c drive nearly full

ktj

Hi, I have 2 laptops. I have been surprised to discover that the hard drive on the laptop that I use least is almost full. I don't understand what is taking up all of the space. I am not very techie and don't really know what programs would be safe to uninstall. I would be very grateful if anyone can help. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to do so. kje.

googler

ktj wrote: »

Hi, I have 2 laptops. I have been surprised to discover that the hard drive on the laptop that I use least is almost full. I don't understand what is taking up all of the space. I am not very techie and don't really know what programs would be safe to uninstall. I would be very grateful if anyone can help. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to do so. kje.

Uninstalling programs is unlikely to help. The culprit is probably videos, music files and such.

Download WinDirStat and run it. Report back with the results.

Also, look to see if the HDD on that laptop is partitioned - you might have a C drive and a D. If so, run WinDirStat against each individually.

wongataa

Run the built in Windows Disk Cleanup utility. If you use the option to clean up system files in that you can remove old Windows Update info as well which will give more space back.

pendragon_arther

Also Auslogics defragger has an option to 'optimise' which moves data for faster reading and frees up space http://filehippo.com/download_auslogics_disk_defrag/ But don't go for the option of another program Boostspeed, it's a pain.

Jivesinger

googler wrote: »

Download WinDirStat and run it. Report back with the results.

Also, look to see if the HDD on that laptop is partitioned - you might have a C drive and a D. If so, run WinDirStat against each individually.

I would definitely start with this.

Le_Kirk

Just to note that you will not see an increase in free space after using Disk Cleanup until after a reboot.

Catssquirrel

More likely Windows Crap, try Disk Cleanup & delete old restore points.

SouthUKMan

Another thought. Have you at any point since owning the laptop upgraded your version of Windows from 7 or 8 / 8.1 to 10? The reason being is that as part of the upgrade process, Windows keeps a copy of your old installation as a backup. This backup can easily consume 8Gb of hard drive space (or more). The back up is only really useful in the first few minutes after the upgrade is complete...just in case things have gone horribly wrong (very unlikely) or you decide you don't like the look and feel of the new version (also unlikely in the case of 10 as it's rather nice!). Let me know if you think this might be your case, and I'll talk you through how to delete the backup (it's not too difficult).

fenlander_uk

Even if you haven't upgraded to W10, W7/W8.1 may have downloaded up to 6+GB of files preparatory to doing the update. GWX Control Panel will detect these files and if you don't intend to update it can also remove them.

pappa_golf

and the size of the hard drive?


and the available space left?

Oldbiggles

googler wrote: »

Uninstalling programs is unlikely to help. The culprit is probably videos, music files and such.

Download WinDirStat and run it. Report back with the results.

Also, look to see if the HDD on that laptop is partitioned - you might have a C drive and a D. If so, run WinDirStat against each individually.

Hi! Googler.
I happened on this and ran WinDirStat, very impressive. How do I interpret the results?