[SOLVED] The hard drive on which I keep my OS on is rapidly losing losing space. Any ideas what may be causing this?

[strider94man]

For the past week or so I have noticed my computers OS drive (ssd) losing space, with windows prompting a low disk volume remaining noise. I cleared some space thinking it was just low on space, as I tend to keep some space but not that much. Not a few hours later I get the same warning, so I cleared 10gbs of space, and then it happened again down 0 gbs of storage remaining. I have no idea what has caused this issue and have tried some suggestions I found online such as getting an antivirus to check for malware or virus' that could be causing it, with no success. It has meant that some apps and mozilla firefox which I use to browse and watch Twitch on aren't working as they should. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And Merry Christmas as it has just ticked over to the Big Day.

 

[rgd1101]

get windirstat to see where the space go

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

[strider94man]

get windirstat to see where the space go

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

Seems to be that 63% of the 120gb is taken up by windows. With nearly 50gb of that being Event Logs. Is this normal?

 

[USAFRet]

Seems to be that 63% of the 120gb is taken up by windows. With nearly 50gb of that being Event Logs. Is this normal?

Please show us a screencap of this WinDirStat window.

Also, a screencap of the Disk Management window.


Bottom line...a 120GB SSD is TooSmall these days.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

120GB is far too small these days. You need at least 256GB or larger.

 

[strider94man]

Please show us a screencap of this WinDirStat window.

Also, a screencap of the Disk Management window.


Bottom line...a 120GB SSD is TooSmall these days.

To be fair I did build this pc 8 years ago and I was unsure how to, if possible clone my ssd on to another new ssd and have my computer function like it currently does without issue

 

[USAFRet]

To be fair I did build this pc 8 years ago and I was unsure how to, if possible clone my ssd on to another new ssd and have my computer function like it currently does without issue

Cloning is a possibility.

What might you be cloning into?

 

[strider94man]

https://imgur.com/a/2VLVUfk

View: https://imgur.com/a/2VLVUfk

 

[strider94man]

Cloning is a possibility.

What might you be cloning into?

I bought a 1tb ssd, with the intention of cloning it, but never got it to work IIRC

 

[USAFRet]

Well....You might want to look into why that 50GB Event Log is happening.


But, to clone....

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

 

[strider94man]

Well....You might want to look into why that 50GB Event Log is happening.


But, to clone....

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

Excellent, will give this a go in the morning fingers crossed.

 

[strider94man]

Well....You might want to look into why that 50GB Event Log is happening.


But, to clone....

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

I am fairly naive when it comes to pcs, how can I go about investigating and fixing that Event Log thing?

 

[USAFRet]

I am fairly naive when it comes to pcs, how can I go about investigating and fixing that Event Log thing?

Look in the event logs, and see what is reporting as a "problem".

It might be something trivial but continual.
Or it might be something serious and continual.

 

[strider94man]

Look in the event logs, and see what is reporting as a "problem".

It might be something trivial but continual.
Or it might be something serious and continual.

The most common error seems to be:
Session "PerfDiag Logger" failed to write to log file "C:\WINDOWS\system32\WDI\LogFiles\BootPerfDiagLogger.etl" with the following error: 0xC000007F
and also A connection to the Windows Update service could not be established.

 

[strider94man]

The most common error seems to be:
Session "PerfDiag Logger" failed to write to log file "C:\WINDOWS\system32\WDI\LogFiles\BootPerfDiagLogger.etl" with the following error: 0xC000007F
and also A connection to the Windows Update service could not be established.

I've deleted the logs, and tried a suggestion I found online regarding that error, fingers crossed that has sorted it