The Disk Cleanup tool included with Windows can quickly erase various system files and free up disk space. But some things–like “Windows ESD Installation Files” on Windows 10–probably shouldn’t be removed. For the most part, the items in Disk Cleanup is safe to delete.
- On Windows 10, Disk Cleanup has been a handy tool for freeing up space after upgrading to a new version and for getting rid of junk files on your hard drive.
- If you have an ssd (solid state drive), never ever ever defragment it. The mechanism of a solid state drive is completely different from that of a regular hdd and in fact an actual contrast. A solid state drive can be imagined like multiple blocks, each of which contain data. There are no moving parts or disks or any kind of reader.
Over the last years computer processors have become very powerful, so powerful that most of the time they do nothing but waiting your hard drive to throw some data at them. Fortunately, disks have evolved, too and a new generation of super fast disks called Solid State Drives (SSDs) has appeared. With an SSD your computer will become noticeably faster and reliable and will consume less power. The problem is that SSDs are too expensive, so you will have to get one which is considerably smaller than a regular mechanical hard drive. Smaller drive means that rather sooner than later you will face the 'not enough free space' problem.
In this article I'm going to show you how to free up gigabytes of disk space on an SSD in Windows 7, but most of the tips also work for Windows 8 and Windows 10. Disable hibernation - will free up disk space equal to the size of your RAM. Hibernation is the process of saving the content of your computer's memory to the hard disk, which helps start if faster. Having Windows 7 installed on an SSD means that it will boot in seconds, so you won't need hibernation anymore. To turn it off you should do the following:. Click the Start button and type 'cmd'. Right click the item that appears and select Run as administrator.
In the opened DOS command prompt window type powercfg –h off and press EnterThe hibernate.sys file that is used by the hibernation process will be then deleted and you will gain disk space on your SSD equal to the size of your RAM. Decrease the size of the page file - will free up disk space almost equal to the size of your RAM. The page file represents an area of your hard drive, which is used by Windows 7 in case your computer runs out of memory (RAM). If your desktop/laptop has enough RAM (4 GB or more), you can safely decrease the size of the page file. Some people even advise to disable the page file completely, but I don't recommend this, as some programs need it and may crash if it is disabled. System Restore creates backups of your most important system files, so that in case something goes wrong you can restore the system to a point back in time. However, this approach is not very effective.
It is best to use a disk clone utility (e.g. Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc.) for disk backups. The System Restore service usually uses a lot of disk space, so here's how to turn it off:. Click the Start button, right click Computer and then click Properties. In the left pane click System Protection.
Select the disk you want to turn off System Protection for and click Configure. Select Turn off system protection, click OK, and then click OK again. Perform a Disk Cleanup regularly - will free up from several megabytes to hundreds of megabytes of disk space. Disk Cleanup is a tool integrated in Windows 7, which frees up disk space by emptying the Recycle Bin and deleting various temporary files, which are no longer needed. I recommend you run it once a month. To perform a disk cleanup do the following:. Click on the Start button and then on Computer.
Is Disk Cleanup Safe For Ssd Drivers
Right click on your SSD disk (by default 'C:') and select Properties. Click on Disk Cleanup to start the disk cleaning utility. It will analyze your system for a while and will show a list of items that can be safely deleted.
If you want to clean up some system files as well, such as left overs of old Windows updates, click Clean up system files and make sure you select 'Windows Update Cleanup'. Select all items you want to delete and click OK. Use a third party disk cleaning tool regularly - will free up megabytes of disk space. If you want to delete even more temporary files, you can use a third party tool. One that is very good, simple to use and I've never had any problems with is. I recommend you install it and run it once a month. When you start it:.
Select the types of files you want to delete using the check boxes. Click Analyze to see the list of files that are going to be deleted. Click the Run Cleaner button to delete the files. Uninstall programs you do not use - will free up from several megabytes to several gigabytes of disk space. One of the things SSDs are most noticeably faster than mechanical hard drives is file access. Because of this search on an SSD is much faster than on a traditional hard disk and you don't need the content of all your files to be indexed in order to do a fast file search.
Disabling the indexing service will not only free up space on your SSD but will also boost the performance of your computer as it will no longer index any file that is written to disk. To disable the indexing service for your SSD do the following:. Click Start and then Computer (or press Windows + E from the keyboard).
Right click on your SSD (e.g. 'C:') and select Properties. Uncheck the 'Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties' (should be as in the image to the right).
Click OK. In the dialog window that appears select to apply this to the drive, subfolders and files and click OK. Repeat the process for any other SSD disk partitions, tooSee also:. Hi, do not worry, hibernation and sleep are two completely different technologies, so disabling hibernation won't affect the sleep mode functionality of your computer.Basically hibernation is a process that saves the full content of your computer's RAM to the hard drive and then completely turns your PC off and when you turn it on it loads the saved on the hard drive data back to RAM, while sleep (standby) mode simply puts your computer into low power state, but does not turn it off completely, so you do not loose the content of the RAM. Hi thereOne of these actions seems to have made my clips in Adobe Premiere not work.
Is Disk Cleanup Safe For Ssd
There are grey stripes down all of them and they don't play. I've been editing this film for nearly a year so I'm a bit devastated. I probably should have looked into it more before I did anything. Anyway, just wondered if you knew what the default setting is for the Virtual memory before I changed it, and the File Content Indexing?
