Cleaning up Computer Storage

Inside of your PALCS computer is a "hard drive" that stores data. By default your storage is split into two "Drives." The "C" drive and the "D" drive. The "C" or OS drive is where Windows is installed and where most of the programs are installed. The "D" or Data drive is what stores your data (all your downloads, pictures, documents, etc.). It is normal for the "C" drive to appear nearly full. It only requires a little bit of extra space (a few GBs/Gigabytes) to work normally. So as long as it is not completely full your computer should function normally.

If your D drive is close to full, you may want to clean up your personal files. (We would recommend uploading any files you want to keep into your Google Drive (Google Drive Overview)

The first place we would recommend checking is your "Downloads" folder. Click on the start menu at the bottom left and then select the "Downloads" option on the left side.

This will show you any files that you have downloaded to your computer. Look through these files and see if you no longer need them. If you've had the computer for awhile you might have a lot of files here that you've downloaded. Save what you need/want and delete what is no longer needed.

You might also want to check your "Documents" and "Pictures" folders as those often have larger files as well.

 

 

Cleaning up the "C" Drive

There are a few tools that are built into Windows that can help clean up your hard drives a little bit. The first thing we would suggest checking is to make sure there isn't any pending Windows Updates. Sometimes if there are pending updates it will take up extra room on the C drive until the update is applied.

Another thing to try is to clear your browser's cache ( How do I clear my internet browser cache? )

There are a few other places you can check/clean up the storage. On the desktop there should be a "This PC" icon. Double click on that and it should open a "File Explorer" window.

From there, right click the "C" drive and select "Properties."

Click on the "Disk Cleanup" option.

Then click on the "OK" option.

This should clean up some background / temporary files that are not needed.

Another place you can check is in the Windows settings. Right click on the Start menu at the bottom left of the computer and select "Settings."

Click on the "System" option.

Then navigate to the "Storage" option on the left. Click on "Configure Storage Sense or run it now."

At the bottom of this new screen, click on "Clean Now."

When it is complete it will show a success screen with how much space has been freed up.

Again, the C drive does NOT need a lot of space to function normally. As long as there is more than 1-2 Gbs of space it should operate normally.