How to free up storage space on a hard drive in Windows 8? Step by step guide

One of the most common ills a computer faces is have little capacity on the hard disk. Therefore, it is essential for every user to know how to free up storage space on a hard drive. If you want to know what to do, continue reading this step by step guide for Windows 8.

Photos, videos, text documents and programs they occupy an immense portion of the disc. Excessive weight can cause unpleasant situations like computer slowdown.

Therefore, we want to offer you a series of tricks and useful tools to clear the hard drive quickly and easily.

Why is it important to delete unnecessary files from my PC?

Users download new content to their computers every day. On many occasions, they do not stop to delete those that are no longer used. However, you should know that it is important to delete unnecessary files from the PC for proper operation. First, free up storage space on your hard drive involves keeping only what is necessary.

Cleanings work to get rid of corrupt files or damaged, infected with viruses, junk or temporary files. In this way, you favor the maintenance of an orderly work area. Second, a hard drive with enough storage space makes the computer run more efficiently. The slowdown is minimized considerably, also you will have more memory to install programs or download new files.

Learn step by step how to free up storage space in Windows 8

View a system message that alerts you to how little space is left in HDD It can be overwhelming. However, there are many ways to recover memory quickly.

Here's how to free up storage space in Windows 8 step by step:

Checking the hard disk

Before carrying out any cleaning, it is necessary to check the available hard disk space.

To do this, carry out the following steps:

Go to the section of "Setting" and click on "Change PC settings".
Click on the button "PC and devices". Then press "Disc space".
Finally, click “Free up space on this computer”. The display shows the total capacity and how much memory is free.

Uninstall little used programs

It is likely that you no longer need to use many applications on your desktop. Old or useless programs only consume space on the computer, so it is recommended remove them.

You can do it in the following way:

From the button "Start", click on "Control Panel" and then in "Programs".
Accede to "Programs and characteristics".
Select the program that you want to delete. The vast majority of applications provide the option of "Uninstall". Some others also have the buttons "Repair" and "Change".
If the program you are looking for does not appear, you should consult the application documentation to proceed to uninstall.
If you want to delete a program from the Windows, you must access "Change PC settings" and select "Search and applications". Then tap on "Application sizes".
Select the program you want to delete and press "Uninstall".

Delete multimedia files

The accumulation of images and videos they can quickly saturate the capacity of the hard disk. For this reason, it is convenient delete or move such files. If you want to keep one, you can resort to saving it in the cloud, or move it to an external storage unit, such as a CD, DVD, USB or external disk.

However, if you want to delete it, proceed to:

Through the box of "Search", writes "This team" to open this window.
In the bar "Search this computer", introduce “Size: huge”.
Then, in necessary to display the menu "See". Click on "Sort by" and select "Size".
The first files to appear are the heaviest. You can right click on them and select "Remove".

Delete junk, temporary or duplicate files

Computers usually accumulate temporary files and junk files that end up limiting hard drive space. Therefore it is necessary to make use of the freeing up disk space to empty the memory.

The steps to follow are those:

Click on the start button. Then type "Disk Cleanup" and click on the corresponding button in the list of results.
Select the hard drive you want to clean, if prompted. Press "To accept".
A pop-up window will appear on the screen, initiating a dialogue with the user. In the descriptive box, click on "Clean System Files". You will probably need to re-indicate which drive you want to clean. Finally press "To accept".
In the next dialog box, you should check all the boxes that correspond to the files you want to delete of the computer.
If you want to delete the data of a previous installation of Windows, you need to check the box "Previous Windows Installations".
In the last dialog box, you must click on "Delete files".
Finally, return to "Equipment", select the disk you have cleaned and click "To update".

For complement the space liberator action, you can use other tools, such as CCleaner, to do a much more thorough and efficient cleaning.

Add more storage capacity

If you need more space, either for personal or work reasons, a good alternative is increase storage capacity. You can make use of a removable drive, like a device USBcard SD, CDs or DVDs, external hard drive or opt for the cloud of OneDrive.

Please note that documents saved in OneDrive may still consume space on the computer if the option to keep documents available is enabled OneDrive Without connection. To avoid this, you just have to disable this option. In this way, the files will only be available when the computer is connected to a network.

List of the best programs that will help you free up space on your PC

Even if Windows 8 It has a space liberator, you can always choose to download a program to free up the space on your hard drive.

If you have no references about it, here is a list of the best programs that will help you free up space on your PC:

CCleaner

Is a free closed source app that fulfills the function of improving the performance of computers Windows. It is one of the best known programs at present, because it is a fairly reliable space liberator.

Through CCleaner, you have the function of:

Delete temporary files and unnecessary Windows.
Clear history the browser.
Delete the data of accessories and applications.
Repair invalid entries from the Windows registry.
Adjust the programs according to user preferences for automatic system startup.

Download CCleaner Windows

Xinorbis

It is a free storage analyzer. Takes care of provide explanatory charts about the capacity of the hard drive, folders, SSD, removable drives or network. In other words, Xinorbis provides a complete overview of the content of any team. It is a tool aimed at experts in the area or administrators, but some of its functions are sufficient for the common user.

Some of its characteristics are:

Analyze the content of a wide variety of devices, even those that are connected to the network or to the PC.
Produces customized reports regarding storage space and computer performance.
Generate a copy about folder history.
It has an independent search system to locate file names, size, date and time, categories, file owner, and file attributes.
It is available in different languages.

Download Xinorbis Windows

JetClean

It is an optimizer program for Windows. It is responsible for freeing up space on the hard drive through the elimination temporary, recent documents, empty the recycle bin, clipboard, cache, error reports, among others.

Other notable functions are:

Optimize Internet connection.
It is in charge of cleaning and defragmenting the system.
Offers the possibility of managing programs for automatic start.
Improve computer performance for work activities or video games.
It is a light and easy program of using.

Download JetClean Windows

DiskMax

Like CCleaner, is an application to free up space on your hard drive. Likewise, it is also in charge of optimizing the system, regardless of the version of Windows in which it is installed. It allows you to delete the internet cache, the recycle bin, cookies, temporary files and applications that you no longer use.

Its characteristics are the following:

It has automatic emptying of the recycle bin. It also removes the remains of the facilities.
You can delete the history of each user on the computer.
Delete registry entriesas well as event logs from Windows.
You can scan in depth his HDD.
Allows you to rearrange files for easy access.

Download DiskMax Windows

CloneSpy

CloneSpy is a specialized program in deletion of duplicate files on computer. Its analysis function is in charge of scanning all the system folders to locate those duplicate files, or those that are unnecessary for the user.

Other of its functions are:

Provide information on what files should they be removed.
You can move duplicate files to a specific folder.
Informs the user, through a list, of all redundant files on the system.
Replace duplicate files with shortcuts.
It is an easy tool to use, and it is light. It works for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10.