• Why is disk space being taken up? Where does memory disappear from drive "C": possible causes and solutions to the problem

    Good day, dear readers, admirers and other individuals. Have you ever noticed that you are running out of space on your computer?

    As a rule, this is not a consequence of a virus or your carelessness, but simply a system recovery service Windows, incorrectly configured paging file and others. Often the reason for selling a place is also high value browser cache or an OS cluttered with all sorts of software garbage.

    How to find out why space disappears in Windows

    As I said, there are several sources where space can go missing.
    Let's look at them in order.

    First, the recovery system. The point is that Microsoft, taking care of its users, did in Windows a recovery system that makes a big difference when your place goes missing (even though it's actually just "hidden").

    What it does (if you haven’t changed the settings) is that at some intervals (especially in the case of installing programs\games\) it makes restore points, which you can always use in case of a system crash/failure. The question is, are you using this recovery system?

    For example, I have a hard time remembering the last time I had to do this. Moreover, the benefits of it are very doubtful. In turn, these points occupy up to 12% places on everyone hard drive, which, you see, is quite a lot (especially on disks large size). Therefore, here’s how to get rid of (or at least reconfigure) the amount of space occupied by recovery points.

    How to get back space on your computer disk

    Start-> Settings->Control Panel -> System->System Restore

    For Windows Vista/Windows 7/8/10:

    Start-> Settings->Control Panel -> System->System protection

    Here you can either completely disable system recovery, or distribute the points on which disks and how much space they will take up.

    I cannot recommend that you completely disable recovery, because... I don't know how often you encounter systemic problems and resort to recovery, but personally I have it disabled, because... I consider it a dubious tool that takes up quite a lot of space, especially since you can always use the " " article to protect and restore data.

    For those who want to leave it (system restore), but configure it as competently as possible and make it so that they no longer have to look for where the space disappears:

    1. It is advisable that they should not be on the disk with the operating system at all or should take up as little space as possible;
    2. You don't need more 3 recovery points, i.e. You shouldn’t set the maximum percentage even on several disks. It will be enough 3-6 % on one or two disks and then, in my opinion, this will be a lot.

    By the way, before configuring these parameters, the system had already created a number of restore points, so it would be a good idea to delete them. To do this, open " My computer", right-click on the hard drive where you need to clear it and select from the drop-down list "Properties".

    In the window that appears, click on the button “ Disk Cleanup” – “Additionally” – “System Restore” – “Clear” – “Yes” – “OK“.

    Or, in case you have Windows 7/Vista, You can clear the place, occupied by dots recovery using the " button Configure - Delete", which is located on the " tab System protection" (see path above):

    This is what they call time.
    Let's go to point two.

    About the paging file and where space disappears

    When the operating system does not have enough , it begins to unload programs into the page file, i.e. a file on the hard drive that serves as a kind of RAM, but much slower. Accordingly, the size of the paging file may be different, depending on the number of your RAM.

    By default, the paging file size is 2-4 times the amount of physical RAM, but this size can be changed, however, often to the detriment of performance (especially if there is little RAM). He also answers the question of where the place disappears, because he occupies this very place with all his strength.

    Configure the location and size of the paging file to hard drives here:

    • Start-> Settings-> Control Panel -> System-> Additionally> Performance> Options> Additionally> Virtual memory-> Edit

    I still don’t recommend disabling the entire paging file, but redistributing or reducing it is always welcome. I wrote more about the paging file and its configuration in the article, so read it to set the correct numbers.

    Cache, garbage and where does the space go?

    During operation of the system, programs, browsers and other things, constantly create a so-called cache, i.e. temporary auxiliary files, which (files) they periodically forget to delete. Also, after deleting various programs, they usually leave behind garbage traces of files, which also sometimes weigh quite a lot.

    Therefore, I recommend that you constantly clean Tempory Internet Files, browser cache, program traces and other all kinds of garbage. I wrote how to do this in the article "". I strongly recommend you read it, because it often frees up a lot of space.

    Other manual cleaning

    First, turn on the display of hidden files. To do this, we follow the path “ My Computer – Tools – Folder Options – View – Show hidden files and folders - OK".

