Solved Disk Cleanup does not delete windows update files

DavidE · Feb 26, 2015

You might not have enough free space on

 to run Windows Update cleanup ???
Did you look in Event Viewer to see if there are any errors ?
If you have hibernate turned on, turn it off, at least temporarily.
If you can temporarily move any User data to another drive to free up space, try that.
TFC is a more thorough temp file cleaner, and it's a "portable" program (no installation required).
[url=http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/]TFC - Temp File Cleaner by OldTimer - Geeks to Go Forum[/url]

Layback Bear · Feb 26, 2015

Laffer said:
I did not include the other partition on the screenshot, because it was not relevant (merely primary partition, no additional statuses). Anyway, I acted as was recommended: set the W: partition as inactive, so only C: remained active. Windows wouldn't boot anymore so I had to copy the boot files to the windows partition again (using bcdboot C:\Windows) after which it booted again. I tryed running the cleanup utility as administrator again with a restart after, but it still wouldn't actually remove anything. I have included a screenshot of the current status.

Our intension's are to help you with your problem not to dance around what you think is relevant.

It's your computer so do as you see fit.

Have a nice day

Laffer · Feb 27, 2015

Well, I'm glad to say the problem has been finally solved. Indeed there was not enough free space on C:. Luckily disabling hibernation gave enough free space, because I wouldn't have had anything else to remove as the partition already consists basically only of system files. Windows 7 really loves eating up the GBs. Thanks to DavidE and everyone else who were being helpful.

DavidE · Feb 27, 2015

You're welcome and glad to hear it's solved.
Thanks for posting back with how you fixed it.

Layback Bear · Feb 27, 2015

If you would of posted what I requested in post # 13 & 17 we would of seen that your drive didn't have enough free space. That is why I requested the information.

We don't request information because we can't find something else to do with our lives.
We request information so we can help others.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

DavidE · Feb 28, 2015

I don't know how much free space you have on

 now, but i would not let my [C] drive get below 20%.
Some other programs may not work when there is not enough free space, such as defrag.
From what i know/remember defrag needs 15% free space.

Consider getting a larger Hard Drive so you can increase the [C] drive space.
:geek:

xcln · Apr 13, 2016

Laffer said:
I have tryed running disk cleanup as administrator and I also tryed the method from the extended tutorial. If I'm correct, the extended method just gives you a bit more options to delete. Anyway, it didn't work. I have also tryed rebooting after cleanup, no effect.

Actually, I have read all the threads below (or above) as of 4/12/2016 and should mention this issue has not been saved in my case. This is for 267MB of Windows Update cleanup that are never really cleaned (they always reappear as 'to be cleaned' after cleanup w/ cleanmgr). There is plenty of space on the C drive of course, and this happens on all 4 of my Win 7 64 PC's, which are all very clean.

batkamanoka · May 29, 2016

xcln said:
Laffer said:

I have tryed running disk cleanup as administrator and I also tryed the method from the extended tutorial. If I'm correct, the extended method just gives you a bit more options to delete. Anyway, it didn't work. I have also tryed rebooting after cleanup, no effect.

Click to expand...

Actually, I have read all the threads below (or above) as of 4/12/2016 and should mention this issue has not been saved in my case. This is for 267MB of Windows Update cleanup that are never really cleaned (they always reappear as 'to be cleaned' after cleanup w/ cleanmgr). There is plenty of space on the C drive of course, and this happens on all 4 of my Win 7 64 PC's, which are all very clean.

xcln: based on this
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...es-under/8d98d924-b0b1-4f2b-bb4b-13f38126c588

I did this - and I freed up about 1.2Gb
* Stop automatic updates
* run cmd as Administrator
* net stop wuauserv
* rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution softwaredistribution.old
* net start wuauserv
(at this point verify that the SoftwareDistribution was recreated with a few MBs of space)
* exit
* Restart computer
* As administrator: Remove SoftwareDistribution.old

I hope this helps

xcln · May 31, 2016

batkamanoka said:
xcln said:

Laffer said:

I have tryed running disk cleanup as administrator and I also tryed the method from the extended tutorial. If I'm correct, the extended method just gives you a bit more options to delete. Anyway, it didn't work. I have also tryed rebooting after cleanup, no effect.

Click to expand...

Actually, I have read all the threads below (or above) as of 4/12/2016 and should mention this issue has not been saved in my case. This is for 267MB of Windows Update cleanup that are never really cleaned (they always reappear as 'to be cleaned' after cleanup w/ cleanmgr). There is plenty of space on the C drive of course, and this happens on all 4 of my Win 7 64 PC's, which are all very clean.

Click to expand...

xcln: based on this
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...es-under/8d98d924-b0b1-4f2b-bb4b-13f38126c588

I did this - and I freed up about 1.2Gb
* Stop automatic updates
* run cmd as Administrator
* net stop wuauserv
* rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution softwaredistribution.old
* net start wuauserv
(at this point verify that the SoftwareDistribution was recreated with a few MBs of space)
* exit
* Restart computer
* As administrator: Remove SoftwareDistribution.old

I hope this helps

INDEED - thanks for solving this annoying bug! - after moving that softwaredistribution.old folder I gained another GB, most likely should be OK, testing a windows update works fine.

GiovanniG · Mar 2, 2017

this is not a proper answer, removing SoftwareDistribution will cancel the download folder containing windowsupdate packages, that unfortunately (and unproperly) cleanup doesn't remove. They may be dozens of thousands of files.. that will slow down the system. As well in the directory installer there may need manual remove, I do always there, but be careful to remove only updates of windows.. there are all the program's installation packages there, if u remove them it will be very annoying then update, repair or remove that program. Anyway windows will boot next time without problems.

Cleanup is useful because it "repack" files within Winsxs, reducing a lot the space, deleting the old copies of files/packages and taking lot of time recompressing the packages. It's something only it can do, because it involves Windows internal components.

Actually I can't see the remove windowsupdate files in one PC where I run cleanup, in my opinion some files like CBS.log went corrupted, so I stopped the trustinstaller service+windowsupdate and delette something manually. Now windowsupdate is rebuilding all considering what is present in winsxs, it will take a while and I hope it will work after.

PiscesMike · Oct 28, 2017

DavidE said:
You might not have enough free space on to run Windows Update cleanup ??? Did you look in Event Viewer to see if there are any errors ? If you have hibernate turned on, turn it off, at least temporarily. If you can temporarily move any User data to another drive to free up space, try that. TFC is a more thorough temp file cleaner, and it's a "portable" program (no installation required). [URL="http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/"]TFC - Temp File Cleaner by OldTimer - Geeks to Go Forum[/URL][/QUOTE] Thanks from a fellow NC'er! I had ~4GB that would not clean and when I turned hibernation off, I somehow gained ~6 free.

GuglyBu · Apr 11, 2018

[FONT=&quot]

Laffer said:
Well, I'm glad to say the problem has been finally solved. Indeed there was not enough free space on C:. Luckily disabling hibernation gave enough free space, because I wouldn't have had anything else to remove as the partition already consists basically only of system files. Windows 7 really loves eating up the GBs. Thanks to DavidE and everyone else who were being helpful.

I encounter the same problem. Disk Cleanup says that I can free 7.18GB, but the progress bar disappears in the middle and nothing happens (also after restarts and running as admin). I'm pretty sure that I have the same problem as Laffer, as I have only 3.76 free GB on my hard drive. The problem is that this is a 102GB hard drive, so no matter how much space I try to make (uninstalled pretty much every program I had installed, cleared all temp files I could find, disabled hibernate etc.), I still couldn't free enough space for Disk Cleanup to work, as Windows folder itself takes the vast majority of the used space.

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Solved Disk Cleanup does not delete windows update files

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