How to Manage Disk Space

Remember what your computer was like when it was brand new? It was fast and there was lots of hard drive space to install your favorite software, upload photos, and download music and videos. But that was some time ago. Now it’s not so fast anymore and there is a lot less free space left on your hard drive. So what to do? Here are a few tips that will help you to effectively manage your disk space.

1. Clear your browser’s cache

Every time you browse the Web, read emails, watch videos on YouTube, or listen to podcasts, some files get saved to your hard drive. These files are known as the browser cache. In theory, browser cache files are there to make web pages load faster. But the downside of having a bloated cache is that it takes up a lot of disk space. Moreover, it makes your computer slow. That’s why it’s good to clear the cache at least once a week. To clear the cache, just go to Tools in your browser’s menu and find the relevant entry.

2. Delete duplicate files

Daily computer activity inevitably leads to having several copies of some files stored in different folders on your hard drive. All these copies do is waste hard drive space and make your disk space usage less efficient. There are several techniques you can use to find and delete duplicate files. One of them is using Windows Search. All you need to do is type in some file names and Windows will find all the copies for you. This method requires a lot of time and patience. But there is a better way – use a duplicate file finder. There are programs that make managing disk space easy, as they can find and delete duplicate files in just a few clicks. When looking for a duplicate file finder, make sure that the software you choose has several search options and can match files by content.

3. Move large files to an external device

Another way to free up disk space and effectively manage your files is to move large files, like videos and music, to an external device. The cheapest solution is to store your files on CDs and DVDs. If you don’t like having a lot of DVDs lying around, you can store your videos, music and photos on a USB flash drive or an external hard drive. This will help you to free up disk space, manage your files, and keep an extra backup of your important data. There is also an option to use a service like Windows Live SkyDrive to store your files online.

These simple tips will help you to effectively manage disk space. Remember to keep your computer clean of junk and duplicate files, and you will always have enough hard drive space to install new software, run your favorite games, and save more files.