[SOLVED] Losing a GB of space a day ?

[Remial]

Ok to start off, I seem to be losing a GB a day (When I play games) some games are installed on my HDD and when I play on them I lose space on my SSD instead of on my HDD. I will lose about 3gb while playing the game and when I exit out I get 2gb back and lose the 1gb (sometimes I do get all of it back though). Also to note, I've had this OS installation for months (I reset in September) and I never payed attention to it until now. The reason I never payed attention is because I would stay in the same GB range so I never noticed till i really looked at it (e.g. it stays in the 330gb to 320gb range and doesn't keep dipping). It's doesn't drop unless I play on games.

I've checked Windirstat, and that Tree something program and I still can't see what would possibly take space as it looks completely normal other than an unknown file in windirstat that only takes up 12.3gb but I read post on something saying it's normal as it's like windows reports or something. I also saw the pagefile and hibernation and the most they take up is 5-10gb and don't really take up anymore than that. I'm just wondering why this is happening. Also, I still have a lot of diskspace (400gb). Another note, the programs I always use and are open are, Google Chrome, discord, battle.net, origin, steam, and sometimes microsoft store/xbox games but not really anymore. And I do clear cache in chrome a lot.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Can you state the version(not edition) of your Windows 10 installation? Make and model of your SSD? Do you perform Disk Cleanup from time to time?

 

[lordmogul]

Could be different things.
Windows pagefile (increases when more data is paged and shrinks again when RAM is free again)
Temporary files that get (mostly, but not totally) discarded once you're done.
Logs that are written.
Maybe windows updates are being downloaded.

Since you're already checking, run windirstat with admin rights so that it can go through system folders.

 

[Colif]

How much ram do you have. Its likely as above says, page file usage while you play game

Windows normally doesn't use page file at all. If you close a program, it will compress the data in ram, and only ever use page file if another program needs the ram instead, then it will write it to page file. Once you stop playing the game it will write it all back into ram again. It only really ever puts it on storage long term if you shut pc down.
Only real way to avoid it is get more ram.

If you get most back, its not a problem. I have had a drive that lost space constantly but it was dying. That was a few years ago now.

 

[Remial]

Could be different things.
Windows pagefile (increases when more data is paged and shrinks again when RAM is free again)
Temporary files that get (mostly, but not totally) discarded once you're done.
Logs that are written.
Maybe windows updates are being downloaded.

Since you're already checking, run windirstat with admin rights so that it can go through system folders.

Yes, I've already run it in Admin and see nothing wrong. And I mean, still the same. I'll send a screenshot of my WinDirStat.
https://ibb.co/8DcTxMc

Program files is just straight up my games that I play
Users is just my videos since I clip a lot in games (I haven't clipped anything for like a week and I started carefully checking my GB 3 days ago)
In Windows it's DelieveryOptimization cache, and iirc it clears automatically? (9.2 gb on it atm)

 

[Remial]

How much ram do you have. Its likely as above says, page file usage while you play game

Windows normally doesn't use page file at all. If you close a program, it will compress the data in ram, and only ever use page file if another program needs the ram instead, then it will write it to page file. Once you stop playing the game it will write it all back into ram again. It only really ever puts it on storage long term if you shut pc down.
Only real way to avoid it is get more ram.

If you get most back, its not a problem. I have had a drive that lost space constantly but it was dying. That was a few years ago now.

I have 16gb of ram. Games like Modern Warfare 2019 use up to 95% ram but then drop to 78% then 80% but that's only on battle.net games which I rarely play. Most games I play on a daily basis use 75% RAM at best.

 

[Remial]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Can you state the version(not edition) of your Windows 10 installation? Make and model of your SSD? Do you perform Disk Cleanup from time to time?

I'll just give both of these (sorry I'm not the most experienced with PC's)

Version: 21H1
OS Build: 19043.1415

Idk how to "make and model" my SSD sadly

I never perform disk cleanup as I've seen in the past my GB usage always stays in a certain range.

 

[Colif]

if game uses 95% of ram, windows has to use page file for everything else it is doing
You can look in device manager/storage to see what ssd you have. Windows should know.

Do you have storage sense turned on in windows?

 

[Remial]

if game uses 95% of ram, windows has to use page file for everything else it is doing
You can look in device manager/storage to see what ssd you have. Windows should know.

Do you have storage sense turned on in windows?

I have the Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1tb

And what is storage sense and how do I check?

 

[Colif]

try running magician on ssd and check its health - https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

originally Storage sense used to just replace disk cleanup but it seems they also linked it to one drive in recent patches

It frees up space on your computer by deleting things like recycle bin contents, temporary internet files, and app temporary files. This also includes the Downloads folder, but you can change that if you don’t want Storage Sense emptying it.

its in setting/system/storage menu

How to use Windows 10’s Storage Sense to free up Disk Space

Windows has always allowed users to free up storage space by emptying temporary files, recycling bin, and the downloads folder's contents. With Windows 10, Microsoft has made things a little bit easier with a new automated feature called 'Storage Sense.'

www.bleepingcomputer.com

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/windows-10-and-storage-sense/ba-p/428270

think it defaults to only running if storage is low. I never seen it on mine as I have 600gb free still.

 

[Remial]

try running magician on ssd and check its health - https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

originally Storage sense used to just replace disk cleanup but it seems they also linked it to one drive in recent patches



its in setting/system/storage menu

How to use Windows 10’s Storage Sense to free up Disk Space

Windows has always allowed users to free up storage space by emptying temporary files, recycling bin, and the downloads folder's contents. With Windows 10, Microsoft has made things a little bit easier with a new automated feature called 'Storage Sense.'

www.bleepingcomputer.com

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/windows-10-and-storage-sense/ba-p/428270

think it defaults to only running if storage is low. I never seen it on mine as I have 600gb free still.

My storage sense is off, and my SSD is healthy. I noticed after a restart I got my space back (and clearing google chrome cache) to where it started today. I noticed the page file decreased down to 9gb. Is there a way to switch my pagefile to my HDD so I don't lose space on my SSD?

 

[Colif]

You don't lose space, you get it back again. the total size of page file is actually unlikely to be used.
On the task manager, Performance/memory tab
how much space used in paged pool? that is how much page file you actually using now. It will grow when you play a game and shrink back down again

total page file size isn't the same as how much it uses. Page file also used to record error reports, so if say you got a BSOD, the page file is used to create the dump files. It normally is about same size as installed ram, can be smaller. I have 32gb of ram and yet my page file is 5gb. If you don't use it, it doesn't grow.

you don't really want page file on HDD as it will slow down performance of PC. HDD are way slower than ssd.
Its not like your ssd can't cope with the usage.

 

[Remial]

You don't lose space, you get it back again. the total size of page file is actually unlikely to be used.
On the task manager, Performance/memory tab
how much space used in paged pool? that is how much page file you actually using now. It will grow when you play a game and shrink back down again

total page file size isn't the same as how much it uses. Page file also used to record error reports, so if say you got a BSOD, the page file is used to create the dump files. It normally is about same size as installed ram, can be smaller. I have 32gb of ram and yet my page file is 5gb. If you don't use it, it doesn't grow.

you don't really want page file on HDD as it will slow down performance of PC. HDD are way slower than ssd.
Its not like your ssd can't cope with the usage.

Ok, thanks for the help. So I should be all good then right?

 

[Colif]

What you were seeing is normal. It should be fine

restarts are when you get all your ram back for most part.