There are several reasons why cleaning up unused files and other material from your hard drives can offer improvements in the behaviour and performance of your computer system. How long you have to wait as you pull files from HDD is partially a result of the total file count , contained on the system's hard disk resources. Usually you will find that the FAT tables grow in size and the HDD works harder when files are accessed. Also keep in mind that files can be broken up into smaller pieces and this reduces the rate at which file data can be retrieved from disk. Also in regard to your personal files, as you store more and more of your private files (banking, identification etc) the higher the chance is that someone else using the computer could find and misuse these files. Additionally, cleaning up files will obviously recover space and this might stave off having to buy a bigger hard drive.

It is not difficult to gain drive speed back just by spending a little time cleaning out your pc system. Your computer can perform better, regardless of computer type, if there are fewer files that must be manipulated and kept on the machine. Whether small or large, any free space restored during cleaning will improve system speed simply by reducing file lookup times. And defragmentation is more effective when there is lots of free space. Also, when private files are deleted, it is then unlikely that they be seen by identity thieves.

Many cleanup tools exist most of which will attack the drive cleanup task from a different point-of-view. More and more software utilties focus on making it easy for you to clean hard drive as well as clean up general unwanted material. There is usually much is more that that software can do, some have other functions, ie. they can get rid of old data from free space, check the drive for porn and remove it, find programs that are not properly licensed, and help with free space recovery.