It feels like Microsoft is ramping up its major system updates for Windows, with one now coming every six months or so. But the problem, apart from Redmond eating your files, is that Windows updates always leave a lot of temporary files and other space-stealing junk on your PC. This can accumulate over time and eat up many wasted gigabytes, which you may not be able to spare—nor should you have to.

If you're erasing sensitive files from a computer, you probably want them gone forever and far beyond the reach of data recovery tools. Unfortunately, that's not what happens all of the time. Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure your files are deleted permanently.

Have you ever accidentally deleted a file, a folder or formatted an entire partition? It happens to the best of us, but all hope is not lost. There are a whole lot of free data recovery and undelete utilities available online, though it can be just as hard to tell which ones will actually work (and won't turn out to contain malware). If you're feeling a bit lost, we've rounded up the top five free data recovery tools for you, right here.

Solid State Drives (SSD) work a little differently than hard drives, and no amount of drilling holes, degaussing, or zeroing out will actually properly secure the SSD. If you need to get rid of an SSD, you have a couple of options: Encrypt or shred. Here's what you need to know.

Despite the popularity of SSDs for desktop and notebook devices, there’s still a strong market for traditional spinning hard drives. While we always need the fastest storage possible, there’s a balancing act between performance, storage volume and price. Which explains why Seagate has released a 12TB 3.5-inch drive.

I'm a sucker for a good factory tour. I recently had the opportunity to visit two of Seagate's facilities in Singapore. Woodlands is a plant where Seagate manufactures hard drives while Shugart, named for the company's founder, was focused on testing drives. I thought I knew a bit about storage but those tours were an eye-opener. Here's what I learned.

Sony released a PlayStation 4 firmware update yesterday. Alongside some tweaks for PSVR and PS4 Pro users comes the long awaited introduction of external hard drive support. Here's how to set it up.

Every year, backup service Backblaze takes a look at failure rates amongst the hard drives in its data centres. This year's no different, and they have got all kinds of stats for all kinds of drive.

Using an external hard drive with a Raspberry Pi takes just a few steps, but WDLabs new PiDrive Foundation Edition makes installing not just one, but multiple operating systems for a Raspberry Pi simple.

Western Digital's external drives are favourites (and have been for a while) for performance, storage, reliability and price -- and today the company unveiled whole new line that packs more storage into the same portable form factors, as well a speedy 1TB SSD.

If you know a thing or two about hard drives, you're likely aware of SMART, or Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. All modern drives come equipped with this functionality, but taking the statistics it provides and predicting an actual drive failure? Fortunately, data backup firm Backblaze has real-world data to play with and as such, a solid understanding of how SMART factors into drive reliability.

When solid state drives were first becoming commonplace, most sites (our own included) suggested ways to optimise your SSD. With the exception of very rare cases, this just isn't necessary any more.

A substantial PC upgrade, or even a better workspace, doesn't have to be a huge project that drains your time and energy. If you can order the parts, there are several worthwhile improvements you can make that will pay off big when it's time to work (or play). Here are some of them.

Video: When you're taking your gadgets apart, a magnetic tray for all your screws could come in handy. Fortunately, you can make one by taking more gadgets apart.

Your backups are only good if you can restore your data from them, but all too often we don't test our backups to make sure they actually work. One way to remember: Set aside dates during the year to do the verification. Let's say Friday the 13th.

You may remember some talk of helium-filled hard drives a few years back, but like a lot of new technologies, it's taken time to get the manufacturing processes into line to ship the hardware in bulk.

Dear Lifehacker, What's the best way to dispose of a used hard drive? I've knocked a hole through using a crowbar and hammer near the spindle and through the circuit board. Is that sufficient to prevent any data recovery? Is there an easier way to destroy the hard drive?

The rise of cloud storage means that individuals and corporations are buying fewer hard drives, while the operators of cloud services are purchasing them in massive quantities. Now Google is arguing that as a consequence, hard drives really need to become less reliable -- and that's not quite as insane as it first sounds.

Video: SD card readers and external hard drives can take up a lot of space on your desk and leave you with a mess of cords all over the place. Make a custom, single enclosure for your external drives that will look lovely on your desk.