C partition is filled to the brim with Windows-generated files

[br0kenspear]

I have 50 (48.3) GB allocated in C: partition:

• there's no games, not even <1GB games
• most installed programs are printer drivers, and work stuff, the biggest four programs doesn't even take 4.2GB of space
• most other files are in 'Documents' library are either .docx, .pdf, or just .txt all under 1MB
• Recycle Bin is empty
• I have run Disk Cleanup before checking again

my point is that user-generated files aren't that big, but somehow my C: got filled up to +40GB with only 8GB free space left

after checking with WizTree, most of those data are Windows-generated files like the WinSXS folder, or pagefile.sys

WizTree screenshot:


what can I do against these files? googling about deleting them seems to lead that it's a bad idea
I use this old laptop for work, so much prefer if I don't lose my data lol

Any help is appreciated, thank you beforehand

 

[SIW2]

in start search box type:

cleanmgr

 

[br0kenspear]

I have used disk cleanup a couple times before, it didn't "catch" those big files



the biggest one it shows me is just "Thumbnails" which is just 3 MB

 

[SIW2]

You will have to show what they are. Your previous screenshot doesnt. 20gb or so is not unusual for the windows directory. Pagefile of 16gb is not unusual.

 

[Alejandro85]

The biggest offender is Windows itself at 24GB, while the second is program files at almost 6GB. That's pretty much the normal thing for a fully working Windows install with some programs and not much else.

Your entire profile folder is 4GB and a little more and I suppose that's where your files are. Everything else is the system itself.
For cleanup you may look into the Windows\Installer folder that the screenshot shows at 3.5GB and the MSOCache folder is also completely useless. You could also look at the various temp file locations, but you won't get much more space than that.

The whole C drive is 48GB and that's a bit small for Windows. Since you're mentioning partitions, I may recommend to join them all into one drive, unless you have a good reason to keep them separated.