What is Hogging Space on My Computer

Computers are coming with bigger and bigger hard drives nowadays, which only makes the problem with organizing and finding stuff on your computer harder. It is also becoming easier for people to become a pack rat when it comes to saving music, documents, and pictures. Both of these facts have led to the problem of people forgetting about what they have on the hard drive and what is taking up so much space. This article will cover a couple of ways to free up some of that "junk" that is taking up room on the computer.

First, if you have Windows XP, you can do a little cleanup with Window's built in utilities using the following steps.

1. In XP, Double-click My Computer, right-click the icon for your C: drive, and choose Properties. Then click the Disk Cleanup button. Make sure that you pay attention to the check boxes - which will prevent you from deleted unwanted files. For example, although Temporary Internet files often take up a lot of space, deleting them can possibly delete the cookies that automatically fill in fields on websites. Temporary Internet Files also contains the downloaded graphics that make the websites you visit most often load faster.

Another example is that if you have Microsoft Office installed, deleting the Office Setup files will cause the computer to ask you for the setup disks everytime updates or repairs are made to the program.

Make sure you run Disk Cleanup on each drive if you have more that one hard drive.

2. Uninstall Unused Applications

Often we install programs, and never use them. We also install programs without knowing, such as spyware and add-on tools for the internet. The Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel is a perfect way to remove these programs and add extra space.

In Windows 98 and Me, you'll go to the Add/Remove Program Properties screen. Highlight the program you want to delete, and click the Add/Remove button.
Windows XP gives you more information when you click each application, including how often you use it and how much space it occupies. To remove each application, choose it, click Change, and then follow the directions.

3. Turn off System Restore in Windows XP

As a Systems Administrator, I have never used Windows XP's built in System Restore feature, and chances are you will not either. I creates "Restore Points" in which it saves your system files when you make major changes, such as installing a new program. It is not considered by a lot of people to be a very helpful tool in troubleshooting problems, but it does take up a lot of space. Use your own discretion, but I would recommend that you turn it off.

To turn off system restore, go to the Control Panel, click on the System icon, and click on the System Restore tab. Check the box that says "Turn off System Restore on all Drives."

4. Use a HD Space Tracking Tool
A good example of the tool is Werkema.com's Spacemonger. It is a free program that helps you keep track of the free space on your computer. Each file or folder on a given drive is displayed in a box in the main window whose size is a relative comparison to all the other files in your system. So, for example, if the "Music" box takes up 90% of the screen, the "C:\Music" folder and all its sub-folders and files are taking up 90% of your "C:" drive. Be careful, because this computer shows ALL the files on your computer, including system files that you do not want to delete using this tool. Stay away from deleting things in the "Windows" and "Program Files" directory with this tool, and use the Add/Remove Programs in the control panel instead. You can download it for free here.

5. Finally, when you get finished with all of these steps, make sure that you empty your recycle bin! This will free up the space that you have cleared up using these steps.

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