How to find out storage space on my desktop?

[geek84]

Good morning folks
Can someone kindly tell me how to find out the storage space used and still available on my desktop?
I use Windows 7 home premium
Thanks

[Bujinkhal]

Right click on My Computer then left click manage. Once in there go to storage > disk management and you can see the drives and available space on the right hand side pane.

[paulrockliffe]

I'm not sure that's what he means by desktop, if it is then File Explorer -> This Computer is the easiest route.

File Explorer, right click on Desktop and select Properties. If you don't have the Desktop shortcut on the left pane, it's hidden in C:\\Users\*username*\Desktop

[Bujinkhal]

I assumed he meant desktop vs laptop.

If you're actually asking how much space is left in your desktop folder, well that's not really an answerable question as it's just a folder really. It'll keep filling up until you run out of hard drive space.

[paulrockliffe]

Bujinkhal said:

I assumed he meant desktop vs laptop.

If you're actually asking how much space is left in your desktop folder, well that's not really an answerable question as it's just a folder really. It'll keep filling up until you run out of hard drive space.

Could be either, odd question for a Geek to be asking though!

[nikaiyo2]

Maybe https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

Might be handy, it will show you exactly where storage is being used, if lack of space is becoming an issue.

[The_Jackal]

Desktop doesnt have its own space allocation. It is whatever space you have on the drive it is located on (usually C drive).
Just open windows explorer and right click on the C drive.

Why are you guys making this more complicated that it should be???

[geek84]

Good Evening Folks

Thanks ofr your responses.

On my desktop, I clicked on computer which brought up another screen, and under hard disk drive it states 182GB free of 192GB.

Does that sound right to you folks?

Thanks

[paulrockliffe]

geek84 said:

Good Evening Folks

Thanks ofr your responses.

On my desktop, I clicked on computer which brought up another screen, and under hard disk drive it states 182GB free of 192GB.

Does that sound right to you folks?

Thanks

No reason why it would be wrong, if you've nothing much installed then it sounds feasible.

[grumbledoak]

geek84 said:

Does that sound right to you folks?

Windows in 10GB sounds a bit unlikely. Can you screenshot the Explorer window, e.g.

[geek84]

Hi
Sorry i don't know how to screenshot.
But where it says 34.1gb free of 78.9gb under local disk C, on my desktop it says 182gb free of 290gb. Under data D above says 20.6gb free of 69.9gb, my desktop says 290gb free of 291gb.
I am on Windows 7 home premium at the moment.
Any further suggestions greatly appreciated

[grumbledoak]

geek84 said:

Hi
Sorry i don't know how to screenshot.
But where it says 34.1gb free of 78.9gb under local disk C, on my desktop it says 182gb free of 290gb. Under data D above says 20.6gb free of 69.9gb, my desktop says 290gb free of 291gb.
I am on Windows 7 home premium at the moment.
Any further suggestions greatly appreciated

Oh, 182GB free of 290GB seems much more plausible. Typo in your previous post by the look of it.

You have plenty of free space on C: and D: is empty.

[anonymous-user]

I believe the OP has one drive partitioned into two. Possibly a 640GB drive in 2 partitions

On the main drive. C it means that the OP has used around 108 Gb of space out of a total of 290GB

This will include the Windows Operating System, Drivers etc as well as any documents, pictures, videos the Op has stored. It will also include anything in the Download folder and the Recycle Bin

The Data drive D is a drive that the OP could store stuff in. In a lot of cases it is overlooked almost forgotten about in this case it means that there is just 1GB used so another 290Gb is available

If the OP adds 290 +291 it will not come to 640Gb this is because Windows measures the sizes of hard drives differently to manafacturers and the sizes in Windows are always smaller.
The OP's computer may be a home build type or purchased and some PC manufacturers used to divide the drive into 2 like the OPs - Acer often did this.

In reality the OP has used not a lot of his available space and is in no immediate danger of filling up his hard drive. In case the OP is enquiring because he wants to back up his computer to an external drive and wondering what size to get in his case a basic 500GB one would be more than big enough

BUT OFF TOPIC

Windows 7 is at end of life and the OP would do well to look at updating it to Windows 10

[geek84]

Thanks techiedave.
I think you've understood exactly what I mean.
Anyway I want to upgrade to Windows 10.
So my question is: what size memory stick would I need to back up my work before upgrading?
My work consists of word documents and excel spreadsheets.
Any further suggestions greatly appreciated

[grumbledoak]

The upgrade won't touch your data unless you choose to format and reinstall.

