Best Ways to Organize, Cleanup and Save Hard Drive Space

If your clever and swift computer is turning sluggish and freezes when you have few applications running then it is time for you to get your hard drive reorganized. In fact, even if your computer is new or doesn’t show any such signs of languor, you should still learn techniques to save your hard drive’s space, so that your computer remains clean and stay healthy for long. Before you start up with the cleaning process you should take a look at the current status of the space available in your computer. This will make you aware of how stuffed your computer is and how much optimization your computer need.

To check the status of your computer’s hard drive,

• Double Click on the icon of “My Computer”
• Right Click on “C: Drive” and
• Select “Properties” option from the menu

In the “General” tab of Properties Window, you will see a pie chart, describing you the status of your hard drive. If your computer’s used space is more than the free space available, it is time for you to go for a cleanup.

Run Disk Cleanup:

In the Properties window, where you checked the status of your computer’s hard drive, you will find and option of “Disk Cleanup” in the “General”. Hit on the Disk Cleanup button to run a scan, which will give you a list of all the files that can be deleted without any risk on your computer system. This list includes: Temporary files, Cookies, Recycle Bin, etc. click on each file to see a small description about what it does. If it says that it is completely save to remove, then check the checkbox and press delete. Once deleted, these files will not be available anymore.

Defragmentation:

In the “Tool tab” of the “Properties” dialog box, you will find a “Defrag Now” button. After clicking this button, your computer will analyze your computer’s hard drive space and it will let you know whether you should defrag your computer or not. If it does recommend to defrag, then go ahead with the process. Defragmentation does not delete any file from your computer. It simply rearrange the files and maximize the information.

Let go of Unused Programs:

Your computer must have several old programs that you don’t use anymore. Before letting go of these applications, you need to let go of the idea that you might need it someday. Of will do happen to need it one fine day, then reinstalling it is no big deal. Go to “Control Panel” and open “Add and Remove Programs” folder. The list of all currently installed applications will be displayed to you. You can delete any application from here. Go ahead and delete any application, which is not of use anymore. Other than this, if you have the habit of saving same file at more than one place, then you also need to look for all those duplicate files and delete extra copies of each file.

Invest on External Hard drives:

External hard drive is a great resource for any and every one. It is in fact, the best way to keep your data safe and your computer light at the same time. Instead of keeping all the files in your computer, you can use an external drive to keep your data. This will also work as a backup in case of any mishap plus it will also save a lot of your computer’s space.

Zip it!:

Zipping your files mean compressing it into a very small file. There are software available to compression your file. A compressed file takes a lot less space than a usual file and it can be easily extracted whenever you want. One such utility software to compress files is “WinZip”. This available in free as well as paid version, but the free version works perfect, so you would never really need to pay for its full version.

Disk Management on Windows 8

Windows 8 is distinctly different from its predecessor. For starters, there’s that missing Start menu and the fact that older versions of CPUs might not take to the new OS. There’s also better security and battery life and it is an optimum operating system for touch devices. Microsoft seems to be moving toward better integration of its operating system on smartphones, tablets and other devices. This will give the company better leverage in its quest for dominance against Android and Apple’s operating system.

You will find the Disk Management tool on Windows 8 which helps you do all sorts of disk related hardware tasks, be it formatting and shrinking, changing drive letters and other disk related work. You can use Disk Management to manage all your drives-flash, optical and both internal and external hard disk drives on a 64 or 32 bit Windows 8 PC. You may recognize the tool because it is part of the Microsoft Management Console.

Here are some of the other uses of Disk Management:

•    Shrink or extend volume
•    Move from basic to dynamic disk
•    Open and explore volume
•    Convert GPT to MBR and Vice Versa

You can access the Disk Management tool in two ways:

•    Get to the Desktop mode with Windows Key + X. Once you get there, go to the Computer Management. What you’ll see is the Computer Management window where you’ll find Disk Management.

•    Type ‘cmd’ on Run and click OK. Type out diskmgmt.msc and enter.

When you get to the Disk Management tool, you’ll notice that it is divided into two portions. The top half has all the partitions-formatted and unformatted and the bottom half will show you in graphics, the physical drives that are on the computer. You can choose to partition a drive to make more space, format a drive to restore factory settings or make the drive all brand new. You can even change the letter of your drive to keep it better organized. You may also change the file system on a drive.

Disk Management has a few issues. For instance, the Extend Volume function can only be used only if there is space that has not been allocated, next to the partition in question. If that is not there, then it can’t be done. Even if you do use third party tools for partition, Windows 8 doesn’t work too well using a third party tool due to compatibility issues. Though there might be help from MiniTool Partition Wizard and EaseUS Partition Master.

Staying with Disk Management, you can download an Add-In for the Microsoft Windows Home Server. This will help you understand storage status and is great for organizations to find extensive information and monitor activity. Here too, you can customize names for disks and 3D wireframe. All of this will help you maintain your server in great condition and trouble shoot as and when required. There is one month free trial, so do check it out.

Disk related business is considered to be one for the experts and technicians and rightly so. But thanks to Disk Management on Window 8, the task got a bit simpler. The tool has a few glitches but is worth experiencing.

Ryan Larkin authors for Broadbandproviders.com, the leading provider of the best value broadband internet - He writes about Technology tips and everything about the Internet.

Error 1327: Issue Due To An Invalid Drive!

Usually, Windows users encounter Error 1327. This error may occur during the installation of a software. The computer may refer the home’s hard drive (“H”), which is either not installed or inaccessible by the installation process. Finally, the installation process will search for operating system components in the computer and will not find them in the expected places, which will result in the occurrence of Error 1327.

If you’re thinking of disabling the non-existing drive from the Control Panel, then let us tell you that it will not do any good. You need to do it in the following manner.

Resolution

• Go to ‘My Computer’
• Open the non-existent drive (usually, H drive) and go to ‘Hardware’ option
• Remove the hard drive from Windows Explorer
• Next, select ‘Run as Administrator’ from ‘Start’ menu.
• It will show you a prompt, where you need to type- Net Use s: servernamesharename
• Go to Windows Explorer again, and to ‘Map Network Drive’ from there.
• It will open up a folder, where you have to choose “s:network Drive” and type in ‘servernamesharename’. This will permanently, remove the hard drive that was causing the trouble.

Resolve Error 1327 that appears during the installation of Microsoft Office

• Select ‘Program’ from the ‘Start’ menu
• Go to ‘Administrative Tools’ folder and select ‘Disk Administrator’.
• Right click on the invalid drive and choose the option of ‘Click Assign Drive Letter’.
• Change the drive letter to the correct one and click on ‘Ok’.
• Restart your computer, run the Microsoft Office set up and the error will be removed.

So, you have seen the manual method of intervening and resolving Error 1327. If you come across this error, try to fix it yourself, with the help of the above steps.

This post is sponsored by ElenaChris. Apart from writing she also makes review on latest online technology in Internet. Mytechgurus has come up with new techniques resulting in hassle free "user/computer" relationship.