how can i get more hard drive space on my laptop?

Question

i would like to make more hard drive space on my laptop i have about 15.2 out of 32.5 gig left ive done disk clean up that got my from 10.2 to 15.2 gig im doing disk defragmenter now ive deleted some stuff i don't use and ive saved my documents to sky drive what else can i do? thanks

Answer 1

Uninstall trial/demo software you don't use.. maybe move your Itunes library and/or photos to an external drive.

Answer 2

If you want to clean up more space try a program called treesize. There is a free version you can find on google that will map out your folders organized by size. It lets you easily pinpoint where you space is being used.



Otherwise you need to look into adding more disk capacity. In my opinion 32 GB isn't enough (I am barely content with 100GB on my laptop).



There are 2 solutions to this:



1) Get an external USB drive. You can buy these anywhere for pretty cheap. Just plug in the USB drive and you have another drive that you can store large files (like videos, music, pictures, etc) on (you don't usually install programs to a secondary drive like this).



These drives come in 2 types, the 3.5 inch versions are larger in capacity and generally a bit cheaper per GB, but they require that you plug them into the wall. The 2.5 inch versions are just a laptop drive in a case. The benefit here is that they are powered from the USB connection, so they are much more portable. I don't think the cost is a big issue myself. The 2.5 inch external drives range from say 50GB to 100GB on average, the 3.5 inch externals get up to 500GB or so (rough numbers).



2) Upgrade your internal hard drive. This is tricky, and usually better left to a trained technician or computer affectionato who's willing to look into software that can perform a disk to disk transfer (there's lots of it out there, but you'll need to figure out the logistics of backing up the image of your current drive and moving it to the new drive, a USB drive as mentioned in #1 is a great way to do this).



You need to look up the specifications of your laptop to know what kind of drive you have. You will probably have either:

- IDE/ATA

- SATA

The second is newer and faster. But both formats have good drives. When looking at drives the the simple common comparison points are capacity (80~120 GB is the current range of laptop drives), RPM (how fast it spins, 5400 is average, 7200 is very good), price, and, to a lesser extent, seek time (that's how fast it can look up a random piece of data).



Just get the right drive, do the transfer (or pay someone to do it for you), and voila, you've upgrade.



Personally, I think the external 2.5 inch USB drive is the best way to go for most people, I carry around 2 external 2.5 inch drives myself. A good 3.5 inch external is also great for doing home backups.

Answer 3

running disk defrag and and disk clean up will not assist you in this manor as it is only a minor option for windows.



obtaining an external hard drive is one option for you but one that you will need to deal with an extra piece of hardware. if you want to carry it around with you then by all means do so. remember that you can only save files to it and not run software from it efficiently so it is limiting in some ways.



it depends on what operating system you have for windows. vista for instance is a cpu intensive hog and will hoard a lot of space for all that graphical goodness everyone loves to see.



if you want to see what is running in the background and taking up cpu goodness from you then open the "task manager" and look at it. you will see what the system has running and what you as a user is running.



i would, however not just randomly start "ending" tasks unless you are absolutely sure you know what they are. if you are unclear, "google" it and check it out. you may find that it is a needed system process and you should not "end" that particular task.



also, look at your "cookies". i would "delete" your cookies on a regular basis though this has nothing to do with memory allocation it will increase the speed in which you surf the internet.



another option for you concerning increasing your memory is purchasing new memory for your laptop. it is not that hard to install and pretty cheap these days. i would look at http://www.newegg.com/ and see what they have. that is an excellent site and has really great prices and usually ships next day. much better than going to your local electronic store and paying about twice as much there.



hope this helps. if you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me directly.

Answer 4

You have a number of choices



Clean up space by deleting files or uninstalling programs



Get space by compressing your drive via windows utilities



Get a new hard drive to replace the current



Get a 2nd internal drive if your laptop supports it.



Get an external drive

Answer 5

Get a few 2-10 gig flash drives and use them for your major things. The small stuff like little documents leave on your laptop.

Answer 6

That really is a tiny hard drive - I'd invest in a new one and rebuild your laptop on the new hard drive . Then geting a hard drive outer case with a usb connection for your old one so you can use this as a back up device.



Go to your local PC SHOP or if your in the uk pcworld for help on how to build a new hard drive.



Good luck

Answer 7

Clean your Internet temp files. In Vista click start and in search type appdata. Click on local and then temp. Delete everything in that folder. I freed 3GB when i did this.

Answer 8

if you want more internal memory than buy a new harddrive.



as for storing stuff i would go with the external hard drive..



you can save you (movies, music, pictures, games, ect....)

Answer 9

Buy an external harddrive. They're small and can carry huge amounts of data.

Answer 10

buy an external hard drive...thats where i store almost all my programs and documents..just make sure ull bring it with the laptop everytime..

Answer 11

Joe do the followings: turn off system restore, restart computer, turn on system restore again you will get allot of space.

Answer 12

purchase an external hard drive ... u have cleaned ur laptop enuf :D ... the external hard drive will be handy n portable ;)

Answer 13

external HDD.