Clean C Drive without Formatting in Windows 10/8/7 [Tested & Worked]

Need a simple way to free up and clean C drive without formatting? This page will provide you with practical solutions here to clean up your C drive without formatting in Windows 10/8/7. Follow to see how to clean your system C drive with ease now.

This page provides reliable solutions for you to clean C drive and even delete system C drive, follow to see how can you clean or delete your system C drive in Windows 10/8/7 on your own now:

How to Clean C Drive without Formatting Windows 10/8/7

When the computer or Windows system has been running for a very long period, many useless junk files will be leftover in the system C drive. With more and more leftover files accumulating, the computer becomes slower and slower.

🚩Read More: How to Find Large Files on Windows 10 

So how to resolve this problem? The best and most straightforward solution to this issue is to clean the C drive. Some people may come up with the solution to format C drive. But Windows computer won’t allow you to format the system C drive. Huge file loss or even system error would occur if you do so. 
Here in the below, we’ve gathered two tested and effective methods for you to apply and clean C drive without formatting in Windows 10, 8 and even 7:

Method 1. Clean Up C Drive Without Formatting

You’ll see that Disk Cleanup utility can only remove some temp files and Recycle Bin files on your computer. If you want to remove more Windows built-in application junk files or large files in Windows 10/8/7, you'll need to turn on another powerful partition manager software for help.

To remove all useless files and even large files from your C drive, we'd like to recommend you try EaseUS CleanGenius software. 
It's 100% free and risk-free for optimizing computer performance with its Cleanup feature. You may directly download and install it on your PC, following guidelines below to clean up your C drive without formatting now:

Step 1. Download and install EaseUS Partition Master Suite.

Step 2. Click PC Cleaner and install EaseUS CleanGinus. Then, click "Cleanup" and click "Scan" to start cleaning up the system and make your PC as good as new.

Step 3. The software will scanning all over your computer to find idle data files that take a huge amount of disk space, you can select useless large files, system junk files and Windows invalid entries and click "Clean" to start system cleanup process.

Step 4. When the scan is complete, click "Done" to finish cleaning system junk files.

Method 2. Run Disk Cleanup Utility to Clean C drive

1. Open This PC/My Computer, right-click on C drive and select Properties.

2. Click Disk Cleanup and select files that you want to delete from C drive.

3. Click OK to confirm the operation.

 

After this, you'll get a clean but faster-running speed on your computer. 

Delete System C Drive (Including OS) Without Formatting

Besides cleaning or clearing the C drive, some other Windows users are even thinking to delete the system C drive (including the OS) from HDD or SSD without formatting. But why do these people want to do so? And how to do it?

Here is a list of reasons why Windows users want to delete a system drive from a Windows computer, and if you are one of them, don't worry. You'll find a solution here:

1. 1. To perform a clean install of Windows 10/8/7: wiping all data on the system disk is necessary, especially to delete the system drive.
2. 2. To delete the system drive on the old HDD after system cloning to a new HDD/SSD.
3. 3. To delete system C drive on the target disk when the OS migration process failed or is halted.

How to delete the system C drive without formatting? You can apply professional partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master Pro for help.

This software can do the job that other Windows built-in tools or third-party software can't do: to directly delete system C drive and partitions on your Windows disk with a created WinPE bootable disk. 

You can directly activate it into a full version and apply it to the below guidelines to delete the system C drive with ease now.

1. Create a WinPE disk

2. Delete the system C drive

Now, insert the bootable USB to your PC, restart it, and press F2/F8/Del to enter BIOS and set the computer to boot from the EaseUS Bootable disk so as enter EaseUS Partition Master.

And now, you can continue with the next steps to fully delete the C drive and clean up it for new usages:

Note that this will delete all existing partitions on the system disk, including the OS. So make sure you've backed up all essential content in advance.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, go to the Partition Manager section, right-click your OS disk and select "Delete All".

Step 2. Click "Yes" ton confirm that you are sure to delete all partitions on the OS disk.

Step 3. Click "Execute * Task" and click "Apply" to start deleting all partitions with OS on the selected disk.

Note: After this, you'll just need to wait patiently and EaseUS Partition Master will automatically delete the OS drive and other data partition on your disk.

Note: If you've deleted the system C drive on your current running computer, you’ll not be able to run or boot up the Windows system anymore. You can refer to clean install Windows 10, 8 or 7 for tutorial help.

Conclusion

Clean up C drive is simple and easy with reliable methods. If you simply want to free up some space in the C drive, you can apply Method 1 with EaseUS WindowsGenius to help you quickly clean up junk files in the system c drive.

If you want to clean and delete the entire OS drive so as to reinstall Windows, you can turn to EaseUS Partition Master with its Bootable Media for help. It's efficient and quick to execute the operation.

FAQs About Clean C Drive in Windows without Formatting

If you have more questions on how to clean the C drive or clear the C drive without formatting in Windows computers, follow the questions and find answers below:

1. How to clean your computer without deleting files?

Here is a list of tips that you can follow to deep clean your computer without deleting files:

• Back up all valuable files and data to an external hard drive or cloud drive.
• Create a backup of useful installed programs and software to an external hard drive. For a guide, follow this link: Backup Apps Windows 11.
• Then, uninstall installed programs and software.
• Wipe all the existing partitions and volumes.

2. How do I deep clean my C: drive?

• Run the Disk Cleanup utility to remove temporary files, delete Windows.old, and system backup images.
• Uninstall has broken or corrupted programs.
• Empty the recycle bin.
• Delete File History backup.
• Clean junk files with antivirus software.

3. What can I delete to free up space on C drive?

• Uninstall broken or unnecessary programs.
• Clean useless desktop folders and files.
• Empty the recycle bin.
• Find and delete duplicate files.
• Clean up useless downloaded folders and files.
• Discard temporary files.
• Upload files to the cloud drive and delete them from your C drive.