How to clean a hard drive on MacOS and improve its performance? step by step guide

Although many people do not know it, having files on the desktop of our Mac makes it run slower because you have to upload those documents first and then upload the system.

As well as this example that we mentioned above, there are many other circumstances in which our equipment works slowly. We will focus on one of those situations, and that is when there are too many “junk files”, “documents” Y “programs that we no longer use”.

All these circumstances take up space on our computer and make it work inefficiently. It is for this reason that we have prepared the following post so that you know how to clean your disk, do not miss any details of what we will present to you.

Why is it important to clean our hard drive of unnecessary files?

We recommend cleaning your computer’s hard drive for the following reasons:

to make room

Obtaining more space on our disk will not simply generate something mathematical, this has other much more notable advantages, the main and most logical would be that we could add more information to our Mac.

Another point to take into account, and encourage us to obtain more storage space, is the existence of programs that need to have a certain empty space to be able to carry out the work efficiently, usually occurs with file or backup software.

To improve performance

When we clean the unnecessary registries of our Mac we improve the performance of RAM memorythat is, since there is more space because we clean the garbage, this memory has greater capacity and performance, with this we can open several applications at the same time.

Another analysis is, when the RAM is full, the performance of the computer decreases considerably because the processor becomes slowersince it needs more time to find the data that we are requesting.

To increase disc life

While all Apple components are of excellent quality and last for a long time, when we clean up unnecessary data we help the drive have a better lifespan.

This is so because as the disk is only with the data that we need only your effort is less when doing the work.

To avoid logical errors

The Mac operating system is virtually bug-free so we should not address this issue from the point of view of data storage.

When we talk about avoid logical errors we will refer to the errors that we we can commit, that is, if we had files that are unnecessary, our work would be complicated because we would waste time finding the document we are looking for or we chose the data that has a similar name and it was not the correct one.

This happens very often when we work with spreadsheets, where the only information that varies is the month from one file to another, being able to load the data of one month in a spreadsheet of another date.

To facilitate access to information

This point is closely related to the previous one. because if we have in order all our folders in which the documents are well identified.

In addition, we are careful to eliminate everything that does not serve us, including temporary files. There will come a time when we would not have to have problems when accessing information because we would know where each data is. with which we need to work.

What documents can be considered junk?

Among the documents that can be considered garbage we are going to name the following:

Temporary files

We are going to name with this name those files that they are needed to speed up certain computer processes.

When we browse different Internet sites, or simply when we work with some software, these programs need to have certain data to be able to perform work in the best possible way.

For this they need to install files that once we close the session, they are no longer used. Thereforewhen we delete temporary files our computer processes and our documents will not be in danger because we no longer need them.

That is why we recommend you always delete temporary files.

duplicate documents

As we have mentioned before, when we have our folders or documents out of order, we run the risk of saving the same file or document twice.

This happens very often when we access Internet platforms where we download images or other multimedia files and forward them to another person.

If we do not have that application or that platform well configured, we will duplicate that multimedia filebecause we will surely have it in an image folder of that application and perhaps we can find it in another mailing or similar application.

Programs you don’t use

Many people refuse to clean programs they don’t usebut it is the best recommendation we can make because by taking up space on our disk we are making many components make an effort to be able to do the job and the results will be seen in the performance of the Mac.

Steps to get rid of junk files on your MacOS SSD

With everything that we have been mentioning to you previously in this post, it became clear that we need to permanently clean our disk.

There are different methods to get good results in removing unnecessary documents or files. For this we want to introduce you to three ways on how to get rid of junk files on a solid state drive or SSD.

Here we show you the step by step that you must do:

With CleanMyMac

The first thing we are going to need is to install CleanMyMac:

• We open the folder “Downloads”
• We select the file “DMG”
• We click on “Open”
• We drag CleanMyMac X to the folder “Applications”
• Once we have completed this process, the software will open automatically and we click on “Start”
• We select “System Junk”
• We squeeze “Analyze”
• And finally we click on “Clean up”

Download Cleanmymac macOS

removing programs

To remove programs manually from our Mac we will perform the following steps:

• We click on “finder” of the Dock
• We look for the sidebar Finder’s
• We select “Applications”
• If the application does not contain a uninstallerwe will have to drag the app to the “Paper bin” which is located at the end of the Dock
• If the program contains a uninstaller we double click on “Uninstall (the app we chose)”
• Next, we will follow the instructions that we will see on our screen

Keep in mind that those applications that, although they are uninstalled, are still in the trash.

• If we want to definitively eliminate it from the program we will have to click on the “Paper bin”
• We look for the file that we want to delete
• And we select “Unbin”

Cleaning the downloads folder

If we want to clean the downloads folder on our Mac, we will proceed as indicated below:

• We select the app “Downloads” in the dock
• Click on the file you want to delete
• We right click and a menu will be displayed
• we choose “Move to Trash”

As we told you before, the files that will go in the trash and if you do not have activated “Time Machine” and you haven’t backed up your files lately We recommend that you create a backup on an external storage device.

List of the best programs to clean your SSD in Apple MacOS

Next, we present you the best programs to be able to efficiently clean your SSD in MacOs:

MacKeeper

MacKeeper detects and definitively eliminates those files that have accumulated throughout the use of our computer. Clean cache files and other junk files with very simple steps.

It also offers among its services a smart uninstaller which allows you to manually delete those files that were hidden on your Mac.

It efficiently protects our privacy because it has a very powerful antivirus.

Download MacKeeper macOS

CleanMyMac

This optimizer for MacOs has different versions, each of them provides a more complete service than another. It has been on the market for a long time and the opinions of users guarantee the efficient service it provides.

You can download a trial version and on its website it offers us to do an analysis without having installed it.

Download Cleanmymac macOS

Dr.Cleaner

This useful program ensures a perfect functioning of our equipment. It gives us the possibility to control in real time each of the files or data that enter our Mac, being able to decide whether or not to accept its installation.

Among its most outstanding functions we can mention the antivirus that helps us to prevent spyware from being installed.

Download Dr.Cleaner MacOS

CCleaner for Mac

This cleaning software features two versions one free and one paidamong the common functions that both versions have, we can mention the attribute of permanently deleting temporary folders, the trash and any other junk files.

It can also scan for duplicate documents and blocks all cookies that remain on the Mac. In its Premium version we can add a personal configuration for this application.

Download CCleaner macOS

App Cleaner

Considered by many to be one of the best cleaners for Mac computersthe download is completely free and its installation steps are very simple as well as the steps to work in the cleaning process.

It has a very efficient tool to delete junk files, we will simply have to make a single click and they will no longer be on our computer.

Download App Cleaner macOS