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Step-By-Step: Reclaim Hard-Drive Space

Windows utilities help you delete unwanted files, apps, and OS components; convert to FAT32; adjust your browser cache; and defrag your hard drive.

Stan Miastkowski

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Today's hard drives feature jaw-dropping amounts of space. But no matter how big your drive, you'll be amazed at how quickly application installs, browser caches, and temporary files can eat up your free space and clutter your system. Some simple hard-drive cleaning measures can free up valuable disk space and get rid of applications and data files that you no longer use or want.

A raft of commercial utilities can help clear disk space, but you don't need to lay down the bucks to get the job done. Windows has an array of built-in tools for doing a thorough drive cleaning. You can sweep away many megabytes--and sometimes even gigabytes--of unneeded files.

As always, before you begin, do a complete backup of your system.

Stan Miastkowski is a contributing editor at PC World. Address your questions to him at stan_miastkowski@pcworld.com.

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