By Michael | Last Updated
Q: "I have a 1TB Western Digital SSD as the main disk on the computer and it suddenly pretty much full. I'm trying to clear space and now it only has a few programs, the Windows 10 OS and about 30GB files.I can't find anything that takes up that much space on the SSD. Where did the space go ?"
The SSD runs faster than any other storage drive on the market today and are therefore often installed as the main drive in computers or laptops, which can be a good way to improve their performance. However, many users have complained that they have not found more large memory files on SSD but still keep getting pop-up warnings that they are running out of disk space. So this article will share with you everything you need to know about SSD full, including proven solutions of how to clean up ssd.
You may be wondering "why is the SSD full", so we've summarised a few common reasons for you.
1. Large memory files that have been deleted are not completely shredded, they just can't be retrieved by your computer but are still taking up space on the SSD.
2. A virus or malware is constantly attacking the SSD, creating a large number of junk files.
3. You have inadvertently installed a large number of programs or stored a large number of files on the SSD.
4. Windows automatic updates are filling up your SSD with backup files and you need to clean up your system files regularly to gain more storage space.
You may see a lot of questions on the internet about "how much space should i leave on my ssd", this is because the SSD has to have some free hard drive space to maintain itself. After the SSD is filled up its life and performance will drop drastically that the computer will frequently display the "Low Disk Space" warning. According to some Hardware Review Report, the optimal ratio of space to speed for SSD is around 25%.
When the main SSD is full, the biggest impact on your computer is that it can slow down the running speed, increase boot times and even cause your system to crash more frequently. So, what do you do when the main SSD is full? The most effective way is to clean up SSD to get more space. Let's move on to the next part.
Most people's habit of deleting files is to "Ctrl+Delete" and move them to the recycle bin, but the recycle bin on your computer is just a temporary storage folder that is responsible for categorising deleted files. They are not essentially gone and are still taking up space on the SSD. The first thing you need to do is go and empty your computer's Recycle Bin to clear space on SSD .
For junk files caused by computer viruses or malware, you should deal with the source of all this - check that the computer's firewall and anti-virus software are working properly. Then run a disk cleaner to clean up these junk files and unnecessary system files to clean up ssd.
Step 1: Type "Disk Cleanup" in the search box and click on the program to run it.
Step 2: Select the disk to be cleaned and click “OK” to confirm. The system will automatically calculate how much space you can free up on the SSD.
Step 3: Click on all the junk files that need to be deleted and click "OK".
In addition to cleaning up junk files, you can further free up space on your SSD by cleaning up duplicate files on Windows, which may be taking up several gigabytes of storage space on SSD. iSunshare DupFiles Genius can help you do this tedious task efficiently，it's a power tool to quickly find and sort all types of duplicate files on your computer.
SSD usually have less storage capacity than mechanical hard drives, so you should regularly uninstall unwanted programs and clean up program files to make better use of SSD space.
Step 1: Go to Settings > App.
Step 2: Then select "App & Features".
Step 3: Select the programs that you no longer find valuable and click "Uninstall".
Step 4(optional): You can move the programs to a drive via CloneGo with more space instead of the main SSD.
The hibernation function of your computer creates a file called hiberfil.sys (hidden), which takes up a lot of disk space. Deleting the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) is necessary when your main SSD is almost full.
Step 1: Open the Run window on your computer by using the "Windows+R" shortcut, type in the command prompt "CMD" and run as administrators.
Step 2: Once in the Command Prompt window, type "hibernate off" and press the "Enter" key. After that, this will disable hibernation and delete the Hiberfil.sys file, which will free up several gigabytes of disk space on the SSD.
After cleaning the recycle bin, hibernating files and uninstalling unnecessary programs, if your SSD is still nearly full, the control panel doesn't show large files for anything and you can't find any more files to clean up. There may be large memory hidden files on your computer, you can unhide them by performing the following steps.
Step 1: Go to "File Explorer Options", which you can usually find in the Windows Control Panel.
Step 2: Click on the "View" tab and then tick the option to "Show hidden files, folders and drivers" and click "OK" to apply the settings.
Step 3: Now you can see all the hidden files and folders on your computer and you can choose to delete some unnecessary files. Don't forget to empty the Recycle Bin after deleting them to free up more space on SSD.
If all the files on the SSD are valuable and you don't want to free up space on the SSD by cleaning up the files, then upgrading the SSD to a larger SSD is another option. With the help of professional cloning software -iSunshare CloneGo, you are able to easily clone your SSD to a larger SSD in a few clicks.
Step 1: Connect or install the new SSD on your computer and launch iSunshare Clonego.
Step 2: Click on the "Disk Clone" option in the left toolbar and select the old SSD as the source disk, then select the new SSD as the new target disk.
Step 3: Click on "Start" to begin the cloning process and make sure the computer is active until the cloning is complete. In addition, the cloning process will run in the background so that the user can use the computer normally during the cloning process.
Step 4: When the cloning task is complete, a pop-up window will appear to remind you, then you can exit it to see if the entire disks has been fully copied.
What to do when main ssd is full? If there is a low space on the main disk, The computer or laptop will become laggy, so in order for them to run smoothly, it is necessary to free up space on SSD or clone SSD to larger SSD.
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