PC exercise program - Day 1 - disk cleanup

By Fred Litt, Family Technology Associates 

Day One – Disk Cleanup

Every time you connect to the Internet or install a program, temporary ‘work’ files are created that help Windows work more efficiently.  These files are often referred to as TEMPORARY files – even thought they remain on your hard drive (the C: drive) until you remove them. 

On older PCs with smaller hard drives (under 10GB), this can be a problem as your hard drive will ‘fill up’, leaving little room for you to store additional documents or music files.  The good news is that cleaning up these files is simple and harmless.

Click START > PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > DISK CLEANUP

This will immediately begin running the Disk Cleanup program.  A small window will appear in the middle of your screen.  If you are running this for the first time, the progress bar will stop at 2 or 3 blue bars and will probably display “Scanning: Compress old Files” and do nothing for a while.  Be patient.  Very patient.  WARNING: If this process does not complete in 2 hours, cancel the process and seek professional assistance – something is wrong either with your hard drive or with Windows.

This may actually take 30 to 60 minutes.  It is highly recommended that you perform this task either overnight or during lunchtime – where you can give this process a really long time to run.   You will eventually see the following: 

Each line represents different types of file that are no longer needed and are filling up your hard drive.  Make sure all of the items are CHECKED.  Now, click OK.  The first time you do this it may take a while to complete. 

Many PC users have NEVER performed this simple maintenance operation.  Once completed, you will most likely have hundred of megabytes of additional hard drive space available.

This article may be reproduced with permission of Fred Litt, Family Technology Associates. Contact Fred at 201-315-4943 fred@FamilyTechnology.com for details.