How to free up disk space C?

I have been using a computer for a long time and, I would say, quite confidently. I have to work. And recently, I began to notice that they are turning to me more and more often for advice. Friends have different questions: someone cannot open photos, someone doesn’t load the song they like, and someone can’t customize the desktop.

All this is trite and quickly solved.

But just recently, a friend called back with a question about how to free up space on drive C. All my attempts to clarify the situation over the phone have suffered a crushing fiasco. Either that day my oratorical abilities were dozing, or the person turned out to be not quite understanding, I don’t know. But the idea arose to write this article, breaking it first into three parts.

Section 1. Why do I need to free up space on drive C? What is drive C?

As a rule, those who are relatively new to the computer are often interested in why the drive names begin with the letter “C”, where did “A” and “B” go? Old-timers, in turn, will answer that once the first two letters of the Latin alphabet were called drives, specially designed so that any user could read information from two floppy disks of different capacities.

Now these media are not applied. They are outdated and have lost their relevance, they are no longer used, but in order not to cause confusion, the letters "A" and "B" are simply not used in the names.

Technically, no one can forbid a user to name drives on his computer as he wants, but in most cases the third letter of the alphabet, “C”, is assigned to a system drive that stores data on the operating system and the directories of the default programs.

Simply put, this is the heart and brain of your device. They must, accordingly, be protected and not deleted incomprehensible or unfamiliar folders, without first understanding the background of their occurrence and scope.

Section 2. How to free up disk space C? In what case does such a need arise?

I propose to consider several causes of this problem. Experts say that there are several reasons for a system disk full, and, therefore, ways to safely free up space on a user disk.

First of all, you need to keep in mind that everything that you download from the Internet (music, images, movies, games and just documents) is stored on drive C by default.

Reason 1.

Very often, in order to save time, during the subsequent search, we leave the downloaded materials directly on the desktop. This is just not recommended. Why? Because the latter is located on the system drive. Look at your desktop. Are there many shortcuts, folders, and files? Enough? So, soon your device will ask you to free up space or simply start to work very slowly.

Reason 2.

Have you ever heard of temporary files? These are peculiar “fragments” of various kinds of computer programs, the number of which is constantly growing. It is they who have the ability to "clog" our disk space, "stealing" precious megabytes of memory.

Reason 3.

It happens that after working with a particular program or playing a game, we come to the conclusion that we no longer need it. We delete and safely forget about its existence, not paying attention to the fact that some fragments of the application still managed to remain in the computer's memory. In this case, the removal is performed either manually or with the help of certain specialized programs.

Section 3. How to free up disk space C. Ways to solve the problem.

Use CCleaner. Do not worry about the fact that you do not have enough knowledge to use it. This free application not only does not take up much space, only 3.5 MB, but also easy to use. Install it on your computer. Launch and go to the section called "Cleaning." Going to the “Windows” tab, check the boxes just opposite those items that need to be removed.

I would immediately like to warn that the CCleaner interface boasts the presence of special protective functions, which means that you certainly can’t harm your computer.

After clicking on the “Analysis” option, the application will show you how much approximately megabytes will be freed when you delete the information you marked.

Click "Clear." In general, according to experts, such procedures should be carried out at least once a month, and not wait for the relevance of the question of how to free up space on drive C.

You can also use a special Windows program. In order to start it, you need to right-click on the C drive we need, and select the “Properties” and “Disk Cleanup” items in the menu that opens. After analyzing the information, put the appropriate checkboxes, and then click the "OK" button. The cleaning process will start.