Question Free Space on a 120GB SSD has dropped to less than 4GB ?

[wingspar2]

I built this computer from scratch a few years ago. It is running Win 7. (I have a Win 11 Computer, but like Win 7 better) Don’t know why I installed a 120GB SSD drive for the “C” drive, but I did. Should have gone larger. It has had 11GB of free space for a very long time. It will dip down to around 9GB of free space, but go back to 11GB free space after I do a backup. Just last week after doing a backup I saw that the free space is now 3.61GB.

I have not installed anything on this computer in the last year.

Crystal Disk Info says the drive is good at 79%. It’s been 80% for the last year. What would cause this drive to suddenly loose so much free space?

 

[beyondlogic]

I built this computer from scratch a few years ago. It is running Win 7. (I have a Win 11 Computer, but like Win 7 better) Don’t know why I installed a 120GB SSD drive for the “C” drive, but I did. Should have gone larger. It has had 11GB of free space for a very long time. It will dip down to around 9GB of free space, but go back to 11GB free space after I do a backup. Just last week after doing a backup I saw that the free space is now 3.61GB.

I have not installed anything on this computer in the last year.

Crystal Disk Info says the drive is good at 79%. It’s been 80% for the last year. What would cause this drive to suddenly loose so much free space?

updates cache history in browsers etc.

failing sectors on the drive possibility.

programs updating. ( even if windows isnt updating individual drivers etc will.

 

[Misgar]

Have you run Microsoft 'Disk Cleanup' recently. You might be able to free up a few GB of old Windows Updates, from the time when they were still available. Do you have large files in the Recycle Bin. How many Restore Points are there? They all consume space.

You could also try running CCleaner to clean out hundreds of MB of Temporary files in the Windows folder.
https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download/standard

Then there's the obvious solution which is to buy a bigger SATA SSD (240 or 480GB) and clone the existing Windows 7 120GB SSD using Macrium Reflect or similar. You could do this on the Windows 11 PC if you take the 120GB SSD out of the Windows 7 PC.

If you want to see what's eating up your disk space, try WizTree.
https://www.diskanalyzer.com/

 

[Ralston18]

Before doing anything:

Ensure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the host system in question.

Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[USAFRet]

What would cause this drive to suddenly loose so much free space?

Install and run either WinDirStat, or WizTree.

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.
Post a screencap here.

Also, a screencap of your Disk Management window.

 

[Zerk2012]

I ran W7 on a 64GB SSD for years but had another drive to redirect the downloads that would allow it.

 

[geofelt]

You are at the point where performance might turn abysmal.
Think 8 hours to boot.
SSD devices are now reasonably cheap.
Plan to clone your C drive to something much larger.

 

[dontlistentome]

I used a program that would index files as part of what it did. I didn't know it was indexing files. These indexes turned out to be about 1 to 2 mb in size...but it created thousands of them. One day I noticed my drive was very low on space with no real explanation of why. So I started looking at folders, to see if any of them was abnormally inflated. That program's folder was the one. The index files in it were the culprit. I deleted all of them and got something like 40gb back. I now always double check what each program does in the background.

 

[wingspar2]

Finally getting back to this thread. I clear browser cache and history every time I use the browser, and I empty the recycle bin as soon as I delete something, so I don’t see either of those things as a problem.

Yes, right now I’m doing a backup almost daily since I noticed the reduced space on my “C” drive.

I started to download WizTree, but you can’t do it without what they are calling a donation, so I backed out of that.

How does one find out about failing sectors on a drive?

I did download and purchase CC Cleaner and I ran it. I am now up to 7.95GB free space on the “C” drive, but it totally destroyed Firefox. I used my backup to restore all my bookmarks, but the history keeps disappearing and it was no longer my default browser, even tho I keep telling it to be my default browser. The entire interface changed drastically and it took me hours to get it back to where I had it. Very frustrating experience. I’m nervous to run CC Cleaner again. Didn’t seem to affect anything else on the computer, but it did get the free space on my “C” drive from 3.61GB to 7.95GB.

 

[USAFRet]

I started to download WizTree, but you can’t do it without what they are calling a donation, so I backed out of that.

