Hard drive space: what to do?
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Due to the fact that the vast majority of processes that ensure the full functionality of the gadget’s OS actively fill up the disk space, the issue of artificially filling it remains relevant. Many users refuse any filling of this carrier with information, since clutter is directly related to the efficiency and speed of operations.
If the available space still needs to be used for storing information, it is necessary to regularly analyze the storage occupancy using specialized programs. After receiving statistics, it is required to clear the storage from unnecessary file elements and the temporary cache that remained after the removal of applications. For this, several utilities have been developed that allow you to quickly obtain statistics and detect unnecessary information units. Many of these developments make it possible to obtain statistics even on hidden information.
Why is my empty hard drive taking up space?
Most often, the space is occupied by the Windows Recovery Service, an incorrectly configured swap file element, or other automated system settings. Also, for many users, the cause of the filling may be the high value of cached browser data, filling the storage with program files.
The recovery system lies in the fact that Windows periodically creates restore points, which, if malfunctions occur, will help return the system to a “step back". In total, this option fills about 12% of the storage with hidden file documents.
There are also other reasons for cluttering up disk space.
In those situations when the operating system becomes short of space, it activates the actions responsible for unloading programs to the paging file.
When working with programs, browsers, a huge amount of cached data is generated – temporary file documents that often remain in storage.
A similar cache remains even after removing unnecessary programs.
To prevent such cluttering of the device, the data should be analyzed regularly.
This video is about how to take up space on your hard drive.
Analysis of occupied hard disk space
Most often, the place is occupied due to the automatic operation of Windows updates, the creation of restore points, and an emergency software shutdown. Because of these processes, temporary files remain, which, if accumulated for a long time, can take up several gigabytes in total. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to analyze the occupied space. This can be done with the help of several developments.
One of the simplest and easiest to use programs is WinDirStat. Its main difference is the free and accessible interface in Russian. After launching the application, it automatically starts to analyze all local disk devices or provides statistics only for selected positions.
Another free tool for analyzing free space is WizTree. This application allows you to analyze a hard or external drive in Windows 10, 8 or 7. The main difference of this application is that it has a high speed.
You can get more detailed information about stored files using Free Disk Analyzer. This utility, in addition to statistics, provides information about the largest elements and their location.
The free version of the Disk Savvy utility allows users not only to use all the functionality described above, but also helps to study hidden documents and classify them by type.
Yandex.Disk takes up space on your hard drive
The reason for filling up the space may be the installation of a Yandex client for storing personal data in the cloud. This is due to the fact that Yandex.Disk works by synchronizing data if the procedure for filling the cloud was carried out by copying the folder. In this situation, the folder will not only be created on the cloud, but will continue to be stored on the media. When you delete files from the media, the data will also be deleted in the cloud, as they will be linked by synchronization. It is worth considering that this folder may remain even after deletion. Developers of Yandex.Disk warn about this in the rules for using the service.
To release the media, you must refuse to copy the folder to cloud storage in favor of initially moving the folder from it to Yandex.Disk. After such a procedure, all documents transferred to the cloud can be deleted from the computer.
How much hard drive space does Windows 10 take up?
Microsoft developers have set themselves the goal of creating an OS that will save space on low-capacity gadgets. Windows 10 OS should cope with this task. For comparison: the previous version takes up half the space on a tablet with 32 gigabytes of memory. In the new version, this figure was lower by 1.5 gigabytes. If we are talking about a device with a memory of 64 gigabytes, here the OS saves about 2.6 gigabytes.
It was possible to achieve such savings by compressing system files. The built-in Cleanup Utility tool is responsible for this process, the function of which also includes cleaning the media of unnecessary data. However, it is worth considering that data compression can adversely affect the general principle of operation. In order to solve this problem, developers have built in the function of activating compression processes only on those gadgets whose system capabilities allow this process to be fully performed.