Before you buy a new hard drive or upgrade your storage plan, there's a good chance you already have 20–100 GB sitting on your machine that you don't need. This guide shows you how to reclaim it - on both Windows and Mac.

The first step: find out what's using your storage

Most people try to free up storage by deleting random files and hoping for the best. That approach takes a long time and usually doesn't recover much, because the real space hogs are rarely the files you think about first.

The fastest method is to scan your drive with a visual disk analyzer. FreeUpDisk is a free tool for Windows and Mac that scans your entire drive in under 30 seconds and shows you a treemap - every file and folder as a rectangle, sized by how much space it takes.

Once you see the full picture, you know exactly where to focus. Most people find their answer in the first 30 seconds.

1. Delete what you don't need

This sounds obvious, but most people have never done a systematic cleanup. Here's what to target:

Downloads folder

Your Downloads folder is usually the first quick win. Sort it by size and delete:

Installers you've already run (.exe, .msi, .dmg, .pkg)
Zip files you've already extracted
Old disk images (.iso)
Video files you've watched and don't need anymore

A Downloads folder that's never been cleaned can hold 10–30 GB.

Large forgotten files

Use FreeUpDisk to sort your entire drive by file size. You'll find things like:

Screen recordings from months ago
Raw video exports sitting in a project folder
Old virtual machine files (.vmdk, .vhd) from projects you abandoned
Database dumps or large backups you no longer need

Unused applications

On Mac: Finder → Applications → sort by size (View → Show View Options → select Size)
On Windows: Settings → Apps → Installed Apps → sort by size

Uninstall anything you haven't opened in 3+ months.

2. Clear app caches

Every major app accumulates cache data over time. It's safe to delete - the app rebuilds it when needed.

On Mac:

Open Finder → Go → Go to Folder → ~/Library/Caches
Delete the contents of folders for apps you recognize (especially Chrome, Slack, Spotify, Dropbox)
Slack is a frequent offender - it can cache 5–20 GB of workspace files

On Windows:

Press Win + R, type %temp%, press Enter → delete everything
Press Win + R, type temp, press Enter → delete everything
Run Disk Cleanup (search in Start) and include "System Files" for maximum coverage

3. Remove developer junk (if you write code)

Developer machines accumulate gigabytes of build artifacts and dependency folders that serve no permanent purpose:

node_modules - 500 MB to 2 GB per project, safe to delete (run npm install to restore). A machine with 10 projects could have 15+ GB here
Docker images - run docker system prune to remove unused images, containers, and volumes
.gradle/caches - Android build caches, safe to delete
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData (Mac) - Xcode build output, can be 10–40 GB
dist, build, .next folders - regenerated every build, safe to delete

This is often the single biggest win for a developer's machine.

4. Manage your photo and video library

Photos and videos are typically the largest files on personal machines.

Strategies:

Move originals to an external drive and keep only lower-resolution versions locally
Use iCloud Photos on Mac with "Optimize Mac Storage" turned on (Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → Photos)
Delete duplicates - the same photo often exists in multiple places after imports, shares, and backups

5. Upgrade your physical storage (if software cleanup isn't enough)

If you've done the cleanup above and you're still tight on space, it might be time to actually expand:

External drives are the cheapest way to add storage. A 1 TB USB-C external SSD costs around $60–80 and is a good place to store large files you don't need regularly (archives, old projects, video libraries).

Internal upgrades: On most Windows desktops and some laptops, you can add or replace the drive. A 1 TB NVMe SSD costs around $50–70 and makes a noticeable difference.

Cloud storage: For files you need to access from multiple devices but don't need locally, moving them to Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud with local sync disabled frees local space.

How much storage can you realistically recover?

Source	Typical recovery
Downloads folder	5–30 GB
App caches	3–20 GB
node_modules (developers)	10–50 GB
Duplicate photos/videos	10–50 GB
Unused apps	1–20 GB
Xcode caches (Mac, developers)	10–40 GB

Most people running a first-time cleanup recover 20–80 GB. That's often enough to avoid any hardware upgrade at all.

Get FreeUpDisk free →

How to Get More Storage on Your Computer