Clean Up and Organize Your Hard Drive

Go ahead, admit it. Sometimes you just save files randomly to whatever folder you’re prompted to. Sometimes you simply click Local Disk (C:), the Desktop, or some other partition in the Save As dialog box. (I won’t make you admit that you sometimes can’t find that stuff later.)

Saving randomly or leaving the files in a jumbled, disorganized mess is just going to get uglier as time passes. It’s best to clean out the garage and do a little organizing now, before it gets completely out of control. In this section, I’ll show you how to both clean and better organize your computer’s hard drive and remove unwanted files that have been randomly saved on it.

Delete Files from the Root Directory (C:)

Your root directory may be a place where you are storing files inappropriately or storing files that you don’t need. It may not be. It’s harder to save to the C: drive than it used to be; Windows steers you in the right direction most of the time. However, take a look in there and see if there are any unwanted or misplaced files, and move files (if applicable) to better organize this directory. Open wide; let’s take a look: