How to Clean a Hard Drive in Windows XP

With the Disk Cleanup utility tool, which is included with every PC that runs Windows XP, you can clean your hard drive and even speed up your computer. Disk Cleanup automatically searches through your hard drive and finds optional and temporary files that could be taking up unnecessary space on your hard drive. The files are then cleaned and removed to make more room on the hard drive.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PC running Windows XP

1. Open the Start menu by clicking on the icon in the lower-left corner of the screen.

2. Go into the "All Programs" list and open the "Accessories" folder.

3. Open the "System Tools" folder and select "Disk Cleanup." The utility program will open and give you an estimate of how much hard drive space it can clear.

4. Go to the "Disk Cleanup" tab at the top of the utility window.

5. Check the boxes next to the type of files that you want cleaned and removed from your hard drive. The more boxes you check, the more space the utility program will free up on your hard drive.

6. Click on the "OK" button to begin the hard drive cleaning process. Then click "Yes" to confirm your decision. The program window will close when the cleaning process is complete.

[RobertRichford]

on 4/22/2009 Good detailed article on How to Clean a Hard Drive in Windows XP. *****

[djeff37]

on 4/22/2009 This a good article, but unstead of Microsoft's disk cleaner Y would suggest downloading a copy of CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com. It is a Free and works better and Faster than the disk cleaner utility supplied ny Microsoft.