It is still a good idea to back up your data first.

You could do this by
1) copying your whole user folder C:\Users\Whatever to D:\
-or-
2) copying Documents and Pictures and Music and Videos etc to a USB flash drive drive. You might get away with a 64GB drive.

[geek84]

Thanks
Which one would you suggest?
Option 1 or 2?
Thanks

[grumbledoak]

If you have the flash drive, do 2). That way, even if the upgrade sets the PC on fire you've still got a copy!

But 1) would be quicker.

[anonymous-user]

geek84 said:

Thanks techiedave.
I think you've understood exactly what I mean.
Anyway I want to upgrade to Windows 10.
So my question is: what size memory stick would I need to back up my work before upgrading?
My work consists of word documents and excel spreadsheets.
Any further suggestions greatly appreciated

The poster just after this mentions transferring stuff to drive D
Its your cheapest possible way to do it and its the fastest way to copy data its is the one I would go for. Its relatively painless and If you are doing a simple windows 10 upgrade it should work fine as a back up
You would literally copy everything over from your folders from Drive C to drive D so you would copy your picture folder over then your documents etc etc

If you are doing an upgrade you can get away with not buying a USB stick you just upgrade from 7 to 10
BUT
Where it can get problematic is if you end up creating a USB stick for windows 10 then decide to do a fresh install.
The size of USB you will need to create a bootable Windows 10 USB stick is 8Gb

You then have to decide which partition of the drive C or D you want to install windows to, You could end up installing it to what is your D and overwriting your data partition Its unlikely but possible and you would still have data on the C drive but I have seen people deleting all partitions before now as they don't know what they are doing and its painful to have to say - your FU**** mate - sorry

All things considered though backing up your data to an external drive is the best most secure way. the poster mentions a 64GB drive But it may be a bit tight so the next size up is 128gb Assuming you want to do this quickly Argos sell USB sticks and the searches show pages for the 64GB option or the bigger 128gb

64GB
https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/technology/laptops-...rice/

128GB
https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/technology/laptops-...rice/

I haven't looked but I would expect Currys prices to be very similar. Amazon will likely be cheaper still but watch out for really cheap ones

[Digger]

techiedave said:

The poster just after this mentions transferring stuff to drive D
Its your cheapest possible way to do it and its the fastest way to copy data its is the one I would go for. Its relatively painless and If you are doing a simple windows 10 upgrade it should work fine as a back up
You would literally copy everything over from your folders from Drive C to drive D so you would copy your picture folder over then your documents etc etc

If you are doing an upgrade you can get away with not buying a USB stick you just upgrade from 7 to 10
BUT
Where it can get problematic is if you end up creating a USB stick for windows 10 then decide to do a fresh install.
The size of USB you will need to create a bootable Windows 10 USB stick is 8Gb

You then have to decide which partition of the drive C or D you want to install windows to, You could end up installing it to what is your D and overwriting your data partition Its unlikely but possible and you would still have data on the C drive but I have seen people deleting all partitions before now as they don't know what they are doing and its painful to have to say - your FU**** mate - sorry

All things considered though backing up your data to an external drive is the best most secure way. the poster mentions a 64GB drive But it may be a bit tight so the next size up is 128gb Assuming you want to do this quickly Argos sell USB sticks and the searches show pages for the 64GB option or the bigger 128gb

64GB
https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/technology/laptops-...rice/

128GB
https://www.argos.co.uk/browse/technology/laptops-...rice/

I haven't looked but I would expect Currys prices to be very similar. Amazon will likely be cheaper still but watch out for really cheap ones

You really typed all that just now?! Fiona requests your presence . . .

[geek84]

Good morning folks
Once again many thanks for your help.
This may sound like a silly question, but as you know most of my work is in the form of Word documents and excel spreadsheet files. I have categorized them and created folders which contain all tbis work. So when I start the back-up process, can I just transfer these folders on to the memory stick or do I need to transfer each individual document separately?
Also after upgrading my Windows 7 to 10, I want to put all this work back on tbe computer hard drive. So when buying the memory stick do I need to make sure it's compatible with both Windows 7 and 10?
Thanks in advance for your replies