WinDirStat requires no 'donation'.
100% free.

 

[wingspar2]

WinDirStat requires no 'donation'.
100% free.

I don’t know if you can tell anything by this screen shot as it has scroll bars that go on forever

 

[Misgar]

I started to download WizTree, but you can’t do it without what they are calling a donation, so I backed out of that.

I've always managed to download WizTree without having to make a donation. You'll probably find the donation is optional. Try WinDirStat instead. I've used it in the past but it's much slower than WizTree.

I did download and purchase CC Cleaner

I always download the free version of CCleaner. The link to the free version might not immediately be obvious, but it's not that difficult to avoid the paid-for versions.

it totally destroyed Firefox.

I've been using CCleaner for many years and it's never touched Firefox which is my default browser. Goodness knows what you did to make it mess up your system. Don't run it again if it's causing trouble.

I'd strongly advise cloning your 120GB drive to a brand new 240GB/480GB/1TB SSD before anything else goes wrong. You seem to be attracting disaster at each step.

When things go drastically wrong, I start from scratch and perform a clean install of Windows. It only takes 15 minutes, even on a SATA SSD in a slow 2015 computer. Another 45 minutes setting up Windows the way I like it. 2 to 3 hours installing all my favourite programs and I'm back to normal. I keep all my data on other drives, plus backups.

I get very unhappy if free space on a Windows partition drops below 10GB. On an SSD, I try not to fill more than 80% of the total capacity. Sometimes I leave 10% free on an SSD (unformatted partiton) as "over provisoning".

Good luck.

 

[Misgar]

I don’t know if you can tell anything by this screen shot

Investigate the two big red blocks. One might be hiberfil.sys (hibernation). I get rid of this on all desktop systems after disabling Windows Fast Start.

https://www.howtogeek.com/885071/how-to-disable-hibernation-and-remove-hiberfil-sys-in-windows-11/

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

 

[USAFRet]

I don’t know if you can tell anything by this screen shot as it has scroll bars that go on forever

Your pagefile and hibernation file (2 big pink blobs on the right) are consuming 25% of your drive space. ~28GB.

Turn hibernation OFF
Reduce the pagefile size.

 

[USAFRet]

And WizTree is still free. There is a download link at the top of that link.

 

[Misgar]

As I intimated earlier, I consider hiberfil is a waste of space on my desktop computers (and it messes up multiple boot systems). Get rid of it if you want to free up space.

It's getting late here and the single malt is nearly finished. See you tomorrow. If you ever visit the Isle of Jura, check out the distillery.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Too much pr0n.

Since you didn't post your system specs and are running Windows 7, id say set your page file to 12GB to be safe. Turn off hibernation and fastboot.

Also there is no way Windows 7 (Windows folder) should be using 40GB. Windows 11 is a storage hog and doesn't even use that much.

 

[USAFRet]

id say set your page file to 12GB to be safe.

I'd say 1GB.
Not 1GTB.

 

[wingspar2]

Your pagefile and hibernation file (2 big pink blobs on the right) are consuming 25% of your drive space. ~28GB.

Turn hibernation OFF
Reduce the pagefile size.

I tried once, but failed. Just tried turning off hibernation and now my free space is 19.3GB. Hasn’t been that much for a very long time.

I also Googled how to clone an SSD to a larger SSD and came up with what looks like good info using EaseUS Disk Copy. Anyone familiar with this? Here is a link to what I found. https://www.pcworld.com/article/2138560/how-to-clone-an-ssd-to-a-larger-ssd-with-no-data-loss.html

 

[wingspar2]

Investigate the two big red blocks. One might be hiberfil.sys (hibernation). I get rid of this on all desktop systems after disabling Windows Fast Start.

https://www.howtogeek.com/885071/how-to-disable-hibernation-and-remove-hiberfil-sys-in-windows-11/

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

I looked at your first link that was for Win 11, not Win 7, but there was a screen shot on what one needs to type into the cmd screen, and that worked. Thanks for that link.

 

[USAFRet]

I also Googled how to clone an SSD to a larger SSD and came up with what looks like good info using EaseUS Disk Copy.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Magician (which includes Data Migration), if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
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