Need some help cleaning up my pc.. windows 7 general software

@tailoreddigital,
That site suggests disk cleanup, which I just ran and its only gaining 5.8 GB, about 2% of my total space.
see attached.

37gb in .ZIP seems large.    I'd investigate that.

That I am aware of, as there are plenty of backups currently stored in my pc (was planning to move them to external drives)
@NVIY,
I see on following site the warning.."Warning You may lose data if you make hibernation unavailable and a power loss occurs while the hybrid sleep setting is turned on. When you make hibernation unavailable, hybrid sleep does not work."
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/920730

I would prefer to clean at least 50% of my hard drive, any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Ben
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@tailoreddigital, NVIT,

I see under disk cleanup an option to select Precious windows installation and temporary windows installations, both contain significant qty size, however it did not select those by default.
Is it ok to include them for deletion?

@Miranda,
I see listed windows system temp and log files, wondering if there are the same as disk cleanup?

See attached

Thanks,
Ben
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recovering 50% is more than realistically possible. move document/music/videos/pictures to another drive.

@David,

I use this for programming & testing apps, no videos/pictures involved.

Thanks,
Ben

@nobus,

thanks.
Whats about Windows previous installation and temporary installation files that disk cleanup utility bought up but not selected, are they safe to remove them?

Thanks,
Ben

Actually there are a lot of files listed in disk cleanup, see attached.

Is it safe to select them all for removal?

Thanks,
Ben
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I just ran the disk cleanup (w/o those files in question) and still showing 36.5 GB avail only.

Do I need to restart?

Thanks,
Ben

yes they are safe to remove.

i would not remove them like that
-service pack backup files = 0 bytes - seems a pointer, no actual file
-setup log file : if you had no problemduring that setup, safely delete them
-system memory dump files : if they exist - they should be looked at, and the problem they show should be solved; i usually keep the couple latest, to review if new problems arise - but the rest - or all can be deleted
it is strange that it shows the full dump files -AND the minidump files - did you change the setting maybe?  but the same idea applies here
-temporary files can be deleted

but this list scrolls down further - yes
what i mean is: before deleting, look up on the internet what they are , and their use, before deleting

Hi Experts,

@Maclean, David, nobus,

OK at this point I used ccleaner and disk cleanup utility (including all) and was able to gain 22GB, so I have in total 60GB free, and after moving those RAR backup files to external drive I hope to be close to 100GB free.

However just wondering if we are able to go further down according to current status?
See attached.

Wondering why its necessary to have about 40GB of system files (21 Dlls, 14 System, 5 MSI) plus a few large tmp files..

Thanks,
Ben
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@David,

OK did that but there were only a few MB,
Any idea about those remaining large files shown on pic attached?

Thanks,
Ben

windows installer files are needed for repairing installations. It is not recommended to remove them.

@David,

windows installer files are needed for repairing installations

So If I have the original installation cd's is it OK to delete them?

@NVIT,

The dll and sys files are usually installed by programs and should not be erased.

Well, those are really the largest portion of files in question.
Why should there be 21 GB of dlls? aren't dll files made of C++ executables, they should take less space then the source code themselves. My previous PC didn't have more capacity then 40 GB, it doesn't make sense this amount is used here just by system itself?

Thanks,
Ben

and at one time my entire operating system fit on a 5.25 floppy with room to spare. Hard drive space is incredibly cheap. I think spending all of this time is a meaningless excersize that would be better used actually using the system.

you seem to have a lot of zip files
i would check out what each is -before deleting them, and if later posssibly needed, back them up elsewhere (which is a good idea for every deletion you plan)

> Why should there be 21 GB of dlls?
That depends on the base OS, updates, and programs installed.

> My previous PC didn't have more capacity then 40 GB
Here's a comparison of Free Disk Space requirements of each Windows OS from 9x to Windows 10. Scroll down to Windows NT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Microsoft_Windows_versions

every windows version is bigger than the previous one
they even don't take out software that is not used any more - eg Windows Mail from the Vista era - but they do change the files each time

you could ask your self why ?

Thanks to all participants.!!

You're welcome, bfuchs! Have a nice day...

Hi Experts,

FYI- See something nice AVG has to offer regarding this issue..
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you can immediately remove the ia64 directory (you will never ever use it)
why do you have copies of a folder also in your desktop?
c:\test
c:\users\username\desktop\test

you should have used right click send to desktop (create a link) rather than copying it to the desktop.

@David,

why do you have copies of a folder also in your desktop?

this (among other files) where used a while back and long forgotten.

Luckily AVG came up with this find duplicate tool that reminds us from all long forgotten things..

Thanks,
Ben

be careful with deleting doubly found files - you easily delete a file too many...

@nobus,

AVG took that in consideration as well, and they build in logic to warn you if no copies left..

Thanks,
Ben

that is something i would never trust..