{"id":4083,"date":"2016-09-19T02:01:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T07:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.filepuma.com\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2024-06-18T05:06:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T12:06:01","slug":"how-to-free-up-disk-space-in-windows-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/how-to-free-up-disk-space-in-windows-10\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s far too easy to run out of disk space. If you have countless high-resolution photos, hundreds of HD-quality movies, and tens of thousands of songs, you can find yourself hitting your memory limit in no time.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, if you hit your limit, you\u2019ll want to know how to free up space without deleting your personal media.\u00a0Here are some\u00a0tips for \u00a0freeing up disk space\u00a0on\u00a0Windows 10.<\/p>\n

Delete Old Versions of Windows<\/h2>\n

Windows<\/span>\u00a0automatically saves data from older versions of\u00a0<\/span>Windows<\/span>\u00a0after you upgrade. This lets you roll back to previous versions\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0if needed, however, the old data takes up a lot of space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you already knew this, you might not have realized that installing the latest Anniversary Update will also leave behind such files. Luckily, deleting them is easy.<\/p>\n

Open the Settings app, navigate to\u00a0<\/span>System > Storage<\/strong>, and click on your primary drive. You will be presented with a list of different categories along with how much space they\u2019re using. Scroll down until you find\u00a0<\/span>Temporary Files<\/strong>, then click on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"windows-storage-454x500\"<\/p>\n

Lastly, mark the checkbox next to\u00a0<\/span>Previous Versions of \u00a0Windows<\/strong>\u00a0and hit\u00a0<\/span>Remove Files<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"windows-storage-remove-temp-389x500\"<\/p>\n

(Note: You can still use the old\u00a0Disk Clean-up method, if you prefer).<\/p>\n

Clear the Update Cache<\/h2>\n

Another way of removing storage space\u00a0that\u2019s being unnecessarily hogged by\u00a0Windows\u00a0is to\u00a0delete the update cache.<\/p>\n

The update cache consists of copies of the update installation files. The operating system uses them if you\u2019re ever forced to reapply an update; it saves downloading them again. Although it\u2019s a good idea, they take up a lot of space. Unless you either have a very slow Internet connection or you\u2019re seriously limited with data caps by your ISP, you can safely remove them.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the process is not particularly straightforward.<\/p>\n

The first step is stopping the\u00a0Windows\u00a0Update service. Search for\u00a0Services<\/strong>, right-click on the top result, and open it as an administrator.<\/p>\n

\"services-admin\"<\/p>\n

Next, scroll down the list of entries until you find\u00a0<\/span>Windows\u00a0Update<\/strong>. Right-click on it and choose\u00a0<\/span>Stop<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"windows-update-service\"<\/p>\n

Now you\u2019ll need to delete the files. Press Windows<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>key + R<\/strong>\u00a0to open the run box, then type\u00a0<\/span>C:\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution\\<\/strong>\u00a0and hit\u00a0<\/span>Enter<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"windows-run\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can delete everything within the Downloads folder.<\/p>\n

Lastly, you\u2019ll need to head back to services and re-enable Windows Update.<\/p>\n

(Note: This is also an excellent way to remove corrupted update files.)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Delete Hibernation Data<\/h2>\n

Hibernate and Sleep are two ways of conserving power\u00a0when you\u2019re not using your\u00a0Windowsmachine.<\/p>\n

There is one key difference \u2013 Sleep mode saves all your open documents and running applications to your device\u2019s RAM, whereas Hibernate saves it all to the hard disk. Sleep is akin to putting atelevision\u00a0on standby, whereas Hibernate lets your computer shut down completely.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t use hibernate mode, you can disable it. This will automatically delete any associated saved data from previous hibernations.<\/p>\n

(Clearly, you should not do this if you find yourself making regular use of the feature).<\/p>\n

To disable it, search for\u00a0Command Prompt<\/strong>, right-click it, and choose\u00a0Open as Administrator<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Type\u00a0powercfg.exe -h off<\/strong>\u00a0and press\u00a0Enter<\/strong>. That\u2019s it, you won\u2019t see a notification or confirmation.<\/p>\n

