1. Monitor your file space: There are lots of tools that can tell you which files and folders consume the most space on your computer and where they are located. Armed with this information, you can decide what to get rid of. There of the best are JDisk Report (www.jgoodies.com), WinDirStat (http://winddirstat.info) and Disktective (www.disktective.com). All are free to download and display their findings in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.
2. Run Disk Cleanup
An obvious tool to try when your hard disk is running short of space is Windows’ built-in Disk Cleanup. The program will calculate how much disk space you can free up. Wait until the ‘files to delete’ list appears, then select every item and click OK. There’s nothing here that you can’t live without and you can reclaim a surprising amount.
3. Empty the Recycle Bin
Deleted files can occupy many gigabytes of disk space without you realizing. To stop them accumulating and taking up valuable room, first right-click the Recycle Bin on your Desktop and select the Empty option to delete the Bin’s contents. Right click it again and this time select Properties, Reduce the space allocated to the Recycle Bin to 1GB and click OK to confirm.
4. Compress your files
Windows can compress files on your hard disk to reduce the amount space require. Right-click a file and choose Properties, then click the Advanced button and select the option to ‘Compress contents to save disk space’. Click OK and OK again. This trick works even better when you right-click a folder as you’ll be prompted to apply compression to all its files and subfolders. Go ahead – it won’t adversely affect their contents. Personally I also use it.
5. Zip files up
If there are files that you don’t use regularly, you can zip them up. Compressing them in this way can, with certain files, save more than 50 per cent of the original space they used. Right-click a file or folder and select Send To, then ‘Compressed (zipped) Folder’. Delete the original afterwards.
6. Remove optional components
Getting rid of Windows components that you don’t use helps to reclaim disk space. In XP, click Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. When the Disk Cleanup window appears, click the More Options tab and then select Clean Up in the Windows Components section. Some entries contain multiple items, such as Accessories and Utilities, so select them and click the Details button to choose the items you want to keep or remove. You can restore components from your installation disc (if you have one) if you later decide you need them.
7. Limit System Restore
System Restore lets you undo changes that have been made to Windows, such as when you install new software or hardware. It’s a worth reducing the amount of space allocated to System Restore. In XP, click Start>Right-click My Computer and select Properties. Click the System Restore tab and then drag the slider bar to the left to reduce the disk space usage. Set the slider to 1000MB, which is a good compromise between necessary back-ups and the amount of space used.
In Vista, click Start, right-click Computer and select Properties. Click System Protection and clear the tick against the relevant disk drive. Click Apply and then OK, but note first that this removes all restore points (backups), so you should only proceed if your PC is working well. Click system Protection again but this time tick the box next to the disk drive. The space used by System Restore will now be considerably reduced.
8. Limit IE’s cache
Internet Explorer can use up to 1GB of disk space to store recently accessed web pages. To stop these from building up in the browser’s cache, click Tools and choose Internet Options>Click the Settings button in the ‘Browsing history’ section of the General tab and set the disk to use to 50.
9. Uninstall software
Old software that you no longer use can consume lots of space. Open ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in the Control Panel (XP) or ‘Programs and Features’ (Vista & 7), and choose the option to sort installed programs by size. This will help you identify the biggest space hogs. You can then uninstall any greedy programs that you don’t need anymore.
10. Use online storage
Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive service (http://skydrive.live.com) provides 5GB of free online storage space for documents, music, photos and videos. Sign up and upload seldom-used files from your hard disk and you’ll have up to 5GB more space to play with. There are many equally good free alternatives, including Adrive (www.adrive.com) and Humyo (www.humyo.com).
