Hard drive full

Eckoshy

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2013
29
0
18,530
My laptops C drive has been getting full recently. Last time it happened I removed unused programs and cleared browsing history, did a disc cleanup, and managed to free up 5GB's of space. This time I did all the same and couldn't even free up a full GB. Also according to the uninstall programs page I only have 72 programs installed and they're only taking up 1.48GB's of space in total. My C drive has a cap of 169GB's and a little over 900mb free right now.

What in the world is taking up all of my space?
 
Solution
Install CCleaner from ccleaner.com (just keep picking the free version, it tries to get you to download a trial).
Also it tries to install other stuff too, like Avast which is not bad software just I don't like it to try and install those by default, so look for that before you install and uncheck if you don't want that.
Open it up and on the first tab "Cleaner" hit Analyze. If it shows it will save you tons go ahead and hit Run Cleaner.
You can have it look for extra stuff by scrolling down and checking "Windows Error Reporting", "Windows Event Logs" and "Old Prefetch Data". You will lose logs like security logs and the like so keep that in mind. I found 100GB on a system once that Disk Cleanup missed and I am still not sure from...

scout_03

Titan
Ambassador
you did clean old temp files and cookies did you also clean unused registery keys and when was the last time you did try a defrag and check in the os the value or restore point usualy windows set it at 12 % of the disc so you could set it around 4 % to 5 % of the drive value .
 

Eckoshy

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2013
29
0
18,530


I don't think unused registry keys would make a big difference for me, I just use this laptop for internet browsing and havent installed any new programs on it in years as far as I can remember. I checked and my defraging is scheduled for once a week on wednesdays and my C drive is only 3% fragmented. Also apparently my restore points are completely turned off so they're not taking up any space. I don't remember doing this myself, but at this point I doubt I have enough free space to turn them on.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Free up a little bit of space, and install and run WinDirStat.
Delete some old junk from your Downloads folder, for instance.

Post a screencap of what WinDirStat outputs.
 

BadAsAl

Distinguished
Install CCleaner from ccleaner.com (just keep picking the free version, it tries to get you to download a trial).
Also it tries to install other stuff too, like Avast which is not bad software just I don't like it to try and install those by default, so look for that before you install and uncheck if you don't want that.
Open it up and on the first tab "Cleaner" hit Analyze. If it shows it will save you tons go ahead and hit Run Cleaner.
You can have it look for extra stuff by scrolling down and checking "Windows Error Reporting", "Windows Event Logs" and "Old Prefetch Data". You will lose logs like security logs and the like so keep that in mind. I found 100GB on a system once that Disk Cleanup missed and I am still not sure from where but it saved the computer.



 
Solution

Eckoshy

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2013
29
0
18,530


Welp, this fixed the issue! CCleaner just got rider of over 120GB's of useless files, and I didn't even check off the windows error reporting, event logs, or old prefetch data options. Thank you very much!