UPDATE: Doing a disk cleanup

[Marthe48]

Last edited Sat Mar 21, 2026, 08:04 AM - Edit history (1)

I noticed my laptop memory was filling up, and my laptop was getting really slow. I was patient today, and prepared for a long process. Over 3 hours into it, deleting almost 300gb of unnecessary files.
I just read that it's a good idea to turn your computer off. On startup, it'll clean up the files. I shut the lid, but don't power off. I'll do that now, and see if it makes a difference.
I read years ago that the hard drive should have at least 25% free space so programs like Windows work as good as they can.

I let the disk cleanup work overnight. I was up around 4, clicked on the delete files option, and went back to bed. When I got up, I saw that I cleared 11 Gb. I'll run it overnight again, just keep trying to clear up some space. I see it is a DDR3, so it's pretty old. I'll be replacing my modem, router and laptop soon. I was hoping for a drop in prices, maybe there will be a consumer forgiveness day or something.

Thanks for the advice and tips. I was in computer operations for many years, but I notice if you don't stay current, you can get left behind.

[Tasmanian Devil]

1. Super slow disk?

This might not apply to you, but if your disk seems really really slow, it could be in the process of failing. If reads or writes to the disk fail, the operating system will automatically retry several times until it works. This is good, but it can hide that your drive is in the process of dying.

Suggestions:

(1) Make sure you have backups. Files stored in only one place are in danger of being lost.
(2) Run some disk performance tests (diagnostics) and see if the speed is reasonable.

Cautionary tale: I recently was in the middle of helping a friend do (2) on their slow laptop when the disk changed from just being slow to not working at all. Then I found out they had no backups. Oops.

[Marthe48]

2. Thanks for the tips

I don't notice other signs of failure. I have 2 ext. HDs and transfer files over regularly. My laptop is a few years old and I'm planning to buy another soon.

Welcome to DU.

[usonian]

3. Highly recommend backup(s).

I recommend a full backup of the internal disk now and then. Disks are cheap! An external disk the size of your laptop disk (unknown) is like under $100. Cheap insurance.

For mac users:
I use a program (SuperDuper!) on macs to back up the entire internal disk to another disk the same capacity. The free version does this. The virtue of this is that if the internal disk crashes, not only is the external disk full of its contents, but is also bootable. (read the instructions with the program).

For others:
Ask someone you trust. A web search will turn up products that pay for search placement on Google and others.

Otherwise, just copy your important files and folders to an external disk as you see fit.
I personally keep all my important stuff on external disks but I am not using a laptop.

[canetoad]

4. It's more than likely

That the main thing slowing your laptop down is a multitude of programs that automatically start when you first boot up.

Couple of ways to check; look at the bottom right of screen on the taskbar. This is called the Systray - system tray and it shows icons for some windows processes but also other programs that are running at a system level. If you have say, Adobe reader, skype, more than one security program or anything else showing down there you can find them and turn them off.

In your 'All Programs' list there should be a Startup folder. Start looking there. If you have a big line of icons on the right side of the task bar, get back to us and we can brainstorm a fix.

[Marthe48]

5. I think the main thing is most of the drive is full

I'll just let the disk cleanup keep working. One piece of advice said I could stop it and restart it, and it might go faster. So I tried that.
I have a newer tablet and my phone to use.

Thanks for the detailed assistance.