Have you ever been frustrated by your PC’s inability to run the latest games because of a lack of free space? You’re not alone. Games can take up a lot of storage space and over time, even the most mammoth of hard drives can become overwhelmed by downloaded games, patches and other unnecessary bloat. The good news is, there are plenty of ways you can free up a lot of hard drive space and get your gaming PC running like new again.
The first and probably the most obvious way to free up hard drive space on a gaming PC is to uninstall unwanted games and applications. This might seem like an obvious solution, but it’s surprising how many people forget to do this. It’s also a good idea to check your installed programs list for any unwanted software that you can easily uninstall.
Another way to free up hard drive space is to move any downloads you don’t need or use anymore off your PC and onto an external hard drive or cloud storage. You don’t need to delete these files completely; just move them off of your hard drive so they’re not taking up valuable storage space. You can also store your Steam games on an external hard drive by right-clicking on the game and selecting ‘Properties’. After that, you can select the ‘Local Files’ tab and set your downloads to go to another location.
If you’re still struggling with free space, you can try a system maintenance tool. These tools are designed to clean the hard drive of temporary files, files in the recycle bin, internet browsing history and other junk. This can free up a large amount of hard drive space, but make sure you back up your files before you use a tool like this as you don’t want to accidentally delete anything important.
You can also compact your hard drive. This is a common problem that can occur as Windows creates and deletes files, leaving “holes” in the hard drive. Compacting the drive can fix this issue, and also free up a significant amount of space on your PC. To do this, you need to open the ‘Disk Cleanup’ utility, select the drive you want to compact and let it run.
Lastly, you can also defragment your hard drive. Fragmented drives can take longer to access the data, so defragmenting can speed up your PC slightly. As an added bonus, you may find that it frees up a small amount of hard drive space as well.
Delete Junk Files
Junk files can also be a common issue when it comes to storage. Most computers come with a built-in tool that cleans up temporary files and deletes other junk such as application logs, icon caches and more. Using this tool can be a quick and easy way to free up a few gigabytes worth of space.
You can also delete duplicate files that may be taking up space. If you’re someone who downloads a lot of digital media (music, photos, videos, etc.), then it’s very likely that you’ll have duplicates of the same files in different folders. Deleting these is a great way to free up more space on your hard drive.
One way to make sure your duplicate files are no longer taking up space is to install an automatic duplicate file remover. These programs can scan through your hard drive and identify any duplicate files and then delete them for you. This isn’t something you need to do often, but it can help to free up some extra space over time.
If you have cloud storage set up, you can also upload some of your large files to the cloud and then delete the local versions that are stored on your hard drive. This will help you to conserve space without sacrificing any of your valuable data.
Clear App Data
Uninstalling unused apps is a great way to free up extra space on your hard drive, but it’s also possible to clear the data that’s associated with the apps. App data usually accumulates over time, so you can free up some extra space by clearing this. You can do this by going to the settings menu and selecting the apps one by one.
Once you open each app, you should see the option to clear the app’s data. If you’re unsure what this does, it basically deletes all the saved data associated with the app. This can be particularly helpful if the app has accumulated a lot of junk over time.
On some browsers, it’s also possible to clear the cache and stored cookies. This can free up a surprising amount of space, so it’s worth checking in your browser settings to see if you can free up some extra space this way.
You can also free up space by clearing system caches. These are usually temporary files that Windows stores on your hard drive and they can take up quite a bit of space. The best way to do this is to use the Disk Cleanup tool. This tool is built into Windows and it can be used to scan your hard drive for any temporary files you no longer need.
Reclaim Downloaded Space
If you have an online service like Steam or GOG, you may have downloaded several games or apps in the past. If this is the case, then it’s possible to reclaim some of that space by uninstalling any games or apps you no longer use. You can do this by going to the store page for each game or app and then clicking the ‘Uninstall’ button.
If you’re using a console, then you may want to look into connecting an external hard drive to your console. This is a great way to free up extra storage space by moving games and apps off your main hard drive and onto a larger external drive. This way, you can still keep your games installed but still save a lot of hard drive space.
If you’re still struggling with free space, you may want to check the size of some of your files. Some files can become incredibly bloated over time, so it may be worth checking the sizes of all your large files and setting a limit on the size they can be. This way, you can keep from using up too much storage space on your PC.
Optimizing Your Gaming PC
If you’re looking for ways to optimize your gaming experience, then you should start by optimizing your PC’s hardware. This can be done by overclocking the CPU, adding more RAM, or replacing an outdated graphics card. Although this won’t necessarily free up any extra storage space, it will help to improve the performance of your PC.
You can also try disabling background apps and using a ‘Game Booster’ software. Most of these programs can identify unnecessary tasks running in the background and disable them, freeing up some resources for the game to use. Moreover, some of these programs can even optimize your graphics settings for you, ensuring your gaming experience is as smooth as possible.
It’s also important to make sure your PC’s drivers are up-to-date. With outdated drivers, your PC’s performance can degrade over time, so it’s important to make sure you’re using the latest versions. You can do this by checking the manufacturer’s website and downloading the latest drivers.
Finally, if you’re willing to spend a bit of money, you can purchase an SSD. These are much faster than regular hard drives, and most importantly, they’re much more reliable. So if you’re looking to free up space on your gaming PC, an SSD can be a great investment.
