In the end there is a simple choice for hard disk cleanup; firstly you could delete files by hand, or you can put the power of software automation to work for you. The manual method involves stepping through all file folders then coming up with a list of which files are no longer needed, and deleting them on a per item basis. Because you examine each file manually the risks are less than scanning the drive with software tools but can be repetitive and time intensive. You can also make use of software tools that use information like the date files were last accessed, and make lists of files that need to be removed.

There is a great breadth and depth of products online that in each case, view drive cleanup techniques using their own techniques. Various software products can be found now, that help users erase porn while also cleaning up other types of material. This is not the only function that these utilities are able to do, several of these can also clean up orphaned data, perform automated porn removal, find programs that are not properly licensed, and find out how to recover disk space.