Clean out unneeded files on your hard drive

There are two types of files you can delete to help clean up your hard drive: your old, unnecessary data files and stored temporary files. Temporary files come from Web browsing or are created when applications have problems and don’t close properly.

Many people keep too many files because they are afraid to delete the wrong file or are afraid they will delete something that they may need to look at the next week or next month. But, did you know that when you delete files, they go into the Recycle Bin and stay there until you delete files from the Recycle Bin? This allows you to recover a “deleted” file by restoring it back to its original location.

NOTE: The Recycle Bin does NOT keep a copy of any file or folder deleted from other locations (network drive, flash drive, or other).

Delete your old, unnecessary data files. Deleting these files will make it easier to find the files you want to work with. Also, you need a lot of free space (minimum of several GB) on your hard drive for temporary files created by Windows and your applications while they are running.

When you delete files from the Recycle Bin you will most likely want to delete the oldest files, for example files that were deleted more than three months ago.

1. Double-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop.
2. Click on the “Date Deleted” column heading as it is an active button. The files and folders will now be listed in chronological order.
3. Select the files (and folders) to be deleted.
   • To select consecutive files or folders, click on the first item, press and hold down the Shift key, and then click the last item.
   • To select files or folders that are not consecutive, click on the first item, press and hold down the Ctrl key, and then click each additional item.
4. Press the Delete key or right-click on any selected file or folder and choose Delete from the Shortcut menu.
5. Click Yes in the Confirm File Delete dialog box.

Delete stored temporary files. Restart your computer and exit or disable all programs running in memory. Icons for these programs are found in the system tray (right side of the Windows Taskbar with the clock, see sample at right). Be sure to disable Sophos. Instructions are provided below.

Open My Computer on the desktop or within the Windows Explorer.

1. Right-click on the Local Drive (C:) icon and select Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. Click on the “Disk Cleanup” button in the General tab area. After the calculation for amount of space finishes, you will see the Disk Cleanup dialog box.
3. In the “Files to Delete” section (see sample at right), select Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files. If you have “Downloaded Program Files,” you can also delete those.
4. Then click on OK.

After completing the deletion of temporary files, be sure to reactivate the Sophos "Enable on-access scanning for this computer" setting.

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Disable Sophos:

1. Right-click on the Sophos shield icon in the system tray.
2. In the shortcut menu Left click on Open Sophos Anti-Virus.
3. In the Sophos Anti-Virus window, click on “Configure Sophos Anti-Virus.”
4. Click on “On-access scanning.”
5. In the ‘On-access scan settings for this computer’ dialog box, uncheck the “Enable on-access scanning for this computer” option.
6. Click on OK and answer Yes to the warning message.
7. Close the Sophos Anti-Virus window. NOTE: The Sophos icon is now grayed out.

To reactivate the "Enable on-access scanning for this computer" setting, follow the above steps and "recheck" that option.

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 Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR)
 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
 Last updated October 3, 2007