Clean Out Your Hard Disk The Easy Way

At some point your hard drive will start to run out of disk space, especially if you store a lot of music or movies, or simply never bother to delete all those programs you like to try out. A full hard drive can result in a general slowdown and poor performance. Here's an easy two-step process to cleaning out your cluttered hard drive.

Step 1: Delete Unused Software

Go to Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs. When you go through this list, do not remove anything that you do not recognize! Windows puts its update files in here, and you may make Windows or an important application inoperable, unless you know what you are removing. When you click on a name, it tells you when that program was last used. If you haven't used a program for more than one year, consider deleting it. If you need it again, you can always reinstall it.

Step 2: Run The Disk Cleanup Utility

Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. This utility sometimes takes a long time to scan the drive, consider running it before going for lunch, or overnight! Once it has finished scanning, it gives you a list of the types of files that are available for cleaning. If you have problems with the utility hanging, you can try deleting all the files in your Temp folder and also try doing a defrag of your drive.

Cleaning up your hard drive on a regular basis (I suggest monthly or quarterly) is good maintenance and will help keep your PC in top shape.