In the end there is a simple choice for hard disk cleanup; there is the manual way, or secondly you can use an automated tool to do the job. Manual cleaning means checking all files and directories within the drive and determining which items can be erased safely, and getting rid of them as you see fit. This procedure is much more thorough than scanning the drive with software tools but this way can be tedious if many files exist. There are also automated programs that make delete/dont delete decisions based on fields which include file properties, last opened dates, etc. and internally build a collection of files and folders that can be safely deleted.