Solved Huge size difference between C drive and the its folders.

[AlexZ]

Hello,

My name is Alex and I bought a powerful laptop 2 years ago, but with a small C drive. I've later bought a second inside HDD, but now I struggle tu keep at least 10 GB free on C drive so the computer can run smoothly.

My problem is that when I right click on the C drive there is about 5GB free, but when I select all the folders from the inside of C drive, it says that there are only about 75GB used.

So please tell me what to do, or what's the issue with this huge difference.

Alex

 

[DavidE]

Use WizTree free to see what it shows.
They have a Portable Zip available, no install needed.

Antibody Software - WizTree finds the files and folders using the most disk space on your hard drive

 

[dayzzy]

This happened to my external hd. I used smadav antivirus to run a scan on the hd and it eventually 'unhid' files and folder i didnt even know existed( this works if your hd is affected with virus). You also can try this, activate 'show hidden files' in ur pc settings (this should work if your hd is not virus-affected)

 

[AlexZ]

Thank you DavidE,
I used WizTree and this is my result. Please tell me how I can, or if it is safe to delete the large files from the system volume information. Because I have to do something to let the C drive breathe. I installed all the big programs that I use on D drive but it is still not enough.

Thank you dayzzy,
I scaned the C drive and there really was one infected file, which I deleted.

 

[DavidE]

It might be your Restore Points.
You might need to delete some Restore Points and lower the max used space for System Restore.

What Anti-Virus do you use ?

Here a couple of tutorials that should help:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/336-system-protection-restore-points-delete.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html

 

[Callender]

There is no way that adding up the size of the folders equals used space as shown by Explorer or other utilities.

Computing the size of a directory is more than just adding file sizes

Then what about ADS? (Alternate Data Streams) - you don't get to see those either.

Check out the differences for the same downloaded file using different utilities:

PowerTool shows 46.67Mb plus a 26b ADS

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Streams Manager shows a 32b ADS

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WizTree rounds it up to 46.7MB

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Explorer shows 47.778MB

​

So which one do you choose when adding sizes?

Note: ADS streams can be pretty large.

​

Now look at the same file using WizTree and it reports 0 bytes instead of 2.41GB

​

 

[Layback Bear]

From post #6

There is no way that adding up the size of the folders equals used space as shown by Explorer or other utilities.

Very well said and explained. Not allowed to rep you.

 

[AlexZ]

Thank you DavidE,
you were extremely helpful! Now my C drive has space to breathe. The slider was set to 20% and I moved it to 10% so I saved more than 10 GB. Not bad!

 

[Layback Bear]

What anti virus program are you using Alex?

 

[AlexZ]

Yeah, sure. I use Avast Antivirus.

 

[DavidE]

What version of Avast are you using ?
There was a problem where Avast was changing the System Restore max space setting, and creating Restore Points.
That is supposed to be fixed as of a couple of releases ago.
The Avast Secure Virtual Machines tool is what caused the problem.

Glad to hear changing the setting helped

 

[AlexZ]

I'm using the free version of Avast, more specifically: 2015.10.2.2218.

Do you thing I have something more to do to increase my free space?

 

[DavidE]

The latest version of Avast is 2015.10.4.2233
Info and download are available here:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=176600.0

You can update to the latest version
OR
keep an eye on your System Restore max space to make sure it doesn't get changed from what you set it to

 

[AlexZ]

Ok, I updated my Avast. Thanks for the link!

And I definately keep an eye on the System Restore max space.

Thanks again and have a great day!

 

[DavidE]

You're welcome

 

[Layback Bear]

I was thinking that Avast was a problem. That is why I asked.

I would suggest what ever anti virus program you use check often for updates often.
I check mine manually 4 or 5 times a day.