Windows 7: 12 GB Missing Drive Space on C Drive?

A SATA drive is partitioned with 60 GB in the primary partition for the C Drive.

The C Drive reported about 48 GB used and 12 GB free.

Recently got 'low disk space warning' and saw it now reports 100 MB free.

Went and checked properties on all C:\ folders and files and came up with summed total used space of 48 GB.



Is something hidden or is something misreporting?

How do I investigate?

Thank you.

Prado

Your pagefile. Your hybernation file.

But if 12 GBs just vanished and you didn`t add anything to the drive, then something is not right.

Check by going to Computer Management, under Storage, click Disk Management, from there you'll know what is wrong.

Install TreeSize Free.

Open Control Panel, Folder Options.
Click on the View tab.
Select or unselect choices as necessary so it looks like this:

Click Apply then OK.

Start TreeSize Free. Click on Scan and select the drive you want to look at.

TreeSize Free will show you where all the space is being used.

I think I see the page file in the C directory ... it's about 1.2GB, and I included it in my sum.

I don't think I've ever activated hybernation. Wouldn't that file also be 'naked' in the C root directory?

So I guess, something else is wrong.

Prado

I forgot windows update backups.

Thanks for all the help. I found a large file in Windows\ Temp that i deleted.

BTW, my Win 7 install still seems pretty bloated at 17+ GB. What all can be deleted or removed to make it as lean as possible (not counting the Program Files, App Data and Documents, of course!).

Do I really need all those 'Installers?'

15, 16, 17 Gbs is about normal for a NEW install with updates.

What installers ?


Windows 7 system requirements



If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Thanks ... Inside the Windows folder is an Installer Folder ... it's about 1.2 GB on my system. I've searched since I posted, and apparently, it's best to leave it alone. Windows uses it when updating installed programs or to uninstall.