Google Drive by Google

What is Google Drive?

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Overview

How do I clean Google Drive?

Google Drive may store excess, temporary data on your computer that can take up valuable space. It may also store private data such as passwords or browsing history in the registry or on the file system. The easiest way to erase this data is by downloading AppCleaner, it is 100% free and about 1MB in size. A portable version is also available.

Clean Google Drive
with AppCleaner

If you want to clean Google Drive manually, you can follow the steps outlined below. There are four locations in the file system where Google Drive stores data that can be cleaned.

Files

To clean your file system from files stored by Google Drive and to gain free disk space, examine the following file system locations. First of all, open a command prompt window:

• Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
• Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
• Type cmd
• Hit Enter

Now list all the files stored by Google Drive that can be cleaned:

1. Type dir /s %LOCALAPPDATA%/Google/Drive/CrashReports/*
   • Windows XP: Type dir /s %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data/Google/Drive/CrashReports/*
2. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%/Google/Drive/*.log
   • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data/Google/Drive/*.log
3. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%/VirtualStore/Program Files*
   • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data/VirtualStore/Program Files*
4. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
   Type dir {folder}\Google/Drive/*.log where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
5. Type dir %ProgramFiles%/Google/Drive/*.log
   • On 64-Bit also: Type dir %ProgramFiles(x86)%/Google/Drive/*.log

Once you have identified the files stored by Google Drive that you want to clean, delete them using the del command or Windows Explorer.