    Next, open the disk with the system and find the folder there Documents and Settings. It contains your profile files and some system\program settings. The whole point is that most programs, especially if you deleted them incorrectly, i.e. without use, say, they leave behind a bunch of traces and debris, which sometimes are not even cleaned out CCleaner. You have to dig with your hands. The most cluttered folders in my opinion are:

    • C:\ Documents and Settings\ Name\Application Data;
    • C:\ Documents and Settings\ Name\Local Settings\Application Data.

    Where C:\- the disk where the system is located, and Name– this is your name in the system.

    Carefully rummage through these folders and delete folders with the names of programs that have not been on your computer for a long time.

    You can find the rest of the thick folders yourself by selecting one\group of folders in Documents and Settings and checking their volume by clicking the right mouse button and selecting the item “ Properties“. As a rule, when traveling like this, you can find a lot of all sorts of junk that was forgotten (or deliberately left behind) by program uninstallers.

    In general, to make it clearer what exactly is taking up how much space on which disk and how to delete it, I recommend reading this article of mine: “”, a program in which will clearly allow you to identify what is gnawing off treasured megabytes from the disk.

    Afterword

    Something like that.
    I hope that the article was useful to you and that you cleared and saved heaps of valuable megabytes.

    As always, I will be glad to see your additions, reviews, questions, etc., which you can safely write in the comments to this entry.

    PS: As a good alternative to the above-mentioned CCleaner, I can suggest you use a wonderful program for cleaning garbage and all sorts of “forgotten” miscellaneous things.

    If you notice that space on drive C is disappearing on your computer to no one knows where, this usually means that you have a large System Volume Information folder. This folder stores data about saved checkpoints that are used to restore the system. You will not be able to delete System Volume Information because this folder is a hidden system folder that is even protected from viewing.

    How to open the System Volume Information folder

    Many people don’t even know where the System Volume Information folder on the computer may be located because it simply cannot be found.

    Why is disk space decreasing in Windows 7?

    The TreeSize program will best help you find the System Volume Information folder on your computer. TreeSize Professional portable was created specifically to reveal the full structure of all folders located on your computer. Launch TreeSize portable.

    System Volume Information what is this folder

    In the TreeSize Pro program, select the disk that you want to scan to find all the folders in it. In a few seconds you will have the complete structure of all folders on your computer. Now you can open the System Volume Information folder and see what files are in it.

    How to clear System Volume Information

    There is no need to remove System Volume Information as this system folder and its removal can lead to a malfunction of the entire operating system. However, you can delete the System Volume Information folder from the flash drive. You can remove System Volume Information from a flash drive by simply formatting the flash drive.
    It is recommended to reduce and clean the System Volume Information folder on your computer. To clear System Volume Information, you must first open the computer properties.

    If free space on drive C is disappearing, set up system protection

    In the computer properties, click on System Protection. A window called System Properties will open.

    Why is disk space disappearing in Windows 7?

    In this window you need to select the desired disk and click the Configure button. A window called System Protection for Local Disk will open.

    How to clean up space on drive C

    In this window, click the Delete button but keep in mind that all control points necessary to restore the system. Then, using the slider, set it to use only 2% of the volume of this hard drive section. Don't forget to click OK to confirm your changes.
    After clearing System Volume Information and reducing the size of this folder, you need to create a restore point, and to do this just click the Create button

    Working in Windows, be it XP, 7, 8 or Windows 10, over time you may notice that the space on your hard drive is disappearing somewhere: today there is one gigabyte less, tomorrow another two gigabytes have disappeared.

    A reasonable question is where does it go? free space on disk and why. Let me tell you right away that this is usually not caused by viruses or malware. In most cases, the operating system itself is responsible for the missing space, but there are other options. This will be discussed in the article. I also highly recommend studying the material: . One more useful instructions: .

    The main reason for the disappearance of free disk space is Windows system functions

    One of the main reasons for the slow decrease in the amount of hard drive space is the operation of OS system functions, namely:

    • Recording restore points when installing programs, drivers and other changes, so that you can later return to the previous state.
    • Capture changes when updating Windows.
    • Additionally, this includes the Windows pagefile.sys file and the hiberfil.sys file, which also occupy their gigabytes on your hard drive and are system files.

    Restore points in Windows

    By default, Windows allocates a certain amount of hard disk space to record changes made on the computer during installation of various programs and other actions. As new changes are written, you may notice that disk space is disappearing.

    You can configure settings for recovery points as follows:

    I won't advise whether to turn it off this function: yes, most users don’t use it, however, with today’s hard drive volumes, I’m not sure that disabling protection will significantly expand your data storage capabilities, but it can still be useful.

    At any time, you can delete all restore points using the corresponding system protection settings item.

    WinSxS folder

    This also includes saved data about updates in WinSxS folder, which can also take up a significant amount of space on the hard drive - that is, the space disappears every time the OS is updated. I wrote in detail about how to clean this folder in the article. ( attention: Do not empty this folder in Windows 10, it contains important data for system recovery in case of problems).

    Swap file and hiberfil.sys file

    You can adjust the paging file size there: Control Panel - System, then open the “Advanced” tab and click the “Options” button in the “Performance” section.

    Then go to the Advanced tab. This is where you can change the settings for the size of the paging file on disks. Is it worth doing? I think not and recommend leaving it automatic detection its size. However, you can find alternative opinions on this matter on the Internet.

    As for the hibernation file, you can read in detail about what it is and how to remove it from the disk in the article

    Other Possible Causes of the Problem

    If the above points did not help you determine where space on your hard drive is disappearing and get it back, here are some other possible and common reasons.

    Temporary files

    Most programs create temporary files when running. But they are not always removed, so they accumulate.

    In addition to this, other scenarios are possible:

    • You install a program downloaded in an archive without first unpacking it into a separate folder, but directly from the archiver window and close the archiver in the process. The result is that temporary files have appeared, the size of which is equal to the size of the unpacked distribution package of the program and they will not be deleted automatically.
    • Do you work in Photoshop or edit video in a program that creates own file swap and a crash occurs (blue screen, freeze) or power outage. The result is a temporary file with a very impressive size, which you do not know about and which is also not deleted automatically.

    To delete temporary files, you can use the Disk Cleanup system utility included in Windows, but it will not delete all such files. To run Disk Cleanup,Windows 7, type "Disk Cleanup" into the Start menu search box, and inWindows 8, do the same in Search on the Start screen.

    Incorrect removal of programs, cluttering the computer on your own

    And finally, there is also a very common reason that there is less and less space on the hard drive: the user himself does everything for this.

    We should not forget that programs should be uninstalled correctly, at least using the “Programs and Features” item in the Windows Control Panel. You should also not “hoard” movies you won’t watch, games you won’t play, etc. on your computer.

    In fact, on the last point you can write a separate article, which will be even longer than this one: perhaps I’ll leave this for next time.

    Have you ever noticed why free space disappears on the C drive in Windows 7? It seems like you only use it for operating system, well, at most, you install programs and save something in the “Download” folder from the Internet, but the free space on system disk continues to disappear. This problem may not occur due to some virus or your incorrect actions, but due to ineffective operation of the Windows 7 recovery system, an incorrectly configured paging file, too of great importance browser cache, various system garbage etc. In this article I will try to look at these problems of missing free space on drive C in Windows 7 and possible options their decisions.

    Windows 7 recovery system and free space on drive C

    This system creates restore points in the operating system so that the user can use them in case of any problems. This is very good, but sometimes the recovery system in Windows 7 may be configured incorrectly and cause the loss of free space on drive C. It is not recommended to disable this system, but reconfigure it to optimal parameters Can. To do this, go to: Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> System Protection -> Configure.

    In the window that appears, we see that system recovery is already using 47.5 GB on our disk, and maybe all 59.62 GB, which will be 50% of the total disk capacity. Now it’s clear where the free space on drive C disappears in Windows 7? This is quite easy to fix; first, by clicking “Delete,” we delete all recovery points and restore our 47.5 GB. Then move the slider to a value of 3-5%, this is quite enough for correct operation recovery system and click “Apply”. Now 3% of disk space will be allocated to the recovery system, and not 50% as before, and we will be able to save almost half of drive C from previous values.

