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How to clean a hard disk in Windows 10 and improve its performance? Step by step guide

How to clean a hard disk in Windows 10 and improve its performance? Step by step guide

Have we ever thought that the slowness of our computer , which has the Windows 10 operating system installed, is due to its obsolescence and this results in , a slow Internet connection.

This is not necessarily so , although it may happen that our computer is slow due to the old age of its components, but it may also be slow because we have not cleaned our disk for some time hard.

In this post we will refer to the concepts and steps you should know to efficiently clean a hard drive.

Why is it important to clean our hard drive from junk files?

There are different reasons and advantages for which we recommend cleaning your computer. Here are the most important ones:

To make space

Logically having more space generates the benefit of being able to install programs that, perhaps, we could not add to our computer if we did not have the necessary space.

And if there is the possibility of installing them, some software needs to work with extensions, which often generate incompatibilities due to not having enough space.

Other advantages that we can name is that with space we do not lose our objective at work when we can search for a specific file .

To improve performance

This serves us both for startup and for processes in general . If we clean our disk we are benefiting the RAM, since it contains all those files or data that we need most frequently.

When we remove garbage files, we are also clearing space in RAM, which brings as a benefit that it will work better and more efficiently because it can deliver better information and faster.

To increase disk life

When we save information, it is hosted anywhere on the disk where it found a place on the disk . When we request information that is stored in that document, the hard disk begins to spin until, thanks to other components, the requested information is found.

Cómo limpiar un disco duro en Windows 10 y mejorar su rendimiento

If we clean and fragment the disk, what we are doing is excluding the information that does not work for us and ordering all that we are going to use , with this we will achieve that the disk, when We want to extract information, turn less times because the information will find it faster. The less the disk works, the more useful life it will have .

To avoid logical errors

Duplicate files are often created in the operating system , when we request information from any of these files the system enters into a processing conflict. If we clean those duplicate files we will avoid logical errors in the system.

Another point to keep in mind is that when we decide to uninstall the files we don’t use, our level of human error decreases because the focus will be on the necessary files .

To facilitate access to information

When we work with our computer, without us noticing we leave trash installed that does not serve any special function .

If we request information from the hard drive, and it is full, it will take longer to provide that information because it will have more work to search through the different files that exist.

Logically, if we delete the garbage, the disk will have less work and in less time you will find the requested file .

What documents may be considered unnecessary?

Within the files that we consider trash or that are not necessary for the proper functioning of our computer we can recommend that you delete the following :

Temporary files

Cómo limpiar un disco duro en Windows 10 y mejorar su rendimiento

When a program cannot generate or allocate enough memory for the tasks it must perform, it generates a file, which we will call “ temporary files ”.

These files, which are often backup copies, generally have the extension «.TMP» or the «~» character. For Microsoft operating systems there is a special folder where they are hosted and we find it as «/ tmp» .

The functions of these files once the program has been closed or the operating system has already performed the correct processes, are useless, therefore, we must delete them .

Duplicate documents

When we share our files with other people and often generate changes in our documents or simply make updates, the previous version is no longer useful and therefore we should delete it and save the last one with the corrections done.

With the rhythm of work that we have or the time that we dedicate to studies, many times we delete the duplicate files, we ignore it, generating as a result having the same file in two or more places.

This information takes place on the disk, which makes it slower to the computer. That’s why we recommend cleaning each of these records, although you have to be very careful because sometimes they have the same name, but not the same information . This happens very often with images that we download with default program names.

Programs you don’t use

It is a very common and recurring theme in each of our computers, we keep files or programs in which we will not use it anymore because our work or study is over in relation to that data .

As you know, this data considerably reduces the performance of our computer equipment, for this reason we recommend you delete them in a conscious way, since it is often very difficult to recover the information that you thought you would not use anymore.

Steps to clean your SSD and improve its performance in Windows 10

To clean a solid state disk with Windows 10 operating system and to improve performance we will have to perform these steps according to the tool we choose:

With the disk cleaner

When we clean through software designed to clean the hard drive of our computer, we save a lot of time and work because these programs do all the tasks for us.

For this example we have used the Easy Duplicate Finder program and we can follow the following steps:

  • In the Google search engine we write «Easy Duplicate Finder»
  • We click on the link where this page appears
  • Choose «Download for Windows»
  • Once it has been installed in software then we will click «Start analysis»
  • The program He will say that it may take a few minutes and he will ask us if we agree, for which we press eachOkpointed
  • And after a while, we will see all the temporary and duplicate files that suggests that we remove
  • At this moment we click on «Accept» to finish cleaning

With CMD

If we choose to use a Windows CMD command we will have to follow these steps :

  • We click on clearlyHome started
  • We select subsequentlyExecute that
  • When the «Open» we will type the following command
  • «c: windows SYSTEM32 cleanmgr.exe / dDrive»
  • Press ” Enter

The drive position marker represents the drive or letter of the hard drive we want to clean.

Uninstalling programs

Windows gives us the possibility to uninstall the programs manually, for this we will perform the following procedure:

  • We go to clearlyHome started
  • We choose chosenMenu where
  • Write «Panel Control »
  • We choose the application
  • We click on permittedPrograms where
  • Select « Uninstall a program »
  • We choose the program we want to uninstall
  • We click on « Uninstall or change »
  • We choose importantYes where
  • Select subsequentlyNextly
  • Click “Accept”

List of the best programs to keep your SSD clean in W10

The advantage we have when we use this kind of cleaners, in addition to doing the work for us , is that with the installation we get other benefits, for example, antivirus, cookie blockers, permanent maintenance and warnings against navigation risks.

Cómo limpiar un disco duro en Windows 10 y mejorar su rendimiento

Next, we will name you the best software to keep your solid state disk clean with Windows 10 :

CCleaner

This PC cleaner brings three products to offer one free, one professional and one Premium level.

Among the functions they offer is to control applications that use many computer resources and delete cookie tracking files. It offers a complete cleaning and power to recover lost files.

Provides the possibility of always having the software updated are, all you have to do is enter your page and download the latest update.

Download CCleaner Windows

AVG TuneUp

This program was developed not only to clean our computers but also to provide one of the most powerful antivirus on the market.

The free version and a pay, which provide among other things a virus protection and a permanent analysis on the PC performance, suggesting to eliminate files that make the operation decrease considerably.

Download AVG TuneUp Windows

Clean Master

It is an application that can be downloaded for free and is designed to maintain the operation of our PC in a correct way as it constantly analyzes all the files that can damage the hard disk and also uses a antivirus that increase our privacy.

Download Clean Master Windows

Advanced System Care

Considered by many as a very good hard disk cleaner because it completely removes and uninstalls all those software and plugins that have been installed when we surf the Internet. The download is completely free and its handling is very simple.

Download Advanced System Care Windows

WinUtilities Free

It has two versions, one free and one paid , in which they offer us a lot of applications that we can make with this software.