Solved Drive C space use up

op00iuy

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Hello Everyone,
I am using Windows 8 x64. I have a few software applications and one or two IDE's installed in drive C(system drive where my Windows is installed). Now my C partition is of 68 GB now suddenly I am seeing that almost all the space in drive C has ben used up and I am only left with ~6 GB of free space. Now when I am in drive C and select all the files and folders and check what is the space that it all takes up, the size returned is only 43.3 GB(check the attachment sc_shot1). But when I view C drive from MyComputer I only get ~6GB of free space shown to me(check the attachment sc_shot2). So if all the files and folders in C only take up 43.3 GB where is the rest of the 68.3 - 43.3 =25 GB. Am I being attacked by a virus or worm ?? I am using a licensed copy of QuickHeal Internet Security 2013 and I have scanned drive C with it, it reports no infections. I have also tried using the "cleanmgr" utility and clear up some space by deleting temporary files, but that at max gives me back ~1GB of free space. Please I need a solution to this problem because my drive C is getting filled up. Thanks and expect a quick reply.
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    CPU
    Intel i7
Download WinDirStat - Permalinks to downloads and other content and install it.
Look for pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys. These 2 are reserved by Windows and usually the same amount of Ram you have for pagefile.sys and 3/4 for hiberfil.sys (for example: if you have 8GB of RAM installed in your PC then Windows will reserve 14GB on ypur HDD for these 2 files). In addition, there's quite a few temporary folders used by Windows and Apps that need to be cleaned. Here's a few that you can delete the content under them.

  1. C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  2. C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\production\temp
  3. C:\Users\(User)\AppData\Local\Temp
  4. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\RAC\Temp
  5. C:\ProgramData\TEMP
  6. C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
  7. C:\Users\{your_user_name}\AppData\Local\Temp
  8. C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Temp
  9. C:\Windows\Temp
  10. C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Download WinDirStat - Permalinks to downloads and other content and install it.
Look for pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys. These 2 are reserved by Windows and usually the same amount of Ram you have for pagefile.sys and 3/4 for hiberfil.sys (for example: if you have 8GB of RAM installed in your PC then Windows will reserve 14GB on ypur HDD for these 2 files). In addition, there's quite a few temporary folders used by Windows and Apps that need to be cleaned. Here's a few that you can delete the content under them.

  1. C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  2. C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\production\temp
  3. C:\Users\(User)\AppData\Local\Temp
  4. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\RAC\Temp
  5. C:\ProgramData\TEMP
  6. C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
  7. C:\Users\{your_user_name}\AppData\Local\Temp
  8. C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Temp
  9. C:\Windows\Temp
  10. C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp
What help will I get from installing WinDirStat ? I am just asking because since my C drive already has very little space I don't want to install any software that won't be of much use to me and will just take up some space. And two more questions, I have disabled hibernation will I face any problems if I just delete the file hiberfil.sys and is there any way I can decrease the size of my page file?? I do a lot of gaming on my machine will decreasing the size of the page file hamper performance ??
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    CPU
    Intel i7
What help will I get from installing WinDirStat ?
If you click on the link then click on Home, you'll get the whole description what it does.

I have disabled hibernation will I face any problems if I just delete the file hiberfil.sys
When you disable Hibernation and reboot, Windows will automatically delete this file.

is there any way I can decrease the size of my page file?? I do a lot of gaming on my machine will decreasing the size of the page file hamper performance ??

Yes, you can decrease the size of pagefile.sys. Depend on how much RAM you have in your PC which you did not fill out your system specs. Assuming if you have 8GB then you can reduce to pagefile.sys to 3-4GB.

Win+X -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced. Under Performance, click on Settings->Advanced->Change
then untick Automatically manage.... then tick on Custom Size then enter the amount you want to set.

If you have another HDD in your PC, you can also move pagefile.sys out of your C Drive. Below is a screen shot that I set my pagefile.sys to D Drive.

Capture.PNG
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Now when I am in drive C and select all the files and folders and check what is the space that it all takes up, the size returned is only 43.3 GB.
Unless you've changed it, the default is that Windows doesn't show you some Hidden files and folders, and also some Protected Operating System files and folders. So when you think you're selecting 'all the files and folders', you actually aren't.

If you were to change Folder Options to show hidden and system files, and then selected the files and looked at the space taken, you should get a closer match. Beware that once you've made system files visible, it's easier to break something important, so you may want to change the options back later.

I'm not familiar with the utility that topgundcp mentions but it looks like a neat way to show you which files and folders are taking up the most space on your disk.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Check your System32 folder for junk content. In particular, look for files that have been copied from the root of other drives.
In my situation, there are at least two drives that have had content copied off their root system to my System32 folder.
Using WinDirStat to check after deleting folders that I *KNOW* shouldn’t be there, I found the size of “unknown” reduced.
If anyone can help figure out *which* of these files shouldn’t be there, it’ll help my clean up efforts!
I have posted this issue to Microsoft support atJunk content in system32


 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 pro
Hello Everyone,
I am using Windows 8 x64. I have a few software applications and one or two IDE's installed in drive C(system drive where my Windows is installed). Now my C partition is of 68 GB now suddenly I am seeing that almost all the space in drive C has ben used up and I am only left with ~6 GB of free space. Now when I am in drive C and select all the files and folders and check what is the space that it all takes up, the size returned is only 43.3 GB(check the attachment sc_shot1). But when I view C drive from MyComputer I only get ~6GB of free space shown to me(check the attachment sc_shot2). So if all the files and folders in C only take up 43.3 GB where is the rest of the 68.3 - 43.3 =25 GB. Am I being attacked by a virus or worm ?? I am using a licensed copy of QuickHeal Internet Security 2013 and I have scanned drive C with it, it reports no infections. I have also tried using the "cleanmgr" utility and clear up some space by deleting temporary files, but that at max gives me back ~1GB of free space. Please I need a solution to this problem because my drive C is getting filled up. Thanks and expect a quick reply.

You have 8 drives? resize your windows drive/partition, you have plenty of free space on the computer. Do you have 2 physical drives split up into 4 partitions each?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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