    Page file and free space on drive C

    Sometimes Windows does not have enough RAM and it starts working with the page file, i.e. a file on the system disk that serves as a memory aid. Accordingly, the size of the paging file may vary, depending on the amount of RAM you have. You can read how to optimally configure the paging file in Windows and save free space on the system disk.

    The rest of the garbage and free space on drive C

    During operation of the operating system, programs and browsers constantly create their own “cache”, that is, temporary auxiliary files that they periodically forget to delete. Also, after removing various programs, files usually remain, which sometimes also take up quite a lot of space. Therefore, I recommend that you constantly clean your computer of outdated files. This is easy to do using the free CCleaner program. Just download and install the program, then click the “Clean” button, and the program itself will standard settings will clear your hard drive of outdated system information.

    In this article, I looked at several reasons when free space on the C drive disappears in Windows 7. The main reason turned out to be a system Windows recovery, by properly setting it up, you can save almost 50% of your system disk. You will also need to configure the paging file and clean up system garbage using Ccleaner.

    If the article “Why is free space disappearing on the C drive in Windows 7” was useful to you, please share it with your friends

    Have you started to notice that space on your hard drive is disappearing somewhere, even though you don’t install or copy anything there? This happens, and quite often. This is especially noticeable in computers that have a small hard drive installed. In most cases, about 50% of the occupied space can be cleaned painlessly.

    The article has been hanging in drafts for a long time, but over the past week we have already been asked a similar question three times. Since I am used to answering such questions with links to my website, this time I will not make an exception. After all, it’s better to write a solution to a problem once than to talk about it a hundred times.

    First, I want to talk about the most common reasons why your disk is full. If you think that you control the free space on your disk, I can disappoint you, this is not so.

    1. Automatic Windows Update

    If you have automatic system updates enabled, be prepared for “tons” of downloaded update packages. Not only does the system download updates almost every day (or at least a couple of times a week), but all these updates are stored on your computer.

    Alternatively, turn off automatic windows updates and install them every couple of weeks. Thus, you will update some packages that are updated several times a week only once.

    2. Temporary files, or Temp folder

    While browsing the Internet, your browser downloads a huge number of files and images. In order for the Internet page of your favorite browser to open faster, the browser saves its images, markup file and much more to a temporary folder.

    The storage period for files in a temporary folder varies, from 1 to 30 days (sometimes more). Some files are deleted when the computer is restarted. If you want to forcefully clean the temp folder, . After cleaning, you will see that you have between 200 and 300 MB. up to several gigabytes.

    3. Swap file

    There is such a magical file on your computer - pagefile.sys. This is the swap file. Your computer needs it so that when the RAM is 100% full, the computer does not reboot (which is exactly what it would do, for self-cleaning purposes), but continues to work, accessing the paging file (instead of RAM).

    This file is located in the root of drive C. Since it is hidden, you will not see it until you display hidden files (and system ones).

    As you can see, on my computer this file is 3.9 GB in size.

    To change the size of the paging file you need to open additional system settings - performance settings - “Advanced” tab


    By clicking “Change” you can either change the size of the paging file or disable it altogether. With 8 GB RAM. and more\, it can be disabled altogether.

    4. Hibernate file

    This file is called hiberfil.sys. It is located in the same way as the paging file in the root of drive C. This file is needed to correctly put your computer into sleep mode. This condition is relevant not only for laptop users, but also for users of regular PCs.

    This file is needed so that during sleep, all the contents of the RAM are copied to it. And when you wake up, it is again copied into RAM. This way your computer “wakes up” in a matter of seconds. The size of the hiberfil.sys file is equal to the amount of your RAM.


    5. Forgotten files

    But let's look at this option in more detail. I recently cleaned my laptop from both dust and system debris. So, the client complained that there was no free space and it was unclear where it had gone.

