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.

If you’re constantly getting the message “Low disk space,” it’s probably time to do a general cleanup. Here’s 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 step back and look for the bigger gains. Deleting a bunch of small files here and there won’t make any difference as big as cleaning up an 80GB folder of old TV shows or uninstalling some games. (Seriously, if you are a gamer, clearing old titles can unlock up huge chunks of space instantly – be honest about what you’re actually going to play. You can always reinstall later.) ..

If you are on a Windows 10 machine, open up Settings> System> Storage to see how much space your drive is taking up. 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 free up space.

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 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. If you have large files hidden in unusual folders, these tools may be the best option for you.

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, you can use Disk Cleanup to delete files and free up space on your computer. You can choose to clear up system files or release up space instantly. ..

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 perform these tasks. Most of this stuff will come back anyway, and 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.

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 keep 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, remember to back up your files to the cloud if they’re really 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 up 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 best way to avoid data loss is to keep your files organized and backed up. This can be done by using a cloud storage service, deleting old files, or keeping a file list in a safe place. If you run out of storage space or want to delete old files, it’s best to do it gradually over time.

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

If you’re like most people, you’ve got a lot of stuff on your laptop that you don’t need. You can free up space on your laptop by deleting old files, moving them to the cloud, or deleting them altogether. This guide will show you how to free up space on your laptop. ..