If you constantly see the warning “Low disk space”, it might be time to free up some space on your laptop. See how you can find out what is taking up space on your computer or your Mac and what you can do with your files to free up space.
Analyze your hard drive
Before you start deleting, you need to locate the folders that actually occupy space. Deleting a batch of 50 MB files won't make any difference compared to clearing an 80 GB folder of old TV shows or uninstalling some games.
If you’re using a Windows 10 PC, open Settings > System > Storage to see an analysis of your drive and the folders taking up the most space. You can click on any category to see more information, especially the “Other” category, which will show you individual folders containing large files. Find things you no need and get rid of them – it’s not always easy, but it’s the best thing you can do to free up space.
If you're a Mac user, you can analyze your drive by clicking the Apple menu in the top left corner and going to About This Mac > Storage. Click the Manage button and you'll see different categories in the sidebar that you can select from. Right-click on files to delete them, and empty the Trash when you're done.
If these processes seem very simple to you, third‑party alternatives such as WinDirStat and Disk Inventory X can “dig” even deeper to find out exactly which folders and files are using your storage space.
Cleaning temporary and duplicate files
Both Windows and macOS store temporary files, like thumbnails, old update packages, or cached internet files that you can delete to free up space. However, even if you delete them, these files eventually end up back on your laptop, as that’s how the system works – these caches help your computer run faster. So while this can free up a little extra space, it’s not a permanent solution.
In Windows 10, click the Start menu and search for Disk Cleanup. You'll be given a list of files you can delete, at which point you can simply click OK to free up space – or click “Clean Up System Files” for a few more options.
A new feature called Storage Sense can do some of the above automatically. Head back to Settings > System > Storage and at the top, click the Configure Storage Sense link. This will give you a few options, like deleting temporary files older than a certain date or moving rarely used files to OneDrive. Flip the switch at the top to On when you're done and choose how often you want Storage Sense to run.
Mac computers don't have a similar tool for cleaning up temporary files, but Windows and Mac users can run free programs like CCleaner to perform these tasks. Most of these files will come back anyway.
Finally, be careful not to delete system files from your laptop, such as Windows' hiberfil.sys, which saves the contents of your system during hibernation, or System Restore, which allows you to restore your system if problems. Both of these features can be disabled to save space, but they are quite useful so we wouldn't recommend deleting them, especially for less advanced users.
Transfer files to an external drive or to the Cloud
If you find files you're not ready to get rid of yet, you might be able to move them somewhere else. There's no need to waste valuable storage space on your laptop by keeping these files —put them on an external drive or upload them to a cloud storage service like Dropbox or OneDrive. Windows can automatically move unused files to OneDrive using its Storage Sense feature. Just remember that if you use a service like Dropbox, it might sync these files to your computer automatically, so you'll need to go into the program and deselect these files so they're stored in the cloud.
If you use the external drive option, just remember that you will also need to create backups of these files to the cloud if they are truly important to you – it is useful to have another backup somewhere in case something happens.
Replace your hard drive
As you understood, most of these solutions are temporary. The temporary files will return, cloud storage will fill up and you will continue collecting music, movies and other files. You can repeat this process on the laptop every few months, but eventually you will get tired – or you will exhaust the things you are willing to delete. So, once you start encountering this warning “Disk full”, you know that you will probably need a larger unit in the somewhat near future.
Source of information: wired.com