I noticed a long list of things happening when I changed the file content indexing with Adobe programs and then I had to restart the computer. I hope you can help, because if I lose this work I am done. Hi, I doubt that one of these tips has caused the issues you are talking about. If done as instructed, they are all perfectly safe and I have successfully applied them to many PC-s without any problems. Anyways, regarding your questions, the default value for the page file is 'System managed size' and File Content Indexing is set to true (checked) for the system drive.As far as I know Adobe products use a lot of memory, so if your computer does not have much RAM (e.g. 4GB or less), increase the size of the page file or set it to system managed size to see if this will solve the problem.Before reverting those settings, however, I recommend you backup your clips and project files and try to open them on another computer to see if they are ok. The issues you describe seem more like problems with the hard drive (for example appearance of bad sectors), so I strongly recommend you regularly backup your work and important files.
Is Disk Cleanup Safe For Ssd Mac
Regular backups are recommended even for new and perfectly healthy disks.
I have lots of.tmp files on my C: drive (its an SSD) and on my X: drive (a separate rotational HDD in the computer's case holding all my Documents. Pictures etc.). These seem unecessary, and are religiously included by my third party daily backup routine (FreeFileSync). I am the Administrator.I would first boot the computer (to make sure that there were no temporary files that were being used by a program etc.), and get Windows 7 (Home Premium)'s Backup and Restore routine to make a backup, and I would create a Restore Point.For the X: drive I would make a backup of the drive, then set Disk Cleanup to clean all 'Temporary Files'.
If that went OK, next the C: drive.For the C: drive: I would save elsewhere the WindowsImageBackup that Windows Backup and Restore is set to automatically make every day on X:, and use Disk Cleanup on the C: drive. If that went OK I would Cleanup the other types of files which are offered by Disk Cleanup, on each of these two drives.Operations like this can go wrong. I really really don't want to screw up my computer.
Is the procedure I describe above safe? How could it be improved?Thanks. Keyboard Accuratus 301 USB Compact, white.Mouse Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.0, two-button, tetheredPSU 500 WCase Gigabyte ATX caseCooling Several fans!Hard Drives 256 GB Solid State Drive (C: on which Windows 7 is installed)-1 TB internal conventional HD (X:)-Two WD 'Elements' ' 2TB USB drives as backupsInternet Speed 10 to 12 Mb per secondAntivirus Kaspersky Internet Security 2016, Malwarebytes (paid)Browser Firefox (ocassionally Safari)Other Info The 256 GB SSD (C:) also has Adobe Photoshop CS6 and InDesign CS6, MS Office, Adobe Lightroom, and other small programs. Keyboard Logitech G710+/ 2nd Acer original both wiredMouse 2-RedDragon M901 Perdition 16400 dpi Gaming mouse = wiredPSU EVGA SuperNOVA 850w-P2 80+ PLATINUM/with 2-APC XS-1500Case 2-Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black ATX Mid TowerCooling Corsair H110i GT Liquid rad(4)-SP140(3)-AF140(1)-AF120BlueHard Drives 2-Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD's/ 3-2.5 W.D. Black 1tb-&3-1tb/3-3.5 WD Black 1tb hdd'sInternet Speed Comcast Ping 19ms 89.31mbps download speed 6.12mbps uploadAntivirus Panda Free/ Malwarebytes Pro/ Superantispyware ProBrowser FireFox & Pale moonOther Info 2nd ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2/Intel i9-7900x with EK-KIT P280 liquid cpu loop kit/7H-Prem-x64/Corsair 450D case/Ram 4x4gb's Corsair dominator platinum 2666 / Samsung850Evo 250gb SSD/Dual ssd EZ swap evo/PSU EVGA SuperNova 1200w-P2 80+Platinum/GPU EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW ICX/4-SP140 green led case fans 2 front intake 2 top exhaust. I also use Windows Disc Clean up & I have never had a problem with it.You do need to keep in mind that it does not actually remove any files etc. Until you restart your computer.
This is probably so any temp files in use don't get mangled. If you have a lot of files etc. To get rid of then it will give you notification when you shut down & may also notify you on restarting again.If you want to delete completed Windows Update Clean Up & Windows Error Reporting, right click on Disc Clean Up & Run as Administrator. Computer type PC/DesktopSystem Manufacturer/Model Number Self built using existing caseOS Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit sp1CPU Intel i5 3570 3.4Ghz Ivy Bridge SKT 1155 quad coreMotherboard Gigabyte Z77-HD3 SKT 1155 2xSata 3, 4x USB 3.0Memory G-Skill Rip Jaws 16Gb (8x2) DDR3 -1600 PC3 12800 CL 10 redGraphics Card Gigabyte NVIDIA GT610 1Gb DDR3 810/1200 PCI-E 2.0 SilentSound Card NVIDIA High Definition & Realtech High Definition AudioMonitor(s) Displays 2 x Philips 226V4L 16:9 aspect ratioScreen Resolution 1920 x 1080 HD. Keyboard Logitech G710+/ 2nd Acer original both wiredMouse 2-RedDragon M901 Perdition 16400 dpi Gaming mouse = wiredPSU EVGA SuperNOVA 850w-P2 80+ PLATINUM/with 2-APC XS-1500Case 2-Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black ATX Mid TowerCooling Corsair H110i GT Liquid rad(4)-SP140(3)-AF140(1)-AF120BlueHard Drives 2-Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD's/ 3-2.5 W.D. Black 1tb-&3-1tb/3-3.5 WD Black 1tb hdd'sInternet Speed Comcast Ping 19ms 89.31mbps download speed 6.12mbps uploadAntivirus Panda Free/ Malwarebytes Pro/ Superantispyware ProBrowser FireFox & Pale moonOther Info 2nd ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2/Intel i9-7900x with EK-KIT P280 liquid cpu loop kit/7H-Prem-x64/Corsair 450D case/Ram 4x4gb's Corsair dominator platinum 2666 / Samsung850Evo 250gb SSD/Dual ssd EZ swap evo/PSU EVGA SuperNova 1200w-P2 80+Platinum/GPU EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW ICX/4-SP140 green led case fans 2 front intake 2 top exhaust.