How to clean a computer hard drive

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

The hard drive which is bloated is the major cause for many headaches when trying to perform or complete any of the tasks. Over the period of time, hard drive gets occupied with unnecessary stuff. The computer requires empty space on hard drive for the operating system to function properly; like swap file requires empty space for standby utility. Definitely, the functioning of the system slows down tremendously when sufficient space is not there on the hard drive. One can also clean the hard drive manually or one can also use the free programs on Internet to clean bloated hard drive so that the performance of the computer can speed up. Hard drive can be cleaned whenever one wishes to do so.

Materials Needed:
- Deleting temporary files
- uninstalling unused components
- temporary internet files
- delete other files
Step 1
CC Cleaner: CC cleaner is the free program that can be used to remove excess files, temporary folders, cookies on the computer. As we surf the internet the computer stack ups the files after few days which slows down the speed of the computer considerable. This problem leads the computer to boot slowly & load programs at a slow rate of speed. This program can be downloaded easily from many websites.
Step 2
Install the downloaded program & run it. Open the application and click the cleaner applications/icons. Check programs that need to be removed from the hard drive. For example: Cookies, history, Temporary internet files, delete index, Dat files, last downloaded files, recently used URL’s, Auto complete from history. In windows explorer click the options that needs to be removed and now select system, Advanced. One can also delete the unused components by going to control panel->add/ remove programs->add/ remove windows components button-> click the boxes that needs to be removed->press Ok. One can also delete the files with extensions like .bak, .dmp, .cnt, .old, .$$$, .000,.fts. One can delete these files in the recycle bin and if the computer does not give any problem for week or two then one can empty recycle bin. In case if the computer asks for the file then right click on the file in the recycle bin and select restore. This option will put the file on its original position).
Step 3
Select Analyze Computer: This program will return the results of how many megabytes have been cleared up. Select cleaner, click on it (this process may take from few seconds to few minutes). Close the program once the cleaning process is done. This program will remove the suspicious programs, malware, unwanted programs and cleans up the registry too.