C Drive almost full after failed download - how to clean up?

martinlest

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Hi. I bought some software for MS Flight Simulator today which involved a very large download (over 10GBs) - I left it running whilst I went to work. I had 13.5 GBs left on my C drive (one of 2 partitions on a 128GB SSD) so figured all would be OK. When I returned 10 hours later, the download had failed, as, apparently, my C-drive was full. No idea why - I know there was enough room for the 10GB download. I could only guess that some temp files were downloaded at the same time (??).

The problem now however is that after deleting my browser (Firefox) cache, running the Disk Cleanup from Properties/Tools for C drive, I still have only 3GBs left. What happened to the 13GBs space I had this morning? What else do I need to clean up? Tried a System Restore - no change.

I noticed that my ProgramData folder (hidden) is over 12GBs - most from the indexing service (Microsoft/Windows/Search), but that would have been there before today. (I've disabled the Windows Search service and moved that folder to an archive on another drive - I use a 3rd. party search engine, SearchMyFiles, for my PC, which is much faster than the Windows Search in any case).

Having removed the Search folder, if I show hidden files & folders, then select everything in the C Drive, sys files and all and then show 'Properties' - I still get some 4GBs less (28GBs) than is recorded in the Properties box when right-clicking the C-Drive root (32GBs) - where's the difference? I haven't run checkdisk yet, but before I do is there any obvious area I need to clean to regain the 10GBs I lost today?

Thanks,

Martin
 
Last edited:

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You could delete all but the latest system restore point and then set it to use less space by using the slider (system properties)
System restore is set to use 4% of your C drive by default (I think)

You could also use WinDirStat to see what's using up all your space. WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics
 
Last edited:

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Install and run Treesize Free. It will show you exactly where the space is being eaten up.
 

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Downloaded Treesize, thanks.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bitIntel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.5GHz16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom Build
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.5GHz
Motherboard
Asus H97I-PLUS
Memory
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz
Graphics Card(s)
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070
Monitor(s) Displays
HannsG 28" & Dell 24"
Screen Resolution
1920x1200
Hard Drives
1 x 2TB Samsung Evo 860 SSD
2 x 500GB Samsung Evo 850 SSD
PSU
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES
Case
Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube
Cooling
NOCTUA NH-L12
Browser
Firefox
Other Info
Custom PC used for X-Plane 11
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