Many customers liberate house on their Home windows 11 PC C: drives by using disk cleanup instruments or uninstalling software program packages. Nonetheless, you don’t at all times need to delete information on a Home windows 11 PC to liberate drive house. You possibly can as an alternative save drive house to scale back the quantity of drive cleansing required.
That is how one can liberate C: drive house on a Home windows 11 PC with out erasing information.
1. Use NTFS Drive Compression
Home windows 11 features a compression possibility for NTFS drives. Choosing that setting applies compression to consumer information on a drive by eradicating redundant information. You possibly can choose to use NTFS compression to your entire C: drive or a single folder. Our information to enabling NTFS compression on Home windows 11 tells you choose the Compress contents to avoid wasting disk house possibility.
Precisely how a lot drive house NTFS compression will liberate might be variable. When you’ve got many uncompressed consumer doc information in your drive, then NTFS will possible liberate no less than a number of gigabytes of cupboard space. Nonetheless, this compression received’t liberate a lot house if there aren’t many consumer information in your PC’s drive. The one method to discover out is to strive it on no less than one massive folder.
2. Disable System Restore
System Restore is a troubleshooting instrument for restoring Home windows to saved system snapshots (restore factors). Restore factors eat gigabytes of exhausting drive house, even when set to low utilization. Disabling System Restore will cease that utility from saving additional restoration factors, which can liberate house in your C: drive sooner or later. That is how one can disable System Restore:
Press the search instrument’s Home windows key + S keyboard key combo. Subsequent, enter create a restore level inside your search instrument’s textual content field. Click on Create a restore level to open a System Properties window. Press the Configure button.
Click on the Disable system safety possibility.
Choose Apply to avoid wasting the system safety settings. Click on the System Safety window’s OK possibility.
If you happen to want to maintain System Restore on, you’ll be able to nonetheless no less than cut back that utility’s disk utilization. To take action, drag the Max Utilization bar’s slider left on the System Safety window.
3. Convert Your Saved Video Recordsdata Into the MP4 Format
Video information can take up plenty of exhausting drive house, particularly for longer clips. When you’ve got plenty of AVI and MOV information saved, changing them to the MP4 format will liberate some cupboard space in your exhausting drive. MP4 is a compressed video format that preserves a great diploma of image high quality.
There are numerous video conversion software program packages accessible for Home windows. Nonetheless, it’s also possible to convert movies to MP4 with internet apps with out putting in software program. That is convert video information to MP4 with the On-line-Convert instrument:
Open this Convert video to MP4 app. Then click on the Convert drop-down menu to pick out Video.
Choose the format of your present video information. Click on Select File > From System to pick out a number of movies to transform.
Press Open so as to add the chosen movies. Click on Begin to convert the video to MP4. Choose Obtain to avoid wasting the transformed MP4 movies.
Additionally, try a number of the choices for changing to MP4 inside the On-line-Convert video conversion instrument. You possibly can choose from all kinds of video presets by clicking the Select a preset drop-down menu. Additional down, there’s a Set file dimension possibility in which you’ll be able to enter a goal dimension worth for the transformed video.
4. Convert Your Saved Picture Recordsdata Into the JPG Format
JPG is just like the picture equal of the MP4 format with its lossy compression. Picture information with the JPG format are usually smaller than the PNG of BMP options. In case your C: drive contains many PNG or BMP photographs, changing them to JPGs will in all probability additionally liberate a big quantity of cupboard space.
You possibly can convert picture information to JPG with the On-line picture converter to JPEG app on the On-line-Convert web site as instructed for the video information within the earlier technique. To maximise the compression, choose the Smallest File possibility. Alternatively, drag the High quality bar’s slider there left to extend compression.
5. Scale back the Recycle Bin’s Dimension
Home windows 11’s Recycle Bin shops deleted information till emptied. You possibly can cut back the utmost quantity of house allotted to the Recycle Bin for storing information. This may imply your Recycle Bin will attain max dimension sooner reasonably than later, and also you’ll must empty it extra usually.
You possibly can cut back the Recycle Bin’s dimension as follows:
Proper-click Recycle Bin on the desktop and choose Properties on the context menu that opens. Click on the Customized dimension possibility. Enter a decrease megabyte determine within the Most dimension field (1,000 MBs equals one gigabyte).
Click on Apply and OK within the Recycle Bin Properties window.
6. Create ZIP Archives for Storing Recordsdata
ZIP is an archive format that compresses information included in it. ZIP archives are like compressed folders from which you’ll be able to simply entry their contents when wanted. Archiving plenty of consumer information mendacity round in your exhausting drive inside ZIPs will liberate drive house. Creating ZIP archives with many movies and pictures in them may liberate plenty of drive house.
Home windows 11 contains choices for creating ZIP archives. You possibly can arrange a ZIP with one of many six strategies in our article about creating ZIP information on Home windows. If you happen to ever must entry an archive’s contents, try this information to unzipping ZIP information.
7. Save Recordsdata to a Cloud Storage Service
Cloud storage lets you save your consumer information with on-line storage suppliers. OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive are the large three cloud storage suppliers that provide free storage starting from two to fifteen gigabytes. OneDrive is the cloud storage included with Home windows 11. Nonetheless, Google Drive presents probably the most house with 15 gigabytes of free cloud storage.
So, you’ll be able to probably liberate 15 gigabytes of native cupboard space by saving consumer information to Google Drive as an alternative of your PC’s C: drive. You solely must arrange a Google Account to get 15 GBs of free cloud storage. Moreover, including Google Drive to File Explorer with the app will allow you to entry that cloud storage inside Home windows 11’s file supervisor.
8. Make the most of Third-Celebration Net Apps and Moveable Applications
Putting in extra software program packages consumes probably the most house in your PC’s C: drive. It can save you C: drive house by using the numerous freely accessible internet apps as an alternative of putting in desktop software program.
The Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets internet apps are first rate productiveness options to Microsoft Phrase, PowerPoint, and Excel. Canva is a good on-line graphics design app. Plus, you’ll be able to make the most of many on-line picture editors and file conversion internet apps.
Using transportable apps is one other good method to save drive house, since you need not set up them. You possibly can even run the transportable apps from a USB stick as an alternative of your PC’s native drive. To take action, obtain the information for transportable app variations to your USB stick from their web sites.
You too can add a transportable app menu to Home windows 11 with software program like LiberKey and SyMenu. The PortableApps program additionally lets you set up and entry many transportable apps from a devoted menu.
Free Up Your Home windows Drive Area With out Deleting a Factor
You received’t want to wash your C: drive usually if you happen to liberate extra cupboard space with the strategies above. The compression strategies alone may liberate many gigabytes of drive cupboard space in your PC.
Using internet and transportable apps as an alternative of putting in software program, disabling System Restore, and saving information to cloud storage can even cut back drive storage utilization, which successfully frees up more room.