The first resource usage problem that many users experience
is a lack of hard drive space. Most hard drives today are extremely
large compared to those of days gone by because hard disk storage
has become so inexpensive. However, there are several hidden costs
of large hard drives.
* They require more system resources to manage.
* Cleaning a large drive requires more time because there are more
data files to go through.
* Files are easily lost because the hard drive contains more folders.
It’s better to locate problem files and remove them
from your hard drive than to continually update it. The techniques
described in Chapter 3 help you perform this task. Most novices will
want to begin with the “Taking Out the Internet Explorer Trash,” which
tells how to optimize your Internet Explorer setup. You’ll be amazed
at how much space this one application can gobble up on your drive.
It’s also important to consider using the techniques in the “Scrapping
Temporary Files” section to get rid of excess files created by other
applications.
As your skills increase, you’ll want to explore sections
in Chapter 5. For example, it’s helpful to know how
to archive old email files, so you’ll want to read about the techniques
in the “Preventing Email Overload” section of the chapter. Keeping
your application data organized is also important, so check out the
archival techniques in the “Cataloging and Archiving Data” section.
Of course, you won’t want to archive group data unless the group is
done using it, but archiving your personal data as you complete projects
can save considerable space.
TIP It helps to organize email and application
data into projects or by type so that there’s a definite starting
and stopping point for adding new data. This technique ensures that
you can find data to archive on your system. When you store data as
one continuous store, it’s hard to find information that you can easily
place in permanent (or archived) storage.