Windows 10 Baffled By Hard Drive Space

[Jebidia]

I've got Windows 10 Pro 64bit installed on my system and the hard drive is showing me over 60GB of used space. When I open the C drive and unhide all folders and do a Properties, it shows just over 20GB of used space on my system drive. I'm trying to figure out where 40GB of files are hiding. In the Programs list in the Control Panel it shows maybe 3 or 4GB's worth of programs installed. I've messed with the Disk cleanup option, thinking maybe there was some huge backups/restore points/old update files but really it shows about 20 MB's worth of used space in there. So I'm at a loss where all of this hard drive space has gone. As comparision my laptop with the 64bit version of Windows Home installed and all kinds of garbage on it shows 40GB used.

thoughts?

 

[kemical]

You may have some hidden partitions that are created at the time of install. Try checking your Disk Management section. If you right click your Start menu icon you should see computer management in the list. Open Computer management and look for storage followed by disk management. See if anything tallies up.

 

[Jebidia]

Forgot to mention...checked Disk Management and there is an additional partition of 400 MB. Still missing 15-20GB...Plus the main partition is the only one that shows up in the the Explorer window so that would come into play more if I noticed the total drive space was wonky vs what it should be.

 

[kemical]

Did you upgrade or clean install windows 10?

 

[Jebidia]

Did you upgrade or clean install windows 10?

Clean install Windows 10 Pro 64bit

 

[Neemobeer]

Did you check "Show hidden files, folders and drives" and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"?

 

[Jebidia]

BOOM! the "Hide protected operating system files" was the one. Wasn't aware of that one...So there's 2 monsters in there:

hiberfil.sys is nearly 27GB

pagefile.sys is nearly 10GB

What are my options here? Is the hiber one related to hibernating? I did turn that function off, but maybe this is leftover? I found the Terminal Command for killing Hibernation and now it's no longer in my Start Menu.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
Could you provide us with a Screenshot of your Disk Management screen on this computer in question. Or use your Smartphone Camera to take a pic of the screen and upload here.

Sounds like you did something wrong with your W10 install. Is W10 Activated; Yes or No?
When you did the W10 Clean Install did you erase ALL partitions on the hard drive? Or just the Data partition? Since there is a small 400MB partition left on your current partition configuration that's most likely a manufacturer diagnostic partition or a W10 hidden system partition.

Can you tell us the Make/Model of this computer? Is it a desktop PC or laptop? Is it an OEM computer (Dell, ACER, HP, Toshiba)? Or is it a self-built PC or custom-built PC? If self-built or custom-built PC please provide Make/Model of Motherboard, CPU chip, GPU card, RAM sticks, All hard drives connected to Motherboard, and PSU Make/Model/Wattage. If you don't have that list handy, you can go to piriform.com and download the free SPECCY diagnostic and upload the resulting output text file back here to this thread for us to have a look at.

And, can you tell us whether this computer came with W10 pre-loaded from the factory or not? If not, and you upgraded from an earlier version of windows (such as W7/W8x), which one? If you did upgrade from an earlier version, you could be experiencing hard drive failure. If an upgrade from W7 for example, your computer could be as old as 7 years old. Modern disk drives only last 3 years in desktop PCs, and only 2 years in laptops. If you are the original owner of this computer and never had it's original hard drive (bootdrive) replaced since you've owned it, chances are very likely it's failing or failed. Thus, the mis-reporting of capacity used.

Get us some answers, and we'll advise you further. Chances are you will need to some testing of your hardware in order to resolve this problem. If you haven't done this before or prefer to pay someone to do that, take it to your local Computer Pro. If you want to DIY, post back and I'll post a link to my Troubleshooting Guide to help you solve it.

Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Correct! The hibernation file is used by both desktops and laptops; and is also used on laptops for the "sleep" function. This saves battery on laptops, as it shuts off most functions including the disk drive which is a moving part and sucks up a lot of juice when spinning. The page file is used for windows internal housekeeping and you have to have that on the C: drive, unless you have a desktop or one of the rare laptops with 2 disk drives. You can then redirect the pagefile to a 2nd drive such as the D: drive.

You can also adjust the size of the page file. Adjusting the size of the hibernation file can also be done, though is much more difficult to do. Chances are your disk drive is failing, as per my previous post, if you've disabled the hibernation file, and it's still showing up. This is called a "ghost" or "remnant image". The file is no longer there, but it's showing a remnant of the file from the backup copy of the file in the MFT (Master Index File Table). This is why kemical asked you in Post #4 how you installed your W10. However, he forgot to ask you if you FORMATTED the data partition or not when you performed the Clean Install. This is an optional step, as most home users are not aware that they should do this, or even how to do it. It's also a good idea to DELETE the Data partition when in the W10 Clean Install program as well, in case your drive is failing and older (sounds like it is in your case) and remnants of files leftover are hanging around, even though you've disabled the function that produces them (the hibernation file!).

At this point, you need to TEST YOUR HARDWARE, using my Troubleshooting Guide, and replace that hard drive if it returns errors, and then do a Clean Install of W10 on the new drive, and immediately turn off the Hibernation or Sleep mode as soon as the W10 install completes and you get it connected to the Internet. That should take care of your problem.

Here's the link to my Guide: Windows 10 - Unclickable Task Bar

Cheers!
<<<BBJ>>>

 

[Neemobeer]

IF the hibernate file exits then hibernate is on.

I never use hibernate, you can disable it from an elevated command prompt powercfg /h off the file should automatically get deleted.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Thanks for that shortcut, neem!! I think it can also be turned off via Start-> menu via the Control Panel somewhere as well as through a Registry Hack.

BBJ

 

[Jebidia]

Custom built system:

x99-UD4
5960x
2 x 980ti
64GB DDR4 2600
15TB software RAID 5 = 10TB usable
Areca 1883 RAID controller card with RAID 5 on 8 x 2TB = 14 usable
Some other stuff in there

 

[Jebidia]

IF the hibernate file exits then hibernate is on.

I never use hibernate, you can disable it from an elevated command prompt powercfg /h off the file should automatically get deleted.

I did that, thanks, and I no longer see it in the Start Menu - How about the pagefile one. I found where I can adjust/disable. Do I need that enabled with 64GB of RAM?

 

[Neemobeer]

No, not really. I don't use a pagefile and I have 32GB.

 

[Jebidia]

Good deal. thank you guys for your help tracking this down.