Regaining computer hard disk drive space

Answers: Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista users Run the Disk Cleanup option 1.Open My Computer. 2.Right-click on the hard disk drive that you wish to regain hard disk drive space. For example, right-click on the C: drive. 3.Click Properties. 4.Within the General tab, click the "Disk Cleanup" button located next to the pie chart. 5.Windows will scan the computer for all files available to clean up. 6.Once in the Disk Cleanup window check each of the boxes (except "compress old files") that are taking disk space and click Ok and then Yes if you wish to proceed. Compress? When performing a Disk Cleanup you'll have an option to compress your hard drive. We strongly recommend users do not compress their hard disk drive and/or compress their old files. Additional suggestion for Windows 2000 and Windows XP users: Window 2000 and Windows XP keeps all the necessary files needed to uninstall any of the updates ever installed on your computer. Often this is several dozen updates that can take up several hundred and sometimes over 1 gig of space on your hard disk drive. See document CH000849 for additional information about these folders, how to locate them, and delete them. Disable System Restore Windows XP users can also decrease the default space utilized by Windows System Restore and often gain several additional gigabytes of hard disk drive space. See the below steps in customizing this feature. 1.Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and open "System Restore". 2.Within the System Restore window, click "System Restore Settings". 3.Within the "System Restore" tab you can either check the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" to completely disable this feature, or click the Settings button and decrease the space usage, which we would recommend. Disable hibernation If you turn your computer off instead of using hibernation mode you can disable this feature to free up a lot of disk space.