A tool called Optimize (or defragment in older Windows Systems) located under Tools. The way to fix this is to defragment a storage device and get everything sequential again. Over time as the drive becomes increasingly fragmented, the computer will slow down. The computer will generate forward and backward pointers to the new data location and back to the previous location, but now the drive has become fragmented. The data will need to be relocated to a new and larger space on the hard drive. As data is changed (it usually gets larger), documents and pictures) will no longer fit in its original space. All storage devices will become fragmented sooner or later. Next go to the Start Button, right click on File Explorer, This PC, OS (C:), and open the tab at the top called Tools. You have now probably recovered a lot of hard drive space. After you feel comfortable with the items selected, press OK. I know of someone who did this even after I told the person not to do it. Worst of all, after you compress your hard drive, you cannot undo it the process is NOT reversible. In order for a compressed drive to operate it will now need a lot of processor cycles to un-compress every instruction and piece of data to run. What you are not told is: Your computer will slow down to a crawl and you will not be able to fix it. NEVER check this box! I wish Microsoft would remove it. One word of caution! You may be tempted to check the box labeled Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space. You can also see how much hard drive space each checked item will save. These are files the operating system has determined you no longer need.
After you get tires of that, choose OK to delete them. Scroll down through the items and get familiar with as many of them as you can. On the left of the cleanup box will be a checkmark for each item you probably no longer need on your hard drive. This will bring up a box labeled Disk Cleanup for OS (C:). Next left click on the box labeled Disk Cleanup. It will still work with the older USB interfaces. Fortunately, USB is downward compatible: USB 3.0 will work on any of the slower USB interfaces. Older computers may have a USB 1.1, USB 2.0, or the newer PC’s have USB 3.0. Be sure to know what USB interface you have. For most people, a USB drive is the easiest way to go. This will require additional knowledge in purchasing a drive because you will need to know what kind of an internal interface your computer has and purchase the correct drive. It could be easily attached by a USB cable, or if you have a desktop computer, there may be internal space to put your new storage device inside. An additional storage device may be attached to your computer in several ways.
If you have used more than 70% of your hard drive, it is probably time to look at deleting or offloading files and photographs to another storage device. The first thing you should look at is how much of your hard drive storage you have used. Left click on Properties at the bottom of the drop down box and a new box will appear with a lot of useful information. Right click on the OS (C:) icon and a drop down box will appear.
If you are running Windows 10 (you should be), put your mouse curser on the start button at the lower left of your home page, right click your mouse and choose File Explorer. Then you will have a problem! Here are some helpful things you should do to keep your computer humming. If one does not do some housekeeping, your computer will begin to slow down, and in extreme cases, I have seen them come to a complete stop. Also storage devices, especially hard drives will get cluttered and fragmented. Computers can get clogged up with old unneeded and unused files, pictures and lots of other stuff.