Does My Computer Need More Hard Drive Space?

Windows Hard Disk Properties

As with memory, you likely want to know how much hard drive space your computer has and, unlike memory, how much is free.  Luckily it is fairly easy to find this information.

For Windows XP users: open “My Computer” on your desktop (or, if not there, from your Start Menu) and the right-click on your main hard drive (the C: drive) and select “Properties”. You should see a window that looks much like the one shown here.  

With Windows Vista and Windows 7, you get much the same information right in the “Computer” window (open Computer from the desktop or Start Menu). You can also look at properties to get a similar screen as shown for XP.

Mac Hard Drive Get Info

For Mac users: you can get the amount of free space by looking at the bottom of any Finder window.  Just open the Finder (the first icon on the Dock) and you should see a listing of how many files you have in that folder and how much space is left for the drive.  If you want to know how much space your hard drive has, select “Computer” from the “Go” menu. This will take you to a screen much like the “Computer” window described for Windows.  Right click on your hard drive and select “Get Info”.  You should see a screen much like the one to the left.

Ok, so what am I looking at?

In the Windows example, the hard drive is about 100 GB, which by today’s standards is quite small. The blue area is used (filled), the pink area is free.  In this example, with more than 75% of the drive being free, you probably would not need to worry about hard drive space.  For most users you will see something similar – most users of computers made in the last few years will never fill their hard drive. Even with the Mac example, there is over 70 GB free, which is quite a bit of space.

If, however, you find you are running low – say with 10 GB or less space, what do you do? There are a few options.  You can remove items from the drive, get a second hard drive, or replace your drive with a larger one (having to move your OS, your programs, and all of your data over as you do so!)

Of the three options, the first (cleaning things off of the drive) is generally the one I suggest, assuming it is a workable solution. The second option (getting a second hard drive) works well and is pretty easy, but it can make it confusing as to where you have saved your files. For the most part, a second drive works better as a part of a back up plan.  The third option (replacing the hard drive), works well, but it is time consuming and thus fairly expensive.

Another option, of course, is to get a new computer. Sounds extreme – and it might be more than you need to do. Often, though, the reason someone’s hard drive is filling up is that it is an older, smaller hard drive. Getting a new machine and moving your programs and data over will certainly cost you more than just getting a newer drive, but sometimes it is good to just start clean. Of course, if your current machine is serving you well in other ways but is just running out of hard drive space, I would not suggest this.

If the above sounds confusing, keep this in mind: for most people with a computer purchased in the last few years, hard drive space is not likely to be a problem. Check to see how much you have – you likely are doing just fine.