Start with a little bit of house cleaning. Empty the recycle bin, then go into windows explorer and right click on a drive and find the disk cleanup button and purge everything, do this again but instead click on the clean system files and again purge all the files. Do this for each drive. (See pics 1 & 2)
Then do some digging and do some manual purging. First make sure in the folder options you have turned on (see pic 3). Delete any folders in the root directories that look like they have random file name, these are normally temp folders for software installs. (When I say purge, delete the contents of the folder and not the folder itself.) Next start digging in the drive for any "temp" folders such as C:\Users\micro\AppData\Local\Temp were micro shown here is any one of the user names for the computer and purge any files in these folders. Look also in the \Windows folder there are also temp folders sometime buried several levels down. Purge any Temporary Internet Files folders you find. Some application create their own temp folders (see pic 4) these can usually be purged or deleted as the applications will recreate as necessary.
Generally if a file is in a temp folder it can be deleted safely, some files will not delete because they are in use, just leave them alone. This assumes you are not storing your personal data and files in a temp folder (very very poor practice).
After you purge the files then empty the recycle bin again. Do these purges for each HDD that shows up on your computer. I do this house keeping routine once a month on my systems. Don't be surprised if you free up several dozen Gig of space and delete thousands of files, this is normal for a machine that hasn't been cleaned in a while (or ever). Drop me a PM if you have more questions.
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Don Wiley
GoldWingNut (a motorcycle enthusiast not a gilded fastener)
Village of Hillsborough
www.goldwingnut.com
YouTube – YouTube.com/GoldWingnut and YouTube.com/GoldWingnutProductions
Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero
Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. - Thomas Paine, 1/10/1776
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