Windows 7 System drive is full. why?

[BigBingo]

Hi All

I am new to this form and hope this is the right place to get help.
My C: dreive is a 128GB SSD which devided into 70 and 50 GB.
Windows and all programs are installed on 70GB, the 50GB drive is free.
All programs are about 11GB, Win7 ultimate 64 is about 17GB so all together it should not exceed 30GB. Suddenly I found on one day that my user folder became 25GB without any reason. When looking into it and calculated all subfolders it even did not come to 1GB.
So the C drive is almost full and I have no idea for the reason.
Can anyone help?

Thanks

Shaul

 

[Jimbo22]

Could you post a screen shot of your disk management window please? With a drive that small I wouldn't want to partition it into 2 drives, just leave it as one. I would only partition 500 Gb drives or larger but that's just me. With that screen shot we'll be able to tell and see what's going on a bit better and be able to work out a course of action for you.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Have you tried running CCleaner on the drive to see how much junk is on there.
I've seen drives which haven't been cleaned regularly have well over 25 gigabytes of junk on them.

Some software can create huge amounts of temporary files that don't get deleted.
And stuff your browser packs away can really add up too.

CCleaner

Piriform - Download CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy - Millions of users worldwide!

I've run it every day for years.

Mike

 

[Saltgrass]

You have hidden system protected files that can be quite large, like hiberfil and pagefile. They may be 6-8 gigs each.

Your user folder being that large might be from temporary file you have downloaded for the net, like .pdf files you have viewed, or maybe some video files.

I just put in a 128G SSD last week but left it all one partition, since I knew my previous install was 86 Gigs with everything I had on this basic system.

 

[BigBingo]

yes. I use Ccleaner very often.

 

[BigBingo]

May I delete those files? how?

Thanks

 

[BigBingo]

How can I delete those hidden files, if its ok?

 

[BigBingo]

Please find attached of Disk Management

 

[Saltgrass]

The hidden files are not really a known quantity to me. I have heard some folks talk about the hiberfil being related to hibernating your system, but you really need to find a thread discussing setting up your the SSD. Many times they will give suggestions about what you can move to another drive and what can be removed. There may be a thread here, in one of the forums listed at the top of the site.

You might check your temp folder to see if any thing large is hiding there.

 

[whs]

I would suggest that you first find out what is on the C partition - before you make any rash moves.

1. Install and run WinDirStat. Highlight the C partition in WinDirStat and say OK. Post a picture of what you see.

2. Go to Start > Accessories . right click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. Then type or paste this command

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Then hit Enter. Look for the C partition and tell us what it says under Allocated. If that is a lot, we will have to reduce your shadowstorage.

 

[BigBingo]

I would suggest that you first find out what is on the C partition - before you make any rash moves.

1. Install and run WinDirStat. Highlight the C partition in WinDirStat and say OK. Post a picture of what you see.

2. Go to Start > Accessories . right click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator. Then type or paste this command

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Then hit Enter. Look for the C partition and tell us what it says under Allocated. If that is a lot, we will have to reduce your shadowstorage.

Thanks.

The WinDirStat is great