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TheWiseGuy

Just thought since this the tech corner is still new im sure some people will have issues with low disk space and such so to help those people out in the future i've made this guide.

Note: These steps have only been performed on Windows XP not on Vista since I currently don't have it installed.

Step 1
Compress Files

Select the files or folders you want to compress. Right Click then Go to properties. Then click on “Advanced” button then check “Compress contents to save disk space” and click Ok and then Apply. Then check “Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files” and click Ok. Files and folders that are compressed are shown in blue color.

Note: This is available on NTFS file system only.

Step 2
Minimizing Usage Of System Restore

If you need all your restore points or use system restore very often skip this step...if you don't use system restore at all read along.

Click the start menu, right click my computer, select properties, click system restore tab, now here you can either turn system restore off or just lower the bar to use less space, you can set it for whichever percentage you find suitable.

Step 3
Archive Old Files

If you have a bunch of files on your pc that you rarely access or never access, but you don't want to delete them I recommend you get winrar and archive those files, to do this you just simply install winrar then right click the file you want to archive and click add to archive then follow the remaining steps.

Step 4
Delete Temp Files

Windows has a nasty habit of keeping temporary files stored on your computer, these are files that were once needed to install or update software and are not needed anymore to get rid of these follow these steps

To delete Windows Temp files:

Go to folder “LocalDrive:\Documents and Settings\”your_username”\Local Settings\Temp” Select all files by pressing Ctrl+A on your keyboard and delete.

Clearing “My Recent Documents” folder in Start Panel:

Right click on taskbar, go to properties >Start menu > click on “customize> Advance (tab) . Then click on button “Clear List” also uncheck “List my most recent documents”.

note: this wouldn't delete the original document.

To delete Temporary Internet Files:

Go to Control Panel> Internet Options. Click on Delete files under temporary internet files also check “Delete all offline content” and click Ok.

To change the amount of disk space to use click on “Setting”. Move the slider to 250 or 300 MB.

Note: Decreasing the space may decrease the time to load pages or sometimes slow down Internet Explorer if u are viewing so many pages.

Step 5
Reducing Space Taken Up By Recycling Bin

Right click recycling bin>properties, first click the "use one setting for all drives" bubble

next you can either click "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted"

or if you dont want that just lower the percentage in the bar under it.
To see the amount of space that percentage is taking up click the Local Disk tab, where it says "space reserved" is the amount of space being used in your hdd.

Final Step
Run System Cleanup Utility

This is the last and simplest step, simply click start>all programs>accessories>system tools> Disk Cleanup.

Just follow the steps given and by the time your done you could have possibly freed up about a few gb's.

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Xente

thanks, got a 20gb freed up with this

sticky

MrWafflez

My ultimate tip to clearing up space to people who play a lot of games would be this:

Create a folder where you save all of your games to when you download them. This is not where you install them to, just where you download them to. Every month, or whenever you get low on space, clear out this folder. Most people download a game and immediately run the installation file. Because of this, they normally forget that after installation, unless you want to reinstall at a later time, you have no need for the downloaded files.

Normally a good MMOG is around 2 GBs. This is the download folder, once you install it it could be another 3 GBs. But, you can delete the original folder that you downloaded and free up 2 GBs.



Very simple tip that can save a lot of space as people normally forget to delete the old files from a game.




I also recommend deleting old screenshots after you upload them to a Photobucket account since they are saved there, so there's no need to keep them on your computer.

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fire23150

TY freed a gig

TheWiseGuy

no prob guys.....how would i go about getting this stickied since ive never tried it

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Darc

Oh and one more tip:

USE CCleaner. I mean it. Frees me up 3GBs sometimes. I got a fresh new computer and with that goes a fresh new reformat. 100GBs to waste again,joy!

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Oisterboy

Good call man. I use most of these techniques, and now I have a few more up my sleeve!

I'd recommend "Clean Up!" for removing temporary files, its real nice!


Also, TweakUI (for XP) and TweakVI (for Vista) are great little customization programs, but also can be used to free up some space.

ANNNNNNND, "Unlocker" (not sure of the link...do a search on the forums for "Freeware? Awesomeware!" and you should find it) will unlock Windows programs (like Movie Maker and the like) for those of you who are really anal like me, and enjoy every single MB of space you can get.

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ARandomGuy

I use WinDirStat when I'm cleaning up my Hard Drive; it makes it easier for me to see what's taking up space.