You’ve deleted extra files from your crowded hard disk and you’ve uninstalled useless programs, but somehow your computer doesn’t seem to be running any faster. What’s going wrong, you might wonder? The answer is: absolutely nothing. Your personal files are not likely to be the cause of your slow computer.

In typical cases, a hard drive with a lot of data on it is not going to slow down your PC, although having at least 15% of the hard drive space free leaves space for temporary caches and files. Effectively, this means that your music and your vacation photos are unlikely to be taking up too much space if they are being used correctly.  The primary function of a hard disk is storing files; your computer has completely separate components which deal with processes and completing tasks.

There are a lot more culprits that are probably responsible for your lagging computer and it is very important to be aware of these more likely suspects. Malware, lack of RAM, and too many temporary files are all factors which are far more likely to keep your computer slow than your personal documents or movie files. The next time you’re trying to free space on your hard drive, instead of deleting or moving items you really use, take the time to make sure your computer is free of registry errors and that your temporary files have not been building up for too long.