Why can't we get rid of unwanted, non accessible files from the hard drive of a computor?

Question

It amazes me that one's hard drive can fill up and yet there is no way to clean it without formatting the drive.
If a file is there why can't I locate and use it or remove it.
As you may guess I know little about the inner workings of a computor but as a user I would like to be in control of it, this does not appear to be the case at present.
Imagine having a tape recorder that didn't allow you to erase old tracks.

Louise:
No you're not right and I resent you believing that to be the case.
You strike me as one of those lonely females that believe that all men are sexual deviants.
I feel very sorry for you.

Answer 1

Clean Disk is the First thing I would try; this utility will get rid of pretty much any junk file you want to dispose of.
If you are talking about any "excess" programmes, you can o that in the Windows Customisation section of ADD/Remove.
There are a lot of utilities available that will either compress little use files, or get rid of old files. One big problem is DLLs that get installed but become unnecessary after the programme is deleted. There are a variety of DLL cleanup programmes, which you should be able to see at ZD Net.

Answer 2

To be able to do that you would need to know exactly what every file on your hard drive is used for. If you can remember or find out with 200,000+ files are used for then you can delete what might not be used again. Alot of those files have more than 1 use as well so you cant really be sure that you are deleting something that will never be needed.

The best thing would be to get a bigger hard drive and not have to worry about it. The average home user will not fill a 120Gb hard drive unless they start downloading lots of files off of the internet or they have children that like to download alot of music/video files as well.

Answer 3

Its seem to me that you have not used your disk clean up in accessories diskcleanup and you haven't downed a program called wash and go that will clean unwanted or in correctly stored files. When was the last time you use defragment there are a lot of file cleaners out there, also buy a usb pen and copy files and then delete from HD this will free up space for you,

Answer 4

define "unwanted, non accessible files "

you have to be careful what you consider as unwanted & non accessible files. some of them are made that way as to prevent damage to your operating system. if you could be more specific as to what files you are referring to, it would be more helpful to give accurate answers...

Answer 5

Of course its nothin to do with the fact you're worrying about those dirty sites you keep looking at aren't you. you know its all there and want the peace of mind of knowing its been cleaned off so that you can sleep better at night without the fear of your wife accidentlly finding those pesky file. Am I right