PAGE CONTENT:
- Part 1. Find Out What Is Taking Up Space on Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7
- Part 2. Free Up Disk Space [4 Methods]
Something is eating my hard drive space in Windows 10, help!
'About three weeks ago, my 500GB hard drive suddenly became extremely slow and had only 50GB left.
Now the hard drive only has just 100MB left, and I can’t even open the drive to use a file quickly. It looks like something is eating my hard drive space, but I don't know what it could be.
How can I find out what's taking up space on my hard drive and resolve this issue? Can anyone help? I’m using Windows 10.'
Now the hard drive only has just 100MB left, and I can’t even open the drive to use a file quickly. It looks like something is eating my hard drive space, but I don't know what it could be.
How can I find out what's taking up space on my hard drive and resolve this issue? Can anyone help? I’m using Windows 10.'
Here is a list of problems associated with an underperforming hard drive:
- Hard drive gets full without reason.
- Hard drive is inaccessible and even not respond.
- Computer becomes slow while trying to open the hard drive.
- Windows system becomes extremely slow on a barely full hard drive.
If you are experiencing one of the listed issues, follow along to figure out what's taking up space on your hard drive and then address the problem and free up your disk space.
- Feb 03, 2020 Hello, My mac is only a MacBook Air, and i only have 121 GB in total, and my system takes up to 80 GB, and now i only have 4.68 GB left, I always check for duplicate files and I have none, I am not sure why this is happening. I also really need my disk space for Education. If anybody can help then please do so.
- Mar 09, 2011 To show you how much space say games take up here is a list of my games currently installed and taking up 29gb of the app share on my iPad. These are all bought apps, no lite versions and certainly no pirate applications. It's the main reason I'll never leave the iOS for Android because of the investment in Apps.
- Mar 01, 2019 On Android, why do apps take up so much space? So there are many reasons why Android apps can be quite sizable, often 2 or more gigabytes in size. User files, dropbox is over 4 GBs (4096 MBs) in size because I have a ton of wedding pictures dow.
Jun 10, 2020 The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps may show storage categories, such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is. Mar 05, 2016 Talking second part, I have question on up-gradation of windows 10 itself, this is just my speculation I am not technical expert. As a prerequisite of windows 10 installation, there is a need for the 7 GB space. I do not know how does it work but the whole windows 10 file size should be around this number. But it is now 46GB.
Part 1. Find Out What Is Taking Up Space on Hard Drive in Windows
There are two steps you can do to find out what is taking up space on your hard drive:
Step 1. Show hidden files on the hard drive
We have provided a complete guide with three methods to display hidden files on the hard drive.
You can refer to this page for a guide: How to Show Hidden Files on computer hard drive.
You can refer to this page for a guide: How to Show Hidden Files on computer hard drive.
Step 2. Analyze hard drive and find what's eating up hard drive space
Here we’ll use Windows 10 as an example to show you how to find out what’s taking up space on your hard drive.
The provided method can also be applied to Windows 8.1/8/7:
The provided method can also be applied to Windows 8.1/8/7:
1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Settings'.
2. Click 'System', then click 'Storage' on the left-side panel.
3. In the Storage window, you’ll get a view of the space usage situations on all your hard drive partitions as shown in the image below:
4. Then click on a nearly full hard drive partition.
You’ll be able to see what’s taking up the most space on the partition.
You’ll be able to see what’s taking up the most space on the partition.
So how to thoroughly free up disk space and make the computer fast? Continue on to Part 2, and you’ll learn the right method to free up disk and speed up your PC.
Part 2. Free Up Disk Space [4 Methods]
After finding up what's is taking most space on your hard drive, you can follow the provided methods here for help:
Method 1. Remove junk files/large useless files
If you've found that the hard drive space is taken up by many temporary files or useless large files, EaseUS Tools M is an ideal tool.
It supports cleaning up all hard drive partitions in Windows 10, 8 and 7 with its System Optimize Tool by cleaning up junk files and large files. Install it on your PC now to quickly clear up space on your hard drive and improve the computer performance:
It supports cleaning up all hard drive partitions in Windows 10, 8 and 7 with its System Optimize Tool by cleaning up junk files and large files. Install it on your PC now to quickly clear up space on your hard drive and improve the computer performance:
Step 1. DOWNLOAD and install EaseUS Tools M. Select 'System Cleanup' on the main screen.
Step 2. Select the type of junk files you want to scan and click 'Analyze'.
Step 3. Identify and select useless files and click 'Clean up' to remove those files from your PC or laptop.
You may also click Clean Large Files to remove useless large files.
Method 2. Free up space by storing files on another hard drive or the cloud
If you have some important large files that are occupying big space on a hard drive, you can try one of the tips below:
Tip 1: Add a new disk to your PC, move and store files to the new disk.
Tip 2: Store files to an external storage device.
Tip 3: Store files to a cloud account.
Tip 4: Back up big files into an image with a compressed format, which will save almost a half space on your disk.
Method 3. Transfer programs, apps, and games to another hard drive
If your hard drive is full of installed programs, applications and games, you can change the install location of these programs.
How to do that?
How to do that?
You may follow this page for a guide: Transfer installed program to a new hard drive.
Method 4. Manually clean up hard drive
This method is based on Step 2 in Part 1: manually cleaning after checking what’s taking up space on the hard drive.
You can continue and follow the tips below to manually clean up a hard drive by removing temporary files, useless apps, etc.
You can continue and follow the tips below to manually clean up a hard drive by removing temporary files, useless apps, etc.
Step 1: Click each hard drive partition, check what is taking space on your disk.
Let's take C drive for example: Click C drive and figure out what’s taking up space.
Step 2: Clear apps, programs, files, etc that are taking up space on hard drive.
Click each category and remove useless apps, files, etc.
Repeat the process again until all the hard drive partitions are checked and freed up of useless data.
Now you've learned to check what is taking up space on your Windows hard drive and methods to clear and speed up hard drive. However, there is no one-for-all solution. These problems will return again, so remember to use these methods to clear up your disk regularly.
Optimised Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, films, email attachments and other files that you rarely use are stored in iCloud automatically. Each file stays exactly where you last saved it, and will download when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimised versions of your photos.
* If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac and then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. This button is only available in macOS Sierra or later.
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimising your storage. If some recommendations have already been turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Why Do My Apps Take Up So Much Space Mac Os
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button and then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimised) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50 GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimise Storage
Click the Optimise button, then choose from these options.
- Automatically remove watched films and TV programmes. When storage space is needed, films or TV programmes that you have purchased from the iTunes Store and have already watched will be removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a film or TV programme to download it again.
- Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you have recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
- Don't automatically download attachments. Mail only downloads an attachment when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.
Optimising storage for films, TV programmes and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Bin Automatically
Empty Bin Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Bin for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Reduce Clutter helps you to identify large files and files you may no longer need. Click the Review Files button and then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation or Bin.
You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Why Are My Apps Taking Up So Much Space On Mac
Learn how to re-download apps, music, films, TV programmes and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control these settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimise Mac Storage setting on the right. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud and then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimise Mac Storage settings. - In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences and then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimise Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Files. Optimise Storage selects “Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes”.
In macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Advanced. Optimise Storage selects “Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes”. - In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimise Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Bin Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Bin Automatically selects “Remove items from the Bin after 30 days”.
Other ways that macOS automatically helps to save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimised Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
- Music, films and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, films and TV programmes from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Bin, then emptying the Bin. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you may no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Deleted Items mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
- The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps may show storage categories, such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file only frees up the space required by any data that you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimise Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.