How to Free Up Disk Space on Hosting?

Used storage space directly affects the stability of a website. If the server runs out of space, it can lead to reduced performance, the inability to upload new data, and even a complete website failure. Therefore, it is important to regularly monitor and optimize available disk space to avoid such problems. In this article, using ISPmanager as an example, we will explain how to free up space on hosting.

How to Check Available Disk Space?

Before cleaning up hosting, it is important to determine how much free space is left:

1. Log in to the ISPmanager control panel using your credentials.
2. Go to the "System Information" section.
3. In the "Disk Space" section, you will see information about used and available disk space.

How to Check What is Taking Up Space on the Disk?

After checking the overall disk space status, the next step is to analyze disk usage:

1. Go to the "File Manager" section.
2. In the hosting directory, select the folder that takes up the most space. The panel displays the size of each folder and file.
3. Use the sort by size function to quickly find the largest files.

How to Free Up Disk Space?

Let’s consider the main ways to clean up disk space on hosting. You can do this by:

Cleaning Up Email

Emails can take up significant space, especially if there are many messages with large attachments.

1. Go to the "Mail" section.
2. Open the accounts that occupy the most space.
3. Delete unnecessary emails.
4. Configure automatic trash cleanup in ISPmanager. To do this, go to "Mail", select the desired account, open its settings, and specify the retention period for messages in the trash and spam. It is recommended to set deletion every 30 days.

Clearing Cache

Cache consists of temporary files stored to speed up website performance, but over time, their number can significantly increase:

1. Open the root directory of the site via "File Manager".
2. Locate cache folders (usually named cache, tmp, or logs).
3. Delete the contents of these folders. Do not delete the folders themselves, only their contents. Before deleting, make sure the files in these folders are indeed temporary.

Optimizing Media Files

Images, videos, and audio files often take up a lot of space, so they should be optimized:

1. Download images to your local computer.
2. Use file compression tools such as TinyPNG or ImageOptim.
3. Upload the optimized files back to the server, replacing the old versions.

This will significantly reduce storage space usage without compromising image quality. If your project contains unused photos or videos, it is recommended to delete them.

Upgrading the Hosting Plan

If the above steps do not free up enough space, and you still lack storage, consider upgrading your hosting plan.

QHost offers the following options:

• Q-H10: 252 UAH/month — 10 GB SSD, up to 10 websites;
• Q-H30: 504 UAH/month — 30 GB SSD, up to 30 websites.

Choose a suitable plan based on your project’s current needs and pricing.

FAQ

What is Stored on Hosting?

Hosting stores all website files, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, images, videos, databases. It can also store website backups, email, and cache.

What is Disk Space?

Disk space on hosting is the allocated storage volume on the server provided for storing your website’s files. The larger the website, the more files it has, requiring more disk space.

Can Website Files Be Stored Outside of Hosting, and Where?

Yes, website files can be stored outside of hosting. This is often done with large files to avoid overloading the main server. Such files can be stored on cloud platforms (Google Drive, Amazon S3) or CDN services (Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront).