberfil.sys takes up a huge amount of space, sometimes reaching 5GB. Think carefully about whether it really matters to you that your computer starts quickly after waking up from sleep mode. If you are ready to say goodbye to hiberfil.sys, move on.
Launch the “Run” utility by pressing two “Win” and “R” keys at the same time, now enter powercfg-h off. Then the system will do everything automatically.
Alternative cleaning
If for some reason you would not like to use standard methods cleaning found in Windows, you can use others alternative ways, thanks to which the hard drive can also get rid of unnecessary “Garbage”.
You can download special programs, which automatically clean disks, or you can use BIOS.
Possibilities
When installing an operating system, you sometimes have to use it to set up the startup disk.
During the subsequent installation process, it is possible not only to completely remove everything from the hard drive, but even to format it.
Even if there are viruses hidden somewhere on the hard drive, and you couldn’t find them, you can easily get rid of them through formatting. At the same time, you will achieve the desired expansion of free disk space.
Experienced users can easily share how to clean a hard drive through BIOS. There is nothing complicated in this procedure, but you will have to be careful during the manipulations.
So, to carry out the formatting procedure via BIOS, make sure to purchase a boot disk or recovery disk.
Best to have boot disk, then you will be able to format the disk space through the BIOS, and then immediately install a new Windows.
Insert the boot disk into the drive, restart the PC, and during the next boot, press the “Delete” button; in some versions you have to press the “F2” or “F8” buttons.
Enter the BOOT section, set the boot option from the drive, after which a welcome message will appear, and then immediately install the operating system. Next step there will be a choice of disk space that you want to clear through the formatting procedure.
Select the system partition by clicking on it; several action options will immediately appear below. You should select “Format”, the process will begin, in a few minutes the disk space will be as if new.
All subsequent actions will depend on your desire, you can continue the procedure Windows installations, or you can complete the process here, since you have already definitely achieved your goal. After some time, you can return to your PC and install the OS that you have now removed.
So, the process of removing unnecessary “garbage” and complete cleaning disk space is simple. You should only try once, test your skills in practice, and after a while you yourself will not notice that you have already become a pro in this matter.
Ten years ago, when the operating room appeared and instantly gained popularity Windows system XP (official support for which is ending very soon), no one was particularly worried about the size of the system disk. 20-30 GB on disk "C" was enough to install both the system itself and for software. WITH the advent of Windows 7 PC owners for the first time en masse faced the problem of lack of space on the system disk - this operating system itself occupied about 10 GB, and the same amount was absorbed by programs, being registered and constantly updated. The 20-25 GB system disk filled up very quickly. And many even had to resort to repartitioning their computer disks in order to increase the system disk at the expense of another disk.
To ensure that there is always enough free space on the system partition, it must be kept clean and tidy and periodically monitored to see if it is cluttered. If Windows reports that there is not enough free space on the system disk - usually on drive C - it's time to clean it up. Let's look at 7 ways to clean your system disk below: installed Windows 8.
Before you start cleaning up your disk, you need to remember how much free space is currently available on it. In the future, this will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the work done by comparing the initial and final figures.
1. Removing unnecessary files from the system disk
First, you need to check whether files are stored on the system disk that, in principle, may not be stored there - these are media files, folders with documents, disk images, program installation files, etc. All this can be transferred to a non-system drive; moreover, it is even recommended that all important files be stored on a non-system drive (D, E, etc.), so that if an unexpected system failure occurs and it has to be reinstalled, this data were not destroyed during formatting of the system disk.
As a rule, all files downloaded from the Internet are stored in download folders assigned by default by browsers on the system drive. To prevent the system drive from becoming cluttered with downloaded files in the future, you need to assign a different folder for downloads in the browser settings, but on a non-system drive.
Under no circumstances should you transfer system files to another drive, which means that Windows folder you'd better take the tenth road.
You can use Windows Search to search for media files and documents and specify search criteria required types files within the system disk.
Check the found files further, cut out the necessary ones and paste them on a non-system drive using the context menu, and simply delete the unnecessary ones.
Remove all those programs and games that you do not use. As a rule, after removing large resource-intensive games, quite a lot of space is freed up. To correctly remove software and clean the system from remaining traces, use special software - uninstallers.
Here are some popular uninstallers:
- Your Uninstaller;
- Revo Uninstaller.
3. Windows Disk Cleanup service
The Windows operating system is equipped with a standard service that analyzes the space on the system disk and identifies files that can be deleted to free up space without causing harm to the system.
In Windows 8 Explorer, open My Computer and call context menu on the system disk. At the end of the list, click “Properties”, and in the window that appears, click the “Disk Cleanup” command. In the “Disk Cleanup” window, check the boxes next to the files that you want to delete - Recycle Bin files, temporary files in Temp folders, temporary Internet files, etc.
Then click “Clean up system files.”
4. Manually cleaning Temp folders
If the system disk is not periodically cleaned, up to 5-6 GB can accumulate in the Temp folders over a long period of time. And the Windows Disk Cleanup service, as a rule, deletes only some of the files from these folders. Temp folders can be cleaned manually by completely deleting their contents.
What is the “Temp” folder for in general? Temporary files are stored there, which Windows and various programs, which are installed on the computer, create for their work. Most of these files become unnecessary over time because they are not used in work.
The "Temp" folders are hidden, and the easiest way to get to one of them is using standard Windows Explorer, or a popular file manager Total Commander, since most assemblies of this program have a pre-installed “Hidden Items” button on the toolbar. It displays all hidden files and folders on the system. Click this button and open the root folder of the system in Total Commander and find the “Temp” folder there:
You can open the “Temp” folder along the same path in the standard Windows Explorer, but before that you also need to configure the display of hidden folders.
In Windows 7, click the Start button, then Control Panel, then Appearance and Personalization, then Folder Options. In Windows 8, you can get to the “Folder Options” section directly from the “Control Panel”.
In the “Folder Options” window that opens, immediately go to the “View” tab and check the “Show hidden folders, files and drives” option in the additional settings.
Then click "Apply" and "OK".
In the “Temp” folder, select all existing files and press “Shift + Delete” so that the files are completely deleted from the computer, bypassing the “Trash”.
But there is more than one “Temp” folder on the computer: in addition to the one located in the Windows root folder, another “Temp” folder can also be found in user files on the system drive:
C:\Users\Name account Windows\AppData\Local\Temp.
You can follow this path to file manager or Windows Explorer, but it will be much easier in address bar Explorer, enter the command %TEMP% and press the Enter key.
Select all the files that are there and delete them.
Not all files from this “Temp” folder will be deleted, some of them may be currently used for the operation of the system and programs, so just skip them.
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