There’s nothing more annoying than a slow-running computer, but it’s a problem that we all seem to face from one time to another. If you’re struggling to run your computer at a proper speed, a likely reason might be that you’re running out of hard drive space.
All you’ll need to do to resolve this issue is, to free up hard drive space on your device. However, that can often be easier said than done. If you’re struggling to determine how best to free up space and take some processing pressure off of your device, read on.
We’ll walk you through what you need to know about freeing up storage and bettering your computer memory.
In this article
Start With Big Files
Sometimes, there are a few massive files taking up space on your computer that are running the operating speeds for everything else. Most computers are good about storing data, but there are a few file types that just seem to always take up massive amounts of space.
Getting rid of these huge files if you don’t need them can be one of the most efficient and effective methods of freeing up hard drive space.
All you’ll need to do is go to Finder or Explorer and look at a list of all the files currently on your device. Organize these by file size and make sure the largest are on top.
Once you have your files listed in this way, you can work through the massive files on your computer and see if you really need them. If you don’t, dump them in the trash and clear them to free up lots of space.
If you do need them, consider putting them on an external drive and storing them elsewhere. This should help better your computer’s hard drive storage.
Get Rid of Temporary Files
Browsing the web can actually end up taking up a lot of storage space on your device as well. Anytime you visit a website, cookies, text files, and a string of other temporary files are stored on your computer.
These files can eventually add up to quite a size if not managed. You’ll want to delete temporary files fast to reclaim your storage space and help your computer run much smoother.
Each kind of web browser has its own way of ridding your computer of temporary files so you’ll want to do a little research on how best to approach this task.
Utilize the Cloud
These days, there’s no real reason to have to store all of your files on a physical device. You can clear up room on your hard drive by storing some of your files instead of on a cloud-based platform such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
These cloud-based servers are increasingly popular and easy to use.
When you have a file in the cloud instead of on your hard drive, you can access it through the internet without it having to take up space on your own computer.
How To Free Up Hard Drive Space
If you’re trying to determine how best to free up hard drive space on your computer, the above are some tried and true methods. Within minutes you might be able to witness a better performance from your device. Need more tech advice and information? Keep scrolling through our blog for more.
