Clean Up a Disk Drive

Over time, a disk drive can become cluttered with orphaned system and application files, which waste space. Windows' disk cleanup utility can remove these files automatically, and create more space on a drive by deleting other temporary files (such as the web browser's cache), emptying the Recycle Bin, and (on NTFS drives) compressing files that are not accessed often.

To clean up a disk drive

• Close any open applications and files then open My Computer
• Select the disk drive you want to clean then from the File menu, select Properties...

OR

Right-click the drive icon and select Properties...

The Drive Name Properties dialogue box is displayed.

• Click the General tab
• Click Disk Cleanup

The utility starts to analyse the disk drive, which may take some time to complete.

After analyzing the disk, the Disk Cleanup for Drive Name dialogue box is displayed.

• Check the boxes for the type of files you want to delete or compress

Files to Delete	Explanation
Downloaded Program Files	Controls and applets used to display certain features on web pages. You might want to retain these if you have a slow internet connection.
Temporary Internet Files	Graphics and other files downloaded when viewing a web page. You might want to retain these if you have a slow internet connection.
Offline Web Pages	Pages that you have downloaded to view offline.
Recycle Bin	Files and folders that have been deleted. Click the View Files button to see which files will be deleted.
Temporary Files	Files created by software applications when using them. These files can usually be deleted safely (though you may be able to recover some data from a temporary file after a crash).
Compress Old Files	Use file compression to reduce the size of files you do not access often. This does not delete the file, but may make it slower to open if you do use it. It also means that the clean up process will take a long time. Use the Options button to set the amount of time to leave before marking a file as unused.

• Click OK then Yes to the warning message

Depending on the number of files to clean up, the process may take some time.

Use ScanDisk

ScanDisk ensures that a disk drive is in good working order. It can also fix any problems with a disk, and sometimes recover data in the event of a power failure. You can scan fixed hard disk drives and removable drives. If you scan a removable disk drive, the disk must be in the drive before you start.

To scan a drive for errors

• Close any open applications and files then open My Computer
• Select the disk drive you want to scan then from the File menu, select Properties...

OR

• Right-click the drive icon and select Properties... The Drive Name Properties dialogue box is displayed.

• Click the Tools tab

• Click Check Now...

• Optionally, check the Automatically fix file system errors to repair any problems automatically

OR

• Optionally, check Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors to repair any problems and attempt to recover data - use this option if you have lost data during a power cut

Selecting the above options will increase the amount of time required to check the disk.

• Click Start

A bar displays the utility's progress. A report is displayed when the scan is complete.

Defragment a Disk Drive

Defragmenting a disk optimises performance by arranging and condensing files on the disk where they can be accessed easily by software operations.

You should defragment a computer's hard disk(s) regularly to ensure optimum performance. It is a good idea to defragment a drive before installing a new software application or set of large files.

To defragment a disk

• Close any open applications and files then open My Computer

• Select the disk drive you want to defragment then from the File menu, select Properties...

OR

• Right-click the drive icon and select Properties...
• Click the Tools tab then click Defragment Now...
• Select the drive you want to defragment and click Defragment

• Click the Close icon when you have finished defragmenting drives

TIP: Alternatively, start the Disk Defragmenter using the Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools menu.