Hard drive management practices

By deleting unneeded files from your hard drive and managing the space that is automatically allocated for saving certain files, you can help maintain the performance of the hard drive.

Checking hard drive space

In Windows, you can see a chart of the available hard drive space.

To check hard drive space:

1Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop. The My Computer window opens.

2Click the drive you want to check.

3Select File, then Properties. The drive’s properties window opens. The General tab shows you the available and used space on the drive.

Backing up files

Regularly backing up your files protects you from losing data and lets you keep fewer files on your hard drive. Back up old files to a network drive or tape drive and delete the files from your hard drive. You can use the software that came with your tape backup drive or your large capacity disk drive to back up the files.

You can also back up files by running the backup utility that came with your operating system. Refer to the software documentation or visit the online help system of your operating system for specific instructions on backing up your files.

Deleting unneeded files

By deleting unneeded files from the hard drive, you free up space on the hard drive and help improve hard-drive performance. The following sections give you some simple ways to delete unneeded files.

Deleting Windows temporary files

During normal operation, Windows constantly creates new temporary (.tmp) files. You can safely delete all but the most recent temp files. Windows will not delete a .tmp file if the file is currently in use.

72Managing Your System