Storage capacity

Question

I have got my storage capacity loaded up to 95%. I acutely need to clean up it. In order to do it I need to understand what type of files are in my storage – to sort all those files by certain categories. What applications can I use to do it besides Windows Settings tools? Which of them are the most efficient for my purpose? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Thanks for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

You can use TreeSize software to analyze the storage space on your device. This program allows you to see detailed information about the folders and files that occupy the most space. You can download and install TreeSize from the following link: Get TreeSize TreeSize provides accurate data on the sizes of folders and files in your storage, helping you quickly identify what elements are taking up the most space. With this information, you can make decisions to clean up and optimize your storage space. Please ensure that any software recommendations or downloads align with your security standards and come from official and reliable sources.

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Answer 2

I usually recommend starting with the Clean Manager (cleanmgr.exe) tool built into Windows, which is a much safer option to begin with than removing folders that TreeSize may point out as bloated and potential candidates for deletion.

The next step is to clean up unused Windows update and patch files. Unfortunately, you can not do it using built-in tools, but there is a free and open-source option called Patch Cleaner: https://www.homedev.com.au/Free/PatchCleaner.

If the storage gets full on the data disk rather than the system disk, you may enable deduplication and/or compression on that volume. It does not significantly impact performance on SSD/NVMe drives and gives stunning storage savings sometimes, depending on what kind of data you are dealing with. You may estimate your potential storage savings using a free tool called Deduplication Analyzer https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-deduplication-analyzer.