my c drive is constantly full i cant seem to empty any of it it says i have to many fragmented files what do i do to solve it
2007-02-26 19:35:07 · 8 answers · asked by pickyminx 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
Defragment.
Go to My Computer, right-click on the C drive, click Defragment in the Tools tab.
It won't give you more space, but it makes it faster.
Good Luck. And please rate me as best answer. -_-
2007-02-26 19:38:52 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
When you delete files from your hard drive, they're not actually removed. The computer just deletes the record of where the file was. That's why files can take a long time to copy onto a disk, and just a second to delete.
When you need to save another file, the computer considers the old places where deleted files were located to be the same as blank space, and just writes over the sectors, filling in whatever space is available. If there isn't enough space in one spot on the disk, the file is broken into pieces and stored in multiple locations (fragmented).
Windows comes with a program called Disk Defragmenter, and there are many other utilities that will do the job for you.
There's one sad fact, though - in order to defragment your disk, you need to have sufficient free space to allow the computer to make temporary copies of the files as it moves them around. If your disk is completely full and badly fragmented, you'll need to copy some of your files onto another disk, delete as many files as you can, and then run the defragmenter. Even then, you may have to run the program more than once to get any kind of benefits.
As a rule, you never want to fill a hard disk completely. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least 10% of your total disk space empty, regularly throw away files you're not using, and deframent your disk about once a month (more or less often, depending on how you use your computer).
Good luck!
2007-02-27 03:47:45 · answer #2 · answered by Epistomolus 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When most versions of windows writes a file to the hard drive, it takes the first available space to write it, and if there isn't room for all of the file, it will jump to the next open spot, and so on and so forth. After a while, with adding and deleting files, there are HUGE amounts of files that are spread physically all over the drive - these are called fragmented files.
You fix this by running the disk defragmenter, and it will re-organize everything for you - but it can take a looooooooong time if the drive is highly fragmented.
Since you say your drive is constantly filling up, defrag may not even run - it needs lots of extra space to work while it's re-arranging the files. Your best bet would be to get a new hard drive to replace the full one, or get an additional drive to put all your data on - but only your personal files, not the ones used by windows or your programs.
You can also help prevent some fragmentation by putting IE's cache size down to like 10MB instead of the huge number that's in there now. This will save a little bit of space, but it looks like right now, every little bit is important.
2007-02-27 03:43:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Firtly, you need to delete any files you no longer need. Then delete any programs you no longer need (by going into Control Panel and clicking on 'Add/Remove Programs).
Then you open 'Defragmenter' which you can access through the 'Help' icon on your start menu.
Depending on how long ago you last did this it could take quite some time. I often leave it to do this while I go off to do something else away from the computer. You should really aim to tidy up your files about every week or so to keep things running smoothly.
2007-02-27 04:58:29 · answer #4 · answered by Maggie A 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
press start, control panel, performance & maintenance, then select rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster, select your C drive then click defragment. Fragmented files are caused when files are deleted then added, causing them to be spread about on your hard disk. Defragment will put the clusters of files back into one place making it easier and faster for your pc to read them.
2007-02-27 03:44:25 · answer #5 · answered by steve0967 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Defragment your drive - Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Defragmentation.
2007-02-27 03:39:06 · answer #6 · answered by Robert W 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good answers below, but I believe Windows defragmenter requires 15% free space.
2007-02-27 04:55:00 · answer #7 · answered by pocbr 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
defragment the files
2007-02-27 03:59:45 · answer #8 · answered by wise 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