{"id":10019,"date":"2009-12-16T17:46:59","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T16:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/three-easy-steps-to-recover-hard-drive-space\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:17:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:17:43","slug":"three-easy-steps-to-recover-hard-drive-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/three-easy-steps-to-recover-hard-drive-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Three easy steps to recover hard drive space"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a software reviewer, I install dozens of new applications every week, which means I tend to run out of hard drive space very easily. But last Monday the situation suddenly got worse, when I realized I only had one gigabyte left on my main hard drive. Time for some action!<\/p>\n

Recovering hard disk space<\/strong> is not difficult at all. It only requires a bit of common sense and the right software tools. And the\u00a0first place you should focus on is installed software.<\/p>\n

In my case, I could get easily get rid of 3 GB of software I didn’t plan to use ever again. For those of you who don’t spend your days testing apps, it may take a bit longer, but I’m sure you’ll find a couple of programs you don’t need<\/strong> on your system anymore.<\/p>\n

\"Recover<\/p>\n

You can uninstall unnecessary programs with the Add\/Remove Programs<\/strong> tool in Windows Control Panel, or use a third-party software uninstaller<\/a> \u2013 which are usually more informative and have more features than the default tool in Windows.<\/p>\n

Now that you’ve removed redundant software, it’s time to look somewhere else: the file structure in Windows. After a few months of usage, you’ve surely lost track of all the stuff stored on your hard drive. A quick analysis with hard drive scanning tools like Scanner<\/a>, OverDisk<\/a>, JDiskReport<\/a> or SpaceSniffer<\/a> will reveal the largest folders and files on your system<\/strong>. This will enable you to quickly identify the most space-consuming items and take the appropriate measures.<\/p>\n

\"Recover<\/p>\n

The system file structure can also benefit from a duplicate file finder. If you think you may have lots of duplicate files<\/strong>, take a look at our section for apps to find duplicates<\/a>, some of which have been specially developed to find duplicates among photos or music files.<\/p>\n

\"Recover<\/p>\n

After removing unwanted software and getting rid of large files we didn’t need anymore, the last task is cleaning our hard drive of\u00a0junk data<\/strong>: temporary files, history, recently opened documents lists, saved form entries, internet temporary files, log files, cache memor, and many other items your system stores in the background. I used CCleaner<\/a> to remove them all and gained about 2 GB in space.<\/p>\n

Download CCleaner<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Recover<\/p>\n

After going through these three steps, I went from having just 1 GB left of free space to more than 10 GB. Plus, the whole process doesn’t take long, and your hard drive – and the whole system – can benefit a lot from having more free space. It’s definitely something we all should turn into a habit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a software reviewer, I install dozens of new applications every week, which means I tend to run out of hard drive space very easily. But last Monday the situation suddenly got worse, when I realized I only had one gigabyte left on my main hard drive. Time for some action! Recovering hard disk space … Continue reading “Three easy steps to recover hard drive space”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-10019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t