\"hibernation-off\"<\/p>\n

If you change your mind, repeat the above steps, but type\u00a0powercfg.exe -h on<\/strong>\u00a0instead.<\/p>\n

Delete Delivery Optimization Files<\/h2>\n

Windows 10\u00a0introduced a new update feature \u2013 called \u201cDelivery Optimization\u201d \u2013 that allows your computer to pull updates from other machines nearby.\u00a0The theory is that updates will be delivered faster, but in practice, a lot of people have complained about higher bandwidth usage and increased memory usage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to delete the files, but first you\u2019ll need to disable the feature \u2013 otherwise the files will just accumulate again.<\/p>\n

Head to\u00a0Start > Settings > Update & Security > Advanced Options > Choose How Updates Are Delivered<\/strong>. Once there, make sure the slider is set to the\u00a0Off<\/strong>\u00a0position.<\/p>\n

\"updates-delivery-452x500\"<\/p>\n

Now search for\u00a0<\/span>Disk Clean-up<\/strong>\u00a0and open the app. It\u2019ll spend a few seconds scanning your device before presenting you with a list of files that can be removed.\u00a0Scroll down until you find the entry called\u00a0<\/span>Delivery Optimization Files<\/strong>. Click in the checkbox, then hit\u00a0<\/span>OK<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>Windows<\/span>\u00a0will take care of the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"clean-up\"<\/p>\n

Delete the OEM Recovery Partition<\/h2>\n

Most computers come with an OEM recovery partition. Thanks to\u00a0Windows 10, they are largely redundant and can be safely removed.\u00a0Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to create a\u00a0recovery drive. Typically, this means using a\u00a0USB stick.<\/p>\n

Windows\u00a0comes with a handy tool for creating a drive; you can find it by searching for\u00a0Create aRecovery Drive<\/strong>\u00a0from the Taskbar.<\/p>\n

\"recovery-drive\"<\/p>\n

Follow the on-screen instructions and enter a\u00a0USB stick\u00a0when prompted. Once the process is finished, you\u2019ll see the option to delete the recovery partition from your\u00a0PC\u00a0on the final screen. Click the link and choose\u00a0Delete<\/strong>\u00a0to proceed.<\/p>\n

Delete the Windows 10 Recovery Partition<\/h2>\n

Warning: Only proceed with this option if you are desperate\u00a0because you will lose the ability to use any of\u00a0Windows\u00a010\u2019s recovery options and you will not be able to boot into the recovery environment to troubleshoot other aspects of the operating system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s highly advisable to make complete backups of your data and create a USB\u00a0recovery drive\u00a0before continuing.<\/p>\n

Firstly, open Command Prompt as an administrator. Type\u00a0Diskpart<\/strong>\u00a0and press\u00a0Enter<\/strong>, then type\u00a0List disk<\/strong>\u00a0and press\u00a0Enter\u00a0<\/strong>again.<\/p>\n

\"list-disk\"<\/p>\n

Next, type\u00a0Select disk X<\/strong>\u00a0(replace the\u00a0X<\/strong>\u00a0with the number of the disk where your recovery partition is saved). Then type\u00a0List volume<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be shown a list of all the volumes on the disk, including your recovery partition. Type\u00a0Select volume X<\/strong>\u00a0(replace\u00a0X<\/strong>\u00a0with the correct number, on my machine, it\u2019s Volume 2).\"select-volume-640x291\"<\/p>\n

Lastly, type\u00a0Delete volume<\/strong>\u00a0and hit\u00a0Enter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s far too easy to run out of disk space. If you have countless high-resolution photos, hundreds of HD-quality movies, and tens of thousands of songs, you can find yourself hitting your memory limit in no time. Whatever the reason, if you hit your limit, you\u2019ll want to know how to free up space without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4886,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions\/4886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filepuma.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}