C drive says it is short on space, but it isn't

[RovingMike]

My PC is running very slowly again and says it has used 101GB of space on C drive. But the total of all the C drive folders is only 59GB.

Cleaning up does not seem relevant, and that has been done recently anyway.

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

When you looked at the size of all your folders did you also include all the hidden folders? Maybe there are a lot of old updates still on the drive.

There are also many system files and parts reserved such as for recycle bin, paging file...

Did you try performing the Windows disk cleanup or with another program?

You can use disk cleanup in Windws and clean out all old system files and updates.

Hope it helps,

David

[RovingMike]

Hi thanks. I wouldn't know where to look for hidden files. It keeps offering me to delete an old version of Windows, but why that is on a 2 year old machine that came with W10 I don't know.

It has actually been running out for a year The main memory was invisible, but a techy found it under guarantee and I do all picture work and store files in that. Tried cleanup many times andf it looks fine.

Thanks,

Mike

[iomare]

Hi Mike,

In the last couple of years Windows 10 has updated many times to newer version. Each time it is like a new installation of Windows 10. New one coming these coming weeks. The older version remains on your PC and also many updates live there too.

Try performing the Windows cleanup.

Open any folder and on the left of Window right-click on c: drive and click on Properties. Next click on disk cleanup in the small Window. Wait for the calculation. In the next small Window click on clean up system files. Wait again for calculation and then tick all the unnecessary "stuff" such as Windows update, temporary files, old installation files etc.... Then click on OK. There should be quite a bit of stuff. I performed myself while writting this and it removed 3GB on a computer where i clean installed Windows a few months ago.

Hope it helps,

David

[jorkki]

The free WindirStat is a nice free utility to summarize your disk use. It also shows the hidden files and sums up each directory tree so you can find where to look for the hogs. It would also let you delete files, but be careful with that. Do the Disk cleanup as David says.

https://WinDirStat.net/

[RovingMike]

Many thanks. I saved about 15GB. Had run it many times but was afraid to click on the unticked boxes like windows.

[RovingMike]

That nailed it thanks.