| HOW TO PERFORM A DISK CLEANUP |
In this section I will show you how to cleanup your hard drive using the Disk Cleanup utility supplied with Windows 7. The first example will show you the general cleanup that can claim back MegaBytes of hard drive space and the second example will show you the advanced cleanup that removes the System Restore files but can claim back GigaBytes of hard drive space.
The first thing you need to do, for both examples, is open the Computer window. This can be done by double clicking on the COMPUTER desktop icon or by clicking on the COMPUTER start menu icon.
Fig 1.0 Double click on the COMPUTER desktop icon..... |
Fig 1.1 .....or click on the COMPUTER start menu icon to continue. |
With the Computer window open the next thing to do is right click on the hard drive partition you want cleaning, if you have more than one partition of
course. In this example I have right clicked on the DATA (D:) hard drive partition, that contains my Windows 7, but I could of right clicked on the
SYSTEM (C:) hard drive partition instead (it has Windows Vista installed on it). The reason I did not is because not all of the cleanup options would
of been available, because SYSTEM (C:) is not the hard drive partition with Windows 7 installed on it. DATA (D:) is the hard drive partition with Windows
7 installed on it and therefore the hard drive partition that can be cleaned of Temporary Internet Files, Downloaded Program Files and so on.
Right clicking on the hard drive partition, preferably the one with Windows 7 installed on it, brings up its Options menu. Select (left click on) the
PROPERTIES menu-item to then bring up that hard drive partition's Properties window (Fig 1.3 below).
When the hard drive partition's Properties window opens it displays its GENERAL Tab (window) by default. This tab shows you how much space has been used by Windows 7, Third-Party Software and your own Folders and Files (Used Space), how much space is remaining (Free Space) and the Capacity of the hard drive partition. Take a note of these because you will see how much space has been claimed back by the Disk Cleanup utility. When you are ready click on the DISK CLEANUP button to bring up the following message requester. It calculates how much hard drive space can be claimed back by deleting unnecessary system files (Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Set Up Logs, Etc) and so on.
When the calculating has finished the results are displayed at the top of the Disk Cleanup window (Fig 1.5 below). In Fig 1.5 it is currently stated that I can free up (clean up) 20.2 MB of hard drive space, even though the ticked items only free up 18.3 MB. Therefore I need to tick all the options in order to free up the whole 20.2 MB (Fig 1.6). Once this is done the next thing to do is click on the CLEAN UP SYSTEM FILES button.
You do not need to know what all the files in the above list do. You just have the knowledge and faith that the Disk Cleanup utility is not in the habit
of deleting the wrong files. As said, a lot of the files are log files, recycle bin files and temporary files only and therefore unnecessary/unneeded.
After clicking on the CLEAN UP SYSTEM FILES button (above), and because other options were ticked, another calculation of hard drive space is required
(below) before you can then click on the OK button to continue (Fig 1.8).
When the recalculation of hard drive space returns I now have 21.0 MB that can be cleaned up, whereas before it was 20.2 MB (Every MB counts!). Clicking on the OK button brings up the following message requester that asks "Are You Sure You Want To Permanently Delete These Files?" before the cleanup process begins. This gives you the chance to cancel and to change/redo your tick selection. If you are sure you want to continue with the current disk cleanup, without changes, simply click on the DELETE FILES button to start the cleanup process.
When the disk cleanup process has finished click on the OK button of the Properties window to close it (not shown here) and then reopen the Properties window again (as in Fig 1.2 above) to see the new Used Space and Free Space amounts. They will have changed to reflect the amount of hard drive (disk) space claimed back by the disk cleanup process. An example is given at the end of the Advanced Disk Cleanup sub-section, below.
| ADVANCED DISK CLEANUP |
This next example leaves off from Fig 1.4 above. After clicking on the DISK CLEANUP button, and the disk cleanup utility then calculating hard drive space, this time around the disk cleanup utility knows what it has cleaned up before and therefor gives itself less work to do this time around. Hence why there are fewer tick options available now.
After clicking on the CLEAN UP SYSTEM FILES button another recalculation is performed (below) before the disk cleanup utility allows you to click on the MORE OPTIONS Tab (window), so that you can then have it delete the previous System Restore Points.
The MORE OPTIONS Tab (window) allows you to remove certain Windows 7 programs in order to free up even more hard drive space (not explained/exampled here)
and it also allows you to remove previous System Restore Points (see the paragraph below). To remove your previous System Restore Points click on the
bottom CLEAN UP button to continue.
System Restore Points are backup files created by Windows 7 prior to you installing some software for example, so that if a software installation goes
wrong and/or corrupts your computer for example you can use the System Restore tool to take the computer back to the point before the software
installation. Back to a point where your computer was working fine. This is only possible for the System Restore tool to do if Windows 7 has been saving
System Restore points (system backup files). See the System Restore
section for more information.
Clicking on the bottom CLEAN UP button (Fig 2.3 above) brings up the above message requester that is asking "Are You Sure You Want To Delete The Previous
System Restore Points?". If you are sure click on its DELETE button to continue, otherwise click on its CANCEL button to abort the delete operation. If
you continue you will be asked if you want to delete standard files again (as in the first example - Figures 1.9 and 1.10), so just answer with DELETE
FILES and then click on the relevant OK buttons to close the windows.
Note: There will be a slight delay, while the System Restore Points (files) are being deleted, before the OK button on the MORE OPTIONS Tab becomes
clickable. So be patient. When the OK button does become clickable click on it to continue.
Think before clicking on the DELETE button. If anything goes wrong with your computer in the future you might now be deleting any hope of restoring
your computer to a previous, working, state in the future.
When the disk cleanup process has completely finished click on the OK button of the Properties window to close it. After that reopen it and look at the
Used Space and Free Space amounts. They will have changed to reflect the amount of hard drive space claimed back by the disk cleanup process.
Fig 2.5 above shows how much space can be deleted over a short period of time. The above disk cleanups for example claimed back 2.8 GigaBytes of Used
Space. 18.2 GB of Used Space (Fig 1.3 above) down to 15.4 GB of Used Space (above). The second disk cleanup was the important one because it got rid of
the bulk of System Restore Points, which are massive. Any system restore point disk cleanups thereafter will get rid of previously classed "Current"
system restore points. The first disk cleanup did not really do much, but is still worth doing once a month for example. Windows 7 usually holds on to
the current system restore point for about a day before it can be deleted as above. Deleting the system restore points is for Advanced Users only, hence
why I split this section and made Advanced Disk Cleanup.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
