Managing Disk Space of Windows Operating System

You frequently need to free up your hard disk space to make space for you to work on your machine, in order to work efficiently on your machine. With insufficient disk space on your machine, you will find that the machine takes a lot of time to complete a task. It may even become unresponsive to any input from your side, or as we say it may go into a hang.

Determining the Disk Space

Using Windows Explorer you can determine the available disk space on your computer. Normally you create files and store them on the hard disk. However, if you use up the whole of the disk space, you will not be able to work on the computer.

To determine the available disk space you can:

1. Double click the My Computer icon in Windows Explorer
2. Place your mouse pointer on the disk you want to check. For example, you can check the space available in the (C:) drive. A tool tip will appear showing the total capacity and the amount of free disk space on that drive. The following figure depicts this:

Alternatively, select Properties from the File menu. The Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box is displayed.

You can observe from the above figure that the free space available on the hard disk is only 13 GB. The pie chart is a graphical representation of the utilization of the disk space, This is an indication that you need to free some space on your hard disk or you will not be able to work efficiently on your computer if you are starting a new project.

To avoid the above problems you can use different methods to make space on your machine. Let us discuss some methods that you can use.

Empty the Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin as discussed earlier is a folder that store deleted files. You can either restore files deleted by mistake from the Recycle Bin or permanently remove them. If the deleted files are not removed from this bin, they occupy unnecessary space. When you delete files, the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full. Files removed from the Recycle Bin are permanently deleted from the machine and cannot be restored. Files deleted from a floppy disk are permanently deleted without being sent to the Recycle Bin.

Windows allocates one Recycle Bin for each hard disk. If you have more than one hard disk. Windows enables you to specify a different size of a Recycle Bin for each hard disk.

To empty the deleted files from the Recycle Bin use the following steps:

1. Double click on the Recycle Bin icon (shown above) on the Desktop. The Recycle Bin window will be displayed.

2. Select Empty The Recycle Bin from the Recycle Bin Tasks in the left pane of the window.

Windows XP moves all deleted objects – files, folders, shortcuts and printers – into the Recycle Bin as a precautionary measure. In case a file is deleted accidentally, you can double click on the Recycle Bin icon and move the file(s) back to their original location by selecting the Restore this item or Restore all items from the Recycle Bin Tasks.

Reduce Space Occupied by the Recycle Bin

You can free up some more space in the hard disk by reducing the space used by the Recycle Bin. The steps are:

1. Click on the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop.
2. Right click on the icon and select Properties from the shortcut menu. The Recycle Bin Properties dialog box is displayed.
3. Select Configure Drives Independently to reduce the size of each Recycle Bin on different drives. Use one setting for all drives is use to configure the same setting for all drives.
4. Click Local Disk (G:)
5. Move the slider to the left to reduce the space occupied by the Recycle Bin on drive G:

Using Disk Cleanup

Windows XP automatically creates temporary files when certain applications are opened. These files are needed till the time the application is running but are not required once you close the application. These files occupy unnecessary space on the machine. They are typically stored in the Temp or Tmp folders.

In Windows XP, the Disk Cleanup utility helps in freeing up space on your hard drive. It searches the selected drive for temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that can be safely deleted.

To open the utility use the following steps:

1. Click Start and select All Programs.
2. Select Accessories->System Tools and click on Disk Cleanup. The Select Drive dialog box is displayed.
3. Select the drive on which you want to use the Disk Cleanup utility in the above dialog box.
4. Click Ok. The Disk Cleanup box is displayed.

The utility searches the specified drive for unnecessary file and displays the Disk Cleanup for the drive dialog box.

5. Check the required option in the Files to delete section. For example, if you select Compress old files and click OK, after asking for a confirmation of the action the following message box will appear:
6. Alternatively, click the More Options tab in the Disk Cleanup dialog box. The following figure is displayed.
7. Click on the required option and click OK.

In the above dialog box, you can remove unnecessary programs or windows components or system restore points except the recent one. Windows XP allocates 12 per cent of the disk space to system Restore by default. System Restore is used to archive restore points. A restore point is a representation of the stored state of your computer/

Using Disk Compression on a Drive

You can also compress a drive to free more disk space. Drive compression decreased the disk space used by all files and folders stored on the drive.

You can compress a drive with the following steps:

1. Double click My Computer and select the drive you want to compress.
2. Right click the drive and select Properties from the shortcut menu that appears.
3. Check the box Compress Drive to Save Disk Space option.
4. Click Apply. The Confirm Attribute Change dialog box is displayed.
5. Select the required option and click OK.
6. Click OK in the main Properties window.

Using Disk Defragmentation

Defragmentation is the process of rewriting parts of a file to adjacent sectors on a hard disk; this results in increasing the speed of access and retrieval of the file. Generally, when a file is updated, the computer tends to store the changes on the next available space on the hard disk that may not necessarily be next to he other parts of the file. Thus, when the file is fragmented in this manner, the retrieval time of the file increase, as the copartner needs the search for all parts of the files in different sectors.

The Disk Defragmenter utility consolidates fragmented files and folders on computer’s hard disk. This results in each file occupying single contiguous space on the drive. Defragmentation will increase the efficiency of access and retrieval of the files and folders. The free space of the drive is also defragmented so that new files are stored without fragmentation.

Use the following steps to defragment a drive:

1. Double click My Computer and select the drive you want to defragment.
2. Right click the drive and select Properties from the shortcut menu that appears.
3. Click on the Tools tab in Properties sheet of the drive. The following figure ins displayed.
4. Click on Defragment Now under Defragmentation. The Disk Defragmenter is displayed.
5. Click Analyze from the Action menu.

The Disk Defragmenter will analyze and defragment the drive. If the analysis recommends that the drive should be defragmented then use the Defragment option. The Disk Defragmenter will be displayed as shown in the following figure: