Did you know that one of the easiest and effective ways to speed up your gaming PC is by freeing up some space on your hard drive? But how do you free up space on your hard drive? It’s by cleaning and deleting unnecessary files or programs you are no longer using. By doing so, you allot more free space on your drive, which helps it run and process data faster.
Installing or using your disk storage up to its limit can cause serious performance issues on your computer, so it is definitely recommended that you clean your hard drive on a regular basis. Do this more often if you are experiencing lag issues or freezing. Upon doing so, you will notice a great difference in your gaming PC’s performance.
Here are ways on how to free up drive space on your Windows gaming pc:
6 Ways to Free Up Drive Space on Your Gaming PC
1 – Check the Current Disk Space on your PC.
- Go to your PC Settings. Type Settings on the Taskbar and then tap Change PC settings.
- Click PC and Devices, then select Disk Space.
- Upon clicking Disk Space, the interface will show the size of the Free Space available in your disk and the total size space used.
- You can also Free Up Space on this interface by clicking Empty Recycle Bin if there are files in there.
2 – Use Windows Disk Cleanup.
One of the easiest ways to clean and free up your drive space is by using Windows Disk Cleanup.
OPTION 1
- Go to the Start button, and type in Disk Cleanup in the search box. Tap on the program.
- If prompted, select the disk drive that you want to clean, then click OK.
OPTION 2
- A dialog box will appear, then select Clean up system files.
- Select the drive you want to clean up, then click OK.
OPTION 3
- In the Disk Cleanup interface, go to the DiskCleanup tab. Choose the checkboxes for file types that you want to delete, then click OK.
- You can also remove any data from a previous installation by selecting the Previous Windows installation(s) check box. Once the message appears, select Delete files.
- Go back to File Explorer and select Computer. Select the drive you just cleaned up, then click Refresh.
3 – Uninstall desktop apps you’re no longer using.
Desktop apps take a lot more drive space than you imagine. This is why we highly recommend uninstalling any desktop apps you are no longer using.
- To uninstall apps, go to Open and Features. Click the Start button and select the Control Panel.
- Click Programs and Features.
- Select a program that you are no longer using, then click Uninstall. Make sure to double-check the program you plan to uninstall, so you won’t have any problems in the future.
4 – Uninstall any Windows Store apps you no longer need.
Similar to Programs and Desktop Apps, Store apps also take up drive space. So if you no longer need the Windows Store app, then uninstall it.
- Go to Settings, then click on PC Settings.
- Select Search and Apps, then click on App Size to see how much space each app takes on your disk drive.
- Once you locate the app you want to uninstall, choose the app, then click Uninstall.
5 – Delete files you are no longer using.
For files that you are no longer using on your PC, then delete these files by following these steps:
- Go to the Search Box in the Taskbar and then type in This PC, then click it.
- Go to the Search This PC box in the upper-right, then enter size: huge.
- Click the View menu, and choose Sort by.
- Select Size. Files with the largest size will display at the top.
- Select the files you want to delete. Right-click the file and select Delete.
There are files that you necessarily don’t need to save on your PC, such as music, videos, or photos. You can consider moving them to removable media such as a USB drive, cloud storage, or an external drive. You will still access them on your PC by connecting to the external drive or logging into your cloud storage. Doing so won’t take up any space on your gaming PC.
6 – Add more storage on your gaming PC.
If you don’t want to delete any apps or programs on your PC, then it is highly suggested that you should add removable storage options such as external hard drives, USB, or cloud storage. Here’s an in-depth description of each additional storage option you can use:
- External Hard Drive – Almost all gaming PCs include ports to plug in external hard drives. These external hard drives provide additional storage for your files, especially video games that you want to archive but don’t want to uninstall.
- USB – USB ports are standard in all gaming PC units. Newer models actually have the USB 3.0 port, which can transfer data at a much faster rate compared to its predecessors. Do take note that you can use a USB 2.0 flash drive into the USB 3.0 port, but you can never use a USB 3.0 flash drive into a USB 2.0 port. So double-check your USB port as well as the flash drive you are planning to buy or use.
- Cloud Storage – Microsoft offers cloud storage known as the OneDrive app, which allows you to store files into the cloud or the internet. You can save your files into One Drive but make sure to sign up for Microsoft Account to do so.
- SD Cards – SD cards, also known as Secured Digital cards, have different sizes and storage capacities. Here are the different types of SD cards you can find in the market:
- SD (32.0×24 mm)
- miniSD (21.5×20 mm)
- microSD (15.0×11 mm)
- DVDs or CDs – If your gaming PC can read and write on a blank disc, you can use a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray CD to store data similar to a USB flash drive or SD.
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