When I delete a file from my recycle bin, my hard drive space goes up. Why? And how can I fix this?

Question

I have a lot of files saved on my computer that I no longer need and I've been moving them to the recycle bin to delete them. But instead of freeing up space on my hard drive, the space taken up seems to increase. Deleting the files is actually decreasing the amount of space left on my hard drive. Why and how can I fix this problem so that I can finally free up space?!

Answer 1

In reality, you aren't really deleting files. You are merely letting

Windows change the attribute of the file making it overwriteable.

It disappears from the file list because the file name is no longer

available on the directory list. So it looks like it's gone. It's better

to shred the file and then just overwrite it with other information

on the hard disk.



Programs like HardWipe, or Erase will shred the program and then

change the name of the file to make it less recognizable to another

user. Then you can defragment the drive and recover some space

where the file was on the drive. They call this defragmenting the

free space on the drive.



Here's an article from someone describing what it really means

when you delete opposed to shredding files. It also lists 4 free

shredder programs for you to makeuseof .com



http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-file-shredders-to-make-deleted-files-unrecoverable/

Answer 2

when you press delete on a file (it moves to the recycle bin) it is not deleted, it is just in a special folder that windows created. you have to empty the recycle bin for the storage space to be recovered.



its like putting paper in a paper shredder, the information is recoverable but it still takes up the same space. Emptying the recycle bin is like burning the paper so the space is freed up

Answer 3

Download these free utility software, it will take care of that problem for you after you have cleaned out your recycling bin.



CCleaner-http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Just go to the download link, there is a full version but you do not need it for this.

Cleans cookies, junk files, etc.



MVRegclean-http://mv-regclean.en.softonic.com/

Gets rid of all those exessive registry errors, slows down your system if there are enough.



Defraggler-http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Cleans up the hard drive once you deleted all of it.



Do them in this order, and you should be good!

Answer 4

You need to empty you recycle bin once in a while. Deleted files go into the recycle bin so that they can be recovered if you deleted them by accident. Right click on recycle bun and click empty recycle bin

Answer 5

Any files that you do not readily use very often and need a speeder access to, I would recommend compressing those files to save space. Also disk cleanup, and defragmentation can free up more space.



What is likely happening is that your files were automatically compressed to save disk space, and now that they no longer need to be compressed are decompressing themselves.



Also, disk space has become less of a commodity. External drives of humongous sizes are readily available for relatively cheap. For example I'm looking on CNET right now and I'm seeing Terrabyte HDD external drives for $60 USD.



I hope this helps and maybe gives you other options.