There are many different cleanup utilities, and they can be easily classified. The most popular seem to be general cleanup tools such as the 'Disk Cleanup' utility that comes with Microsoft operating systems, which clean up non-critical files and recover room on the disk. There are also privacy protectors that clean out URL history and get rid of the previously typed URLs from drop down lists in Internet Explorer, including 'evidence' and 'privacy' cleanup tools. Then there is the porn cleaner product, that can reveal the presence of pornography and inappropriate material and helps the user get rid of any files that are not wanted. Yet another category of programs is the 'disk washer' style product, which, by writing random garbage over existing data, completely erases it from anywhere on the disk so that it may not be used for malicious purposes.

Despite the fact that cleaning up your hard disk works in our favour, we must think about the negatives too, before moving forward with the process. We must consider that our key files might be erased in error either by automated tools or by our own hand. Remember too that the removal of any excess files consumes your time particularly when the manual methods are used but automated cleanup tools can consume time. Generally these risks are not significant and the gains certainly outweigh any of these negatives.

Even a quick look on the internet reveals a massive collection of software tools all of which come at drive cleanup techniques by implementing different techniques. Various software products can be found now, that help users clean disk and clean up unwanted files on your hard drives using intelligent removal techniques. But this is not all these products are capable of, as an example, several can clean up free drive space, perform automated porn removal, discover and clean copyrighted material, and analyzed used and free space.