Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done. PC Pitstop: Free PC Scans and Tune-up Utilities. Where's my disk space going? It's not uncommon to run out of disk space. A free utility can help tell where your disk space is going so you can determine what steps to take. Our disk drive is split into a C and a D drive which both have between 30 and 40GB on each.
We only ever save on the D drive, but the C drive is up to about 31.9GB with 540MB left available! Apart from about 5GB of photos, I can’t understand what is taking up all the memory. The memory seems to continually go down and is now getting to a critical level. I have run spyware and adware checks and deleted all critical errors, but still not been able to free up any memory. I can’t even defrag as I need 20% free to run this option. Disappearing disk space is a common scenario. Fortunately, there’s a free tool that I frequently recommend that can give us some very helpful data. TreeSize Free TreeSize Free is a free tool that will show you what’s taking up all of the space on your machine.
Download TreeSize Free from the JAM Software page and install it. Remove Optional and Probably Unnecessary Windows Vista Components. In the never-ending quest to rid your computer of unnecessary bloat, Windows Vista has a lot less options than prior versions, but you can still get rid of some of the extra Windows components that you don’t need. Open up Control Panel and go to the Programs and Features section. Find the link for “Turn Windows features on or off” (or you could just search for it) This dialog is quite self-explanatory… uncheck the things you don’t want, and hit the OK button. Depending on the version of Vista you are running you might not see everything in the list. Guidelines, Not Set In Stone Just to get you started, here’s a few tips on what an average user might want to enable or disable.
The rules will be different for everybody, depending on your applications and needs, so don’t take these as absolute. Hopefully this will help somebody! Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. JAM Software - Windows Freeware.