How to Clean Your Computer’s Hard Drive: All Methods Explained

Regular disk cleanup helps free up space and maintain system stability. In this guide, we’ll look at the main methods for cleaning your disk on Windows and macOS, as well as ways to prevent your storage from filling up again with unnecessary files.

A hard drive or solid-state drive is the main data storage device in a computer. It contains the operating system, programs, and personal files.

Modern computers use two types of drives:

How the drive behaves when free space is low and its operating speed depend on the type, but both options fill up with temporary and system files and require regular cleaning.

The operating system creates temporary files, app caches, logs, backups, and update leftovers. The user adds downloads, media files, archives, and duplicates. Not all data is deleted automatically, and free space decreases, which over time affects performance.

These methods are suitable when you need to quickly free up space without using specialized utilities.

The Recycle Bin is a temporary storage for deleted files, which continue to take up space. Open the Recycle Bin, check its contents, and empty it. It can occupy a significant amount, especially when working with large files.

The Downloads folder is often filled with temporary files, installers, and archives. Open the downloads folder, sort data by size or date, and delete what you don’t need. This is one of the main sources of accumulated files.

Multimedia files take up a lot of space, especially high-resolution content. Check the Videos, Photos, Documents folders and your desktop, sorting by size. Move large files to an external drive, to the cloud, or delete them if they’re not in use.

For Windows:

For macOS:

The Storage section allows you to see which categories take up the most space: apps, documents, media, system files, and temporary data.

To open storage, press Win+I — System — Storage.

Main sections:

Below, the Storage Sense feature is available, which automatically deletes some temporary files. In the Cleanup Recommendations section, the system offers data from the Downloads and Recycle Bin folders, as well as lists of large and rarely used files and apps.

The operating system comes with a Disk Cleanup utility that removes temporary data and system junk.

Windows temporary files are stored in the Temp folder and over time can take up a significant amount of space.

To open it:

Windows creates restore points and temporary update files, which sometimes take up a lot of space.

For manual cleanup, use storage analysis:

One of the most well-known utilities for removing temporary files, browser caches, and installer junk. The main window allows you to quickly assess the system’s state, after which you can run an analysis and delete the found files. If needed, advanced settings are available where you can manually select categories for cleaning.

A more open and transparent alternative to CCleaner. It removes temporary files, cache, browser history, and can analyze the system more deeply. A preview is available before cleaning, showing exactly what will be deleted.

A utility with quick and deep cleaning, as well as the ability to defragment HDDs. After scanning, it shows a list of files that can be deleted. The deep mode analyzes rarely used system files.

A toolkit: system cleanup, duplicate search, registry error fixing, and much more. In 1-Click Maintenance mode, you can perform comprehensive maintenance. For more precise work, there are separate utilities, including disk cleanup.

macOS has a built-in storage analyzer:

macOS automatically cleans some temporary data and cache, as indicated in the recommendations section.

macOS offers optimization tools: automatic deletion of old files from iCloud Drive, emptying the Trash, moving media files to the cloud. Sorting large files helps quickly find documents that haven’t been opened in a long time.

Despite automatic cleaning, app caches and logs can take up significant space over time.

To remove them manually:

Similarly, logs in /Library/Logs can be cleaned. Do not delete files in /Library (without tilde) to avoid system issues.

Time Machine creates local snapshots, which can also take up space. They are deleted automatically when space runs low, but if they take up a lot, you can clear them manually.

Finder allows you to sort files by size. Open any window, select All My Files or the desired directory, and enable size sorting. This helps quickly find large archives, videos, and projects.

macOS and app updates can leave temporary packages and installation files. If updates are downloaded but not installed, they may take up gigabytes.

To clean up:

Additionally, you can open the App Store temporary folder:

Temporary update files may be stored here.

A popular macOS cleaning application: removes cache, logs, leftover files, and provides optimization tools. The Smart Scan section performs a comprehensive check of the system for junk and potential issues. If needed, you can go to individual sections to clean cache, system files, or large unused documents.

A program for visual storage analysis. It displays your drive as a diagram, where colored segments represent large folders and files. After scanning, you can open any area and remove unnecessary items using the built-in tool.

A technical utility with access to advanced macOS features: cleaning system cache, logs, font caches, Spotlight database, and more. After checking the system volume, OnyX lets you select categories for cleaning and performs the process automatically. Suitable for users who understand the system's structure.

Following these recommendations helps maintain system stability and reduces the need for frequent deep cleaning.

When writing to an HDD, files can be stored in fragments. Defragmentation arranges the data, speeding up access.

You can do this through the Windows utility:

The process may take some time.

An SSD works differently: access time is the same across the entire drive, and block optimization is handled by the controller. Manual defragmentation creates unnecessary write cycles and accelerates wear, shortening the drive’s lifespan.

Why you shouldn’t delete system files and directories

System directories contain important OS components: drivers, services, update files, configurations.

Even files named cache or log can be critically important. Improper deletion leads to boot errors, app failures, and system corruption.

Many programs offer to speed up your system by deleting unnecessary registry keys, but it’s impossible to automatically determine which keys are safe to remove. After cleaning, drivers and programs may stop working.

On macOS, some universal cleaners delete configuration files and dependencies, causing similar failures.

Utilities that don’t show the list of files to be deleted are especially dangerous. Any automatic interference with system areas can lead to the need to reinstall the OS.

Disk cleanup is an important procedure for the stable operation of Windows and macOS. Built-in tools allow you to safely remove temporary data, while additional utilities help perform a deeper cleanup. Regular storage monitoring and smart file management maintain high system performance and prevent problems related to lack of space.