Optimizing hard drive space notes.
I have been running out of hard drive space and my systems has seemed to be getting slower. The following notes are a few tips to help optimize your hard drive. After I applied these tips I was able to recover about 10% of my hard drive space and also my systems seems to be running faster. Many thanks to Brian for some of the tips.
- Decrease the disk space used for temporary internet files in Internet Explorer
- Go to tools
- Internet options
- Click on the button Temporary internet files settings
i. Decrease the disk space used to lowest 30 mb
- Make sure the virtual memory does not become fragmented.
- Right click on My Computer
- Select properties
- Select Advanced
- Performance options
- Virtual Memory change
i. Change the maximum size to initial size. This makes sure that the memory does not become fragmented. If it already is fragmented then there is some complicated steps of moving and reading the virtual memory to get back together. If the system runs out of virtual memory then you will be prompted to increase the size. Do not let the system add it or it can become fragmented.
- Windows Explorer offline files
- In windows explorer select the tools on the menu
- Select folder options
- Select offline file (this is a strange place for this option.)
i. Drop the amount of disk space for temporary files
ii. Remove check from checkbox “Synch all offline files”
- Reduce recycle in size
- Right click on recycle bin
- Select properties
- Reduce the size of the recycle bin to 1 or 2%
- Minimize Outlook
- Move items to archive files
i. You can set up many different file for each folder in outlook
- Right click on “Personal Folders”
- Select properties
- Advance
i. Select compact now.
1. This will decrease the size of the outlook.pst file. If you have not done it for a while then this may take some time.
- Defrag hard drive
After you have completed all the above steps your system should run better and not waste space on the hard drive.
