Question Why the Heck is my C drive so darned full?! No logical explanation.

[Matt_Stevens]

Okay, I have a 256gb SSD drive and a year ago I had 80 gb free. Now? I keep hitting just 3 or 4 gb free. I keep anything remotely large on storage drives. My default download is on my D drive and look, my C drive download folder, pic, documents, etc. folders are near bone dry.

Using disk cleanup (the most recent use) I was able to to get myself to 4.13gb available. WTF!!!!!

This seems impossible. No amount of looking around my folders can allow me to find where all these gigabytes are stored.

Any advice? I am still on Windows 7 so I wonder if Windows has a gargantuan Win10 download hidden somewhere.

 

[viivo]

Try this: http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

It's been a huge help many times for me. It's completely free with no ad/spyware.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Don't about 7 but I found the FileHistory folder in W10 in one of my SSDs and it have over 300gb of junk in it. Needless to say I turned that crap off since I do full backups on a weekly basis.

 

[mxnerd]

Use TreeSize to find out what's taking up space.

Find Space Hogs with TreeSize Free | JAM Software

TreeSize Free is a free disk space manager for Windows. The software shows you the sizes of folders including all subfolders.

www.jam-software.com

also run powercfg.exe /hibernate off to turn off hibernation

 

[Muadib]

Have you run Storage sense?

Running out of storage? Try these tips to free up space on Windows 10

In this guide, we'll show you 12 effective ways to free up space on your computer running Windows 10 to make room for more important files.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[eikelbijter]

Did you click "Clean up system files" in Disk Cleanup and remove older windows updates? Those take up MANY gigs...

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Yes it could be old windows installations or windows update files that you can clear out. I've seen that pretty often.

Also you may want to check just in case you have any other user profiles on the system that you aren't using anymore.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Holy cow, WTF are there 128GB of data in my Win Temp directory? I have run disk cleanup many times. I always make sure Temp is checked. "Clean up system files" is always checked. This is unsettling. I wonder what I am missing.

Microsoft Search has 6 GB. What? What the hell is that?

I also have 2.7 GB in Adobe CC and 2.5 in After Effects. I assume those are all cache so I can find a way to delete all of it. That will clear up a little space so I'll do that first.

UPDATE: disk cleanup continues to say I only have megabytes in data, NOT gigabytes. This is crazy. I am lost here, folks. It doesn't make sense.

I cannot find Windows Update Cleanup. anywhere. I am an Admin. That option should be available, but it is not. Googling gives me a lot of possibilities, but none that explain it thus far.

How to Delete Old Windows Update Files

There is still one part of Windows Update that needs your attention: the old files that are left behind. They can take up a lot of space.

www.makeuseof.com

Those instructions don't work because I have no Windows Update Cleanup.

 

[fralexandr]

time to clean install windows and reinstall all your programs?

Pretty much everything in windows temp can just be deleted via windows explorer. Just go in there and delete it. You might need to go to folder options >view hidden files to see some of it though. You could probably even delete windows temp and windows will probably recreate the folder on restart or when it needs to save/move something there

Other than that, How much of that is taken up by system restore? And your recycle bin is empty right?

If you have a dedicated gpu they save those driver install files in a folder labelled AMD or NVIDIA (i think, I don't currently have a computer running an nVidia GPU) in the root directory <C:> every time you install/extract them into a folder named with the version and date. The installer usually asks where to extract/download files to near the start.

edit: fixed some stuff

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Can you even do a clean install of Windows 7 now that it is no longer supported? The last time I did a clean install (I believe a year ago) it took DAYS because it kept getting hung up on the bleeping updates. What a nightmare. I never want to do that again. Never, ever. I should mention I have Win7 Pro. Not Home.

If I didn't empty my recycle bin I'd be the world's biggest tool. I promise I'm not.

I'll try and check to see how many restore points are left, but I know I have deleted many.

 

[fralexandr]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/
you should be able to download the most recent build version of windows from microsoft, and then you won't have to do as many updates.

But yeah, Windows 7's updater does not like under powered computers. Potato computers are a nightmare to update on 7 especially when they get a few updates behind from infrequent use. Hopefully microsoft fixed that in their latest build, but I wouldn't know, as I haven't used 7 in a while.

fyi there's a hot deals thread with windows 10 pro retail (digital copy) through PCWorld for $40

Win 10 Pro 64-bit $40

Seems legit. Article here . Link to buy is at the bottom of the article.

forums.anandtech.com

 

[Matt_Stevens]

That offer I will check out. I guess it might be time to go to Win 10. But I love Windows 7 so much.

EDIT: I just ordered and paid extra to have the disc. I love physical media. Now I am assuming that this is a full Win10 not an upgrade so I can do a clean wipe and brand new install???

By the way, the pc in question is actually damn good. Intel i7 3770K 3.50 GHz with 16 GB of ram and a dedicated nvidia geforce GTX 650 Ti gpu.

 

[fralexandr]

Yeah, it's supposed to be a full Retail 1 license version of windows 10.

I don't think I've had much trouble with windows 7 updates on any of my i5/i7 rigs. My work i5 computers didn't even have SSDs and more or less updated fine. It was always the core 2 duo ones with ≤4GB ram and no SSD...

 

[Matt_Stevens]

I just ordered a 500gb SSD. I might as well have a fresh drive. It's a shame I need to do this, but in life we have to move on when the situation dictates. So long Windows 7.

 

[mxnerd]

Windows 10 Start menu sucks.

Be sure to install Open Shell Menu (originally Classic Shell http://www.classicshell.net/) for Windows 10, I can't use Windows 10 without it.

Releases · Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

Classic Shell Reborn. Contribute to Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

open shell menu - YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Matt_Stevens]

That is good to know. I have always been a Classic Shell user. Without I am lost.