[SOLVED] Massive folder, can I delete it?

[Fatalzo]

I've been noticing my HDD was running low on space.
I look in the Windows folder and there's a 10GB folder named WinSxS.
Can I delete it?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I've been noticing my HDD was running low on space.
I look in the Windows folder and there's a 10GB folder named WinSxS.
Can I delete it?

The short answer: NO

A longer answer: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

 

[USAFRet]

What size is your C drive?

WinSxS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

 

[Fatalzo]

What size is your C drive?

WinSxS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

1024GB

 

[Alabalcho]

If you are short on disk space on 1TB drive, and 10gb Windows system folder is too much for you, there's something completely wrong in the way you organize your storage.

Just keep in mind - Windows likes to have 6-10% free disk space on its system drive. In your case, I'd would not go below 50gb free space.

 

[USAFRet]

1024GB

You have other things going on.
The 10GB in WinSxS is trivially small in comparison.

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.

 

[Fatalzo]

You have other things going on.
The 10GB in WinSxS is trivially small in comparison.

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.

I'm not quite sure how to do a screencap on windows, but I shrunk WinSxS down to 5GB. The partition Windows is on is 200GB, it has about 165GB left.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm not quite sure how to do a screencap on windows, but I shrunk WinSxS down to 5GB. The partition Windows is on is 200GB, it has about 165GB left.

Upload your screencap to imgur.com and post the link here.

 

[Fatalzo]

Upload your screencap to imgur.com and post the link here.

I'm so sorry.
I tried running WinDirStat, and it overloaded my CPU and Harddisk. After leaving it for a minute, my CPU was thermal throttling down to 3GHZ (it's a 3.5GHZ CPU) and my harddisk was overloaded and clicking.

But anyway, Program Files X86 is now the second largest folder, with about 8GB of contents. Windows is obviously the largest folder, as it's about 15GB.

 

[USAFRet]

Be very very careful what you remove.

 

[Colif]

I tried running WinDirStat, and it overloaded my CPU and Harddisk. After leaving it for a minute, my CPU was thermal throttling down to 3GHZ (it's a 3.5GHZ CPU) and my harddisk was overloaded and clicking.

thats an unusual reaction, you must have had some interesting folders for it to be overloaded reading drive details.

 

[Fatalzo]

thats an unusual reaction, you must have had some interesting folders for it to be overloaded reading drive details.

Yeah, I ran it again.

100% CPU usage, and 100% Disk Usage. Memory usage is a nasty 20% (21% to be exact, or 3.4GB) too.

 

[Colif]

what make/model drive is it?

what are specs of PC? that will also play into how much it uses as well.