Laptop Storage Getting Low SSD

Have an 256gb ssd that shows about 230gb. I have less than 20gb free at the moment. I also have a 2nd ssd hard drive in this computer... its those small ssd that came with laptop... shows 29.7gb free of 29.8gb and shows as new volume (e). So its that 32gb ssd.


At the moment, i don't want to delete any files on my laptop. But what can i do to get more space besides getting a new ssd?


Would it be good idea if i move lot 25gb of my music/documents to the E Drive instead? That way to free up more space? Also back then when i had windows 7 laptop, i recalled doing disk optimization to free up more space. I don't think i have done this on my windows 10 laptop with ssd. Any advice on what i can do here? Also if there is say under a few gb storage free, the laptop will have issues right? So always have at least how much gb free?

I think i used the wrong words here. I mean do i do a disk cleanup? I recall old windows 7 computer when i did this, it freed up space?


But is optimizing it and defragging the same?


Thanks.

 

Start > Type 'Storage'

Settings will open Storage Settings > Click 'Free up space now'

This will give you a list of all available deletable data. Some of it you may want to keep, so review it thoroughly.

Most notably, old Windows installs and old Windows Updates can sometimes consume GB's of data. Ty this and see how much you get back.

Also, it can take a long time if it is deleting a lot. Let it run!

 

Getting rid of stuff you don't need is the most effective way to create more space. Disk cleanup will help (especially old temporary files,..). If you have some restore points, note that they take a lot of space, and you probably only need one or two to provide a safety net. Others can be deleted. Of course, editing your files and potentially moving some to the other SSD will also help. Note also that external drives are cheap, and music and docs can easily live on an external drive..
Best,

Joe

 

Hi. I did right click on my local disk and disk cleanup.


It checked only downloaded program files, temporary internet files and thumbnails.


My local disk shows same amount of space free. So that did basically nothing? The other things available on disk cleanup everything else is basically 65mb or less. So no point of this?


Also, don't optimize and defrag?


Okay so you suggest just move as much music and documents to the new volume E drive file that has 29.7gb free of 29.8gb total right?


How much gb free out of 230gb would it be where i notice okay computer might have issues and start lagging? For example on my chromebook which as 32gb ssd only, and has under 30gb real amount, whenever im close to it, i get message storage is low and computer lags a lot. I then transfer files to an external hard drive etc.

 

What do you have installed on your SSD? It cant be all music. Start uninstalling old programs that you dont need is the best advice that anyone can give you

You can install treesize to find out what taking up most of your space
https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

 

if the low SSD storage space continues after using any of the suggestions above, it would be best in the long run to upgrade to a bigger SSD drive with either 500Gb or 512Gb though doing that is not a cheap solution

 

Actually, it could well be mostly music. Documents tend not to take up lots of space, with the exception of unoptimised Power Point files, which can be 10 MB or more, and, of course, pictures and videos, which can be very large depending on the resolution. If you like your music in a lossless format (e.g. FLAC or ALAC), instead of lossy MP3 compression, files can be quite large. My music library of ~275 CDs converted to FLAC occupies about 225 GB, about 30% less than they would as raw CD files. They sound great, though!

Best,
Joe

 

I dont know anyone who uses FLAC & ALAC file format, i never knew they still existed, All of the music people have are always in MP3 file format. I still burn CDs every now and then so i can play them on my stereo system, My music uses about 13GBs i think which is nothing these days. You can easily use a MP3 converter instead of wasting 225GBs of space on music.

Another suggestion to the OP Disable System Restore as that uses a lot of drive space.

 

If your music files are down to 13 GB, those are very lossy (and therefore very low quality) MP3's. While it is true that a max quality MP3 can sound pretty good (I use them in my car, which cannot read lossless files), on a good system (or with high quality headphones), the lossless files sound much better. Note that there is no such thing as a lossless MP3. Highly compressed, lossy MP3's have been heavily marketed my Apple and others for a long time. It is, however, a matter of listener preference.

Joe