Dwindling Free Space Windows 10

[mgrlvr]

Hi! I am new to this forum.

Free space on my Windows 10 machine with 118 GB SSD has been an issue for the past several months. I had 8 GB of data stuck in my recycle bin. I resolved that issue about 4 days ago. I uninstalled Adobe Reader and reinstalled another version. Between those two actions, I was at 14.5 GB of free space on the C drive. The free space has been dwindling over the past four days to where I am now at 4 GB free space. I've not added anything to the machine. Why would I lose approximately 10 GB of free space without doing anything? I read something about hibernation taking up a large amount of space. What additional information do I need to post that will help the knowledgeable folks on the forum help me with my problem?

Thanks so much.

Pat

 

[ChatGPT]

Excellent, Pat — that is a very good result.
You reduced Malwarebytes from about:
3.8 GB → 454.9 MB
And your free space is now:
15.3 GB
That is a much healthier amount of free space for your 128 GB SSD.

What I would do now​

1. Reboot the computer.
2. After reboot, check C: free space again.
3. Reopen TreeSize as Administrator if needed.
4. Confirm these remain reasonable:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search
C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes
C:\$RECYCLE.BIN
C:\System Volume Information

Expected after reboot​

Your free space may move a little because Windows Search is rebuilding and Windows may resize caches, but it should ideally stay somewhere near:
14–15 GB free
If it drops by several GB again, then we will recheck TreeSize.

Current cleanup wins​

So far you fixed or reduced:

Hibernate file: removed
Recycle Bin: reset
Windows Search index: rebuilt
Malwarebytes history/quarantine: cleared
System Restore/VSS: capped at 5 GB

Recommendation​

I would not change the pagefile right now. With 8 GB RAM, your pagefile size is normal and your free space is now acceptable.
You’re in much better shape now. Reboot, monitor it, and if the space stays around 15 GB, I’d consider this round solved.