C:\ Drive always has insufficient disk space

[Joshua Martinez]

Hello everyone, I have a 128gb SSD as my C drive, and for the couple past months my drive is always full. I try deleting stuff, but I keep getting messages saying i dont have permission to delete the files. So basically i cant update my drivers, so no video games . Anyways I really dont feel like passing a lot of work into figuring this out. So im asking for your guys opinion on whether i should just restore my computer to factory settings and allocate my things better, and in what drive they should go. Now all my games are my second drive E:. So i dont know if this makes sense but what if i un plug my E drive and restore my computer to factory settings. Setup Windows and plug the E drive back in? That way I dont have to go through the hassle of installing every game again. BTW I have windows 7 ultimate. Thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

In todays world, a 128GB SSD is rather too small for the OS drive.
Especially when you drop a game or two on there.

If you just reinstall the OS, you'll be right back in this same place in a very few months.

1. What other drives are in this system?
2. WinDirStat can help visualize what is taking up your space.
3. large pagefile? Hibernation still on?
4. How much free space do you have on this 128GB drive?

 

[Joshua Martinez]

In todays world, a 128GB SSD is rather too small for the OS drive.
Especially when you drop a game or two on there.

If you just reinstall the OS, you'll be right back in this same place in a very few months.

1. What other drives are in this system?
2. WinDirStat can help visualize what is taking up your space.
3. large pagefile? Hibernation still on?
4. How much free space do you have on this 128GB drive?

Well as were are speaking I have 96.4 MB, but its fine if i do the reset. since i should be getting a 500gb drive in about a month or so.

 

[USAFRet]

96MB is FAR too little free space. You're killing the lifespan and performance of that drive.

Delete some stuff off it, or move to the other drive. Free up about 20GB.
I'm sure there's a LOT of junk on there you do not need.

Wait until you get the new drive, then do a clean install on that new 500GB.

 

[Joshua Martinez]

96MB is FAR too little free space. You're killing the lifespan and performance of that drive.

Delete some stuff off it, or move to the other drive. Free up about 20GB.
I'm sure there's a LOT of junk on there you do not need.

Wait until you get the new drive, then do a clean install on that new 500GB.

Dude thats what im saying, I cant delete stuff of the drive...For example i click on this folder called MSBuild in Program Files (x66) and i get this message folder acces denied.

 

[USAFRet]

Dude thats what im saying, I cant delete stuff of the drive...For example i click on this folder called MSBuild in Program Files (x66) and i get this message folder acces denied.

Right.
That particular folder you can't.
So what else is on that drive? What old junk is in your Download folder? Doc, music, video?
Move that stuff...

I'm just trying to help you so you don't have to do the whole install thing twice.

 

[nukemaster]

96.4 MB? That is very low indeed.

If you do not use hibernation, remove it(as recommended above)

Open a admin command prompt(start search for cmd and hold shift + control and hit enter). Say yes to the UAC prompt. Type powercfg -h off and hit enter. If you had a hibernation file it will be removed and the hibernate feature will be removed from the system(you can always do the same with on if you want it again in the future).

 

[Joshua Martinez]

96.4 MB? That is very low indeed.

If you do not use hibernation, remove it(as recommended above)

Open a admin command prompt(start search for cmd and hold shift + control and hit enter). Say yes to the UAC prompt. Type powercfg -h off and hit enter. If you had a hibernation file it will be removed and the hibernate feature will be removed from the system(you can always do the same with on if you want it again in the future).

Am I soppose to see anything afterwards I hit enter? Nothing came up

 

[Karadjgne]

Log in under admin, not user. Other than that, boot up in safe mode, it doesn't use 3rd party stuff. Chances are good the reason you can't delete stuff is because something in that features is being used. Check to see exactly what is being started up and disable it or delete from the startup. (you won't find much stuff in Windows startup folder, you'll have to look deeper or use programs that'll list startups)

 

[Joshua Martinez]

96.4 MB? That is very low indeed.

If you do not use hibernation, remove it(as recommended above)

Open a admin command prompt(start search for cmd and hold shift + control and hit enter). Say yes to the UAC prompt. Type powercfg -h off and hit enter. If you had a hibernation file it will be removed and the hibernate feature will be removed from the system(you can always do the same with on if you want it again in the future).

Im assuming it work, now i have 6.04GB

 

[USAFRet]

Am I soppose to see anything afterwards I hit enter? Nothing came up

You're supposed to see several GB free space on your drive.

 

[Joshua Martinez]

Log in under admin, not user. Other than that, boot up in safe mode, it doesn't use 3rd party stuff. Chances are good the reason you can't delete stuff is because something in that features is being used. Check to see exactly what is being started up and disable it or delete from the startup. (you won't find much stuff in Windows startup folder, you'll have to look deeper or use programs that'll list startups)

When I go into uninstall programs under control panel, i only see things listed from my Hard drive

 

[USAFRet]

Im assuming it work, now i have 6.04GB

Now install and run that WinDirStat application I linked above.
It will show you other stuff you can delete or move.

 

[Joshua Martinez]

Im assuming it work, now i have 6.04GB

Now install and run that WinDirStat application I linked above.
It will show you other stuff you can delete or move.

alright ill do that, while i was waitting i manage to free another 3GB of space

 

[Joshua Martinez]

alright im in the setup for WinDirStat

 

[nukemaster]

alright im in the setup for WinDirStat

What folder does it show taking the most space?

 

[Joshua Martinez]

Sorry i took for ever... It says the Windows folder 46.7 GB

 

[Joshua Martinez]

Besides that one its Program Files (x86)

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry i took for ever... It says the Windows folder 46.7 GB

OK...and inside the Windows folder?
My Windows folder is 57.5GB.
Inside that is a folder called Installer. This is 42GB of that.

What is that folder? This is all the install and uninstall of all the stuff you've installed over time.

Can you move it? Not recommended. If you ever want to uninstall something, the uninstall routine will not find what it needs.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-you-safely-delete-files-in-the-windirinstaller-directory/

I've had success just moving that folder off to another drive for temp reasons. YMMV.