Windows 8.1 disk space

[v-600]

In My Computer my C drive shows 114GB free out of 232 GB (256gb ssd including recovery partition and formatting/marketing losses). Therefore I should be using approx 118GB of stuff.

My Windows folder is 16GB (I'm rounding all the next ones up for ease), Programs (both x86 and 64) total 32GB and my User folders are 18GB. I know windows hides the modern apps, but in my devices settings I can see I am using 6GB of windows store apps, and 3GB of downloads (I'm not sure if they appear in the users folder so am adding them anyway). I've done the normal windows recover disk space etc etc etc.

All told I can count 16+32+18+6+3=65GB. What is taking up the other 50 odd GB of stuff? How can I find it/recover it?

 

[Ketchup]

In situations like this, I like a little program called Windirstat:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

 

[imagoon]

In situations like this, I like a little program called Windirstat:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

Really wish they would update it. It doesn't parse deduplication properly, symlinks, ReFS to name a couple.

 

[Dahak]

You could also try http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

Also don't forget on Win 8 there is also the pagefile, and the hibernate that will take up space too

 

[mikeymikec]

System restore is my bet (C:\System Volume Information)

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Hey, Dahak, I tried that treesize program to double-check the Windows Side-by-Side folder as many told me it isn't reporting reality. When I used Treesize it gave me the exact same answer.

Now on my HP Stream mini, the original configuration for the OEM 32GB SSD was a winsxs folder of almost 5GB in size. I've since replaced that SSD with a Transcend 120GB SSD and used Macrium Reflect to clone the OEM drive.

All went well, but a couple of weeks into it the winsxs folder reports 9.4-10.4GB in size. The larger value was before disk cleanup, but the values were identically reported by both file explorer and treesize.

So, either treesize isn't worth anything more than the explorer, or the winsxs is really enormous for this Windows 8.1 [with Bing] operating environment.

 

[imagoon]

Hey, Dahak, I tried that treesize program to double-check the Windows Side-by-Side folder as many told me it isn't reporting reality. When I used Treesize it gave me the exact same answer.

Now on my HP Stream mini, the original configuration for the OEM 32GB SSD was a winsxs folder of almost 5GB in size. I've since replaced that SSD with a Transcend 120GB SSD and used Macrium Reflect to clone the OEM drive.

All went well, but a couple of weeks into it the winsxs folder reports 9.4-10.4GB in size. The larger value was before disk cleanup, but the values were identically reported by both file explorer and treesize.

So, either treesize isn't worth anything more than the explorer, or the winsxs is really enormous for this Windows 8.1 [with Bing] operating environment.

WinSXS is full of symlinks and junctions which nearly all apps don't count correctly on Windows, including explorer.

 

[Ketchup]

WinSXS is full of symlinks and junctions which nearly all apps don't count correctly on Windows, including explorer.

This. It is hard links only, but the NTFS file system only knows how to report it as used space.

The System file cleanup under Disk Cleanup "can" reduce the number of links in this folder, but YMMV.