    After conducting a visual analysis, I was unable to determine what was occupied by all the free space. I had to use a special program. Free Disk Analyzer is a program created specifically to identify the heaviest folders and files. Download the program

    Install and launch. After startup, the disk will begin scanning. Wait for it to finish. The scanning process can be observed in the bottom panel


    As soon as the analysis of the folders is completed, you can see what is the “heaviest” thing on your computer.

    If you analyze my computer, you can see the four “leaders”


    Everything is clear to me with the Windows and backup folders. The folder with Windows lives its own life, we won’t get into it, but the folder with backups is monitored all the time. I have a special relationship with the temp folder; in it I store temporary files and programs that I install for a while (those for which they can get their butt kicked). But the User folder, which stores user directories, interested me. Let's take a closer look at it

    Since I am the only user on this computer, the data directory was mine only


    Judging by this data, most of the space is taken up by the downloads folder and the virtual machines folder.

    After analyzing my computer, I realized where I could free up space. Without this program it would have been more difficult.

    If you open the “Most” tab, you can see the TOP most large files on your PC


    For me these are virtual machine files and disk images.

    So, let’s go back to the same client whose computer I cleaned. After analyzing the largest files on the system, I found about 50 films of an adult nature. They occupied more than 50% of the hard drive.

    I didn’t delete it, you never know, maybe a person is collecting a collection, but I drew his attention to it.

    It turned out to be a voluminous article, although I thought of writing a short note. Now you can analyze your occupied space and clean your computer of all kinds of garbage.

    Hello dear visitors. I hope you have already watched my video tutorial: “”, because today I will tell you the eleventh way with which you will find out where space on your hard drive disappears and how free up a lot of memory.

    I decided to dedicate whole lesson this search and delete method, since the method really works and in some cases allows us to free up many, many gigabytes of memory, both from the system disk and from any other.

    This method is to use a special one, which in a convenient form will show us what the disk memory is full of, and after analyzing the files, we can easily delete them.

    This is very convenient way, find out where the space on your hard drive is disappearing. I discovered it for myself quite recently, and I immediately liked it, because I found unnecessary files on the disk that I didn’t even know existed.

    But I want to warn you right away that this method of disk cleaning is not for beginners. The reason is simple: here you will need to be able to independently analyze certain files and decide to remove them!

    So, let's get to the point. The program is called WinDirStat and let me show you how to work in it.

    First of all, download the program and unpack the archive. To run, use the WinDirStatPortable.exe file.

    Immediately after launch, the program will offer to analyze any of the disks. Most often you want to understand where the disk space (C:) goes, so select the system disk and click OK.

    It will take about 5 minutes for analysis.

    Upon completion, we will see a bunch of color pictures in different quantities. The large black square indicates how much free space we have, the rest show the space occupied by various files.

    By clicking on any squares, I can see which file they belong to. I want to say right away that the larger the square, the more space it occupies disk space. Now I'm interested in the red squares. I would like to see what these files are. Maybe it's possiblefree up memorypermanently deleting them?

    I click on the first red square and immediately pay attention to top part programs to understand what kind of file it is.

    As you can see in my case, this is a file named DP_Video_nVIDIA... and this and similar files are located in the DriverPack folder. And the most interesting thing is that this folder weighs more than 8 gigabytes.

    From the name of the folder and the files inside it, I came to the conclusion that these files were downloaded using . Now they are no longer needed! First thing in the program WinDirStat I right-click on the folder and click Open.

    The folder with files opens in a separate Windows Explorer. Here I double-check that the files really weigh 8 gigabytes and delete them!

    I return to the WinDirStat program. Here I am still interested in what this is large number files under light black color? The files seem small, but there are quite a lot of them. I click on the first file and pay attention to the top part of the program.

    Here I see that the file is located in the _acestream_cache_ folder, which is exactly 10 gigabytes in size! AWESOME!

    By folder name acestream I can easily determine that these files belong to the program of the same name that I downloaded to . I am sure that the files that have accumulated in this folder are a regular cache that I can safely delete!

    It turns out that I deleted almost 20 gigabytes unnecessary files. No program could find these files.

    At the beginning of the lesson I already warned you that this way to free up memory not for beginners and I think you are already convinced of this. Finding files and folders that take up a lot of disk space is not at all difficult, but understanding Is it possible to delete these files?

    But this does not apply to cleaning other drives. For example, if you want to determine where does disk space go? (D:) , then after analyzing it using the WinDirStat program, it will be easy for you to understand whether it is worth deleting a series or game that takes up 50 gigabytes. Well, what about the system disk, where it is important not to damage Windows files, everything is a little more complicated.

    Let's return to the WinDirStat program. Here I also want to tell you that you can use not only colored squares to understand where the space went. You can simply sort the folders by size at the top of the program, and if one of the folders weighs a lot, then you need to study them one by one.

    Let's look at what's inside these folders and draw the appropriate conclusions. For example, I opened several folders and see that one of them is called Camtasia Studio, and its volume is 1 gigabyte (for reference: Camtasia Studio is a program for).

    I open Camtasia Studio and see that inside there is a folder CrashDumps, which I can safely empty, since these files, in fact, were created when the program froze, and now they are no longer needed.

    Using WinDirStat program you get another disk cleaning tool. Apply the knowledge you have gained and benefit! Free up memory by analyzing.

    That's all, I wish you good luck.

    Here I describe common problems that users encounter. When space on your hard drive disappears, you begin to wonder. You try to do something, delete some unnecessary programs, files, etc., but the space is never freed up. Today there was 50 GB free, and tomorrow it’s already 30 GB; it’s not clear where the disk space goes.

    I’ll say right away that it’s not always this problem occurs due to viruses or malware. We will now talk about the reasons why hard drive space is lost.

    The first reason is the system functions of the operating system

    The loss of free disk space can be caused by any functions of the . These could be:

    1. Records of programs, restore points and more.
    2. Windows Updates
    3. One of known reasons is and , which can take up a lot of space on the hard drive.

    Let's look at each of these points and try to free up as much space on your hard drive as possible.

    Restore points

    Typically, Windows independently allocates a certain amount of disk space in order to record installations of programs, drivers, and other changes in the system. Over time, the space taken up increases.

    You can configure recovery point settings as follows:

    Go to Control Panel and click on "System and Security", Then "Safety and Service", and then "Recovery". In the window that opens, look for something like "System Recovery Setup".

    Now select the desired drive and click "Tune".

    Here you can both enable and disable recovery points, and you can also set a certain amount of space occupied by this function.

    I'm pretty sure that most users don't use this feature, so those who want it can disable it. Today HDD volumes are very large, so I don’t think that disabling recovery points will somehow increase storage capacity. Sometimes it can even come in handy.

    Moreover, you can delete restore points at any time through the appropriate settings.

    WinSxS folder

    We have already talked about this in one of our articles. This folder can take up to several gigabytes. you can read what you can do with this folder.

    Swap file pagefile.sys and hibernation file hiberfil.sys

    I also wrote about this in my articles on this site. Files that also take up quite a bit of space. Speaking of the hibernation file, on Windows 8 it will take up a significant amount of space on your hard drive, even if you are not using it. I wrote about him.

    The swap file is all useful, and it’s written about how to configure it, be sure to follow the link. I will not write about this in this article, since I already have an article on this topic.

    Other reasons for lost disk space

    It is possible that the points that we listed above did not help you, or perhaps they did not relate to the problem of missing space, then we will consider other cases.

    Temporary files

    When we install programs, temporary files are created, which are not always deleted after removing the program itself.

    To delete these temporary files, you can use the built-in utility "Disk Cleanup". To do this we go to "My computer", right-click on to the desired disk, and then press "Properties". In the window that opens, click "Disk Cleanup".

    Now we wait a bit for the utility to collect the necessary data.

    As you can see, my temporary files took 249 MB, select the checkboxes opposite and click OK.

    An alternative could be the program, which I have presented in my articles not for the first time. And for good reason, since it is very useful and helps optimize the system.

    Removing programs from your computer

    You need to uninstall programs correctly. Standard Manager Uninstaller in Windows is not very suitable for this, since it does not remove entries in the registry and some remnants of the program. For such a case, you can use, for example, Uninstall Tool. Or read here.

    And the most important thing is not to clutter your disk with all sorts of garbage. Regularly uninstall apps you no longer use. Take care of your hard drive. That's all.

    Good afternoon.

    It often happens that no new files seem to have been downloaded to hard drive, but the space on it still disappears. This can happen for various reasons, but most often space is lost on the system drive C where Windows is installed.

    Usually such a loss is not related to malware or viruses. Often the fault is with the Windows OS itself, which uses free space for various tasks: space for backup save settings (to restore Windows in case of failure), space for the swap file, remaining junk files etc.

    We’ll talk about these reasons and ways to eliminate them in this article.

    1) Where does space on your hard drive go: searching for “large” files and folders

    This is the first question that is usually faced with a similar problem. You can, of course, manually search for folders and files that take up most of the disk space, but this is time-consuming and not rational.

    Another completely different option - use special utilities for analysis occupied space on your hard drive.

    There are quite a lot of such utilities, and I recently wrote an article on this issue on my blog. In my opinion it is quite simple and quick utility- this is Scanner (see Fig. 1).

    2) Configure Windows recovery options

    Generally availability backup copies systems are good, especially when you have to use a control point. Only in cases where such copies begin to take up more and more space on the hard drive does it become not very comfortable to work (Windows begins to warn that there is not enough space on the system disk, and this problem can also affect the performance of the system as a whole).

    To disable (or limit HDD space) the creation of checkpoints, in Windows 7, 8, go to the control panel, then select “system and security”.

    Then go to the "system" tab.

    In the sidebar on the left, click on the “system protection” button. A window should appear “ System properties"(see Fig. 3).

    Here you can configure (select the drive and click the “Configure” button) the amount of space allocated for creating recovery checkpoints. Using the setup and delete buttons, you can quickly regain your hard drive space and limit the number of megabytes allocated.

    By default, Windows 7, 8 includes recovery checkpoints on the system disk and sets the value for the occupied space on the HDD to around 20%. That is, if your disk volume on which the system is installed is, say, 100 GB, then about 20 GB will be allocated for checkpoints.

    3) Setting up the swap file

    The page file is a special place on the hard drive that is used by the computer when it does not have enough RAM. For example, when working with video in high resolution, highly demanding games, graphic editors etc.

    Of course, reducing this page file can reduce the performance of your PC, but sometimes it is advisable to move the page file to another hard drive, or set its size manually. By the way, it is usually recommended to set the page file to approximately twice the size of your actual RAM.

    To edit the swap file, go to the advanced tab (this tab is next to the Windows recovery settings - see paragraph 2 of this article above). Further opposite speed Click on the “Options” button (see Fig. 5).

    Rice. 5. System properties - go to system performance parameters.

    Rice. 6. Performance parameters

    After this, you need to uncheck the box next to “ Automatically select paging file size» and set it manually. By the way, here you can specify the hard drive to place the paging file - it is recommended to place it not on the system drive on which Windows is installed (thanks to this, you can speed up the PC somewhat). Then you should save the settings and restart the computer (see Fig. 7).

    4) Removing junk and temporary files

    Such files usually mean:

    Browser cache;

    When you view Internet pages, they are copied to your hard drive. This is done so that you can quickly load frequently visited pages. After all, you will agree that it is not at all necessary to download the same elements again; it is enough to check them with the original, and if they remain the same, load them from disk.

    Temporary files;

    Folders with temporary files take up the most space:

    C:\Windows\Temp

    C:\Users\ Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp(where "Administrator" is the name account user).

    These folders can be cleared; they accumulate files that are needed at a certain point in the program’s operation: for example, when installing an application.

    Various log files, etc.

    The best PC cleaning utilities -

    Even Anti-Viruses can take up space on your hard drive... First, check their settings, see what is in quarantine, in the report logs, etc. Sometimes it happens that many files (infected with viruses) are sent to quarantine, and it is sent to its queue begins to take up significant space on the HDD.

    By the way, in the year 2007-2008, Kaspersky anti-virus on my PC began to significantly “eat up” disk space due to the “Proactive Protection” option being enabled. In addition, antiviruses have various kinds of logs, dumps, etc. It is recommended that, if you have a similar problem, you pay attention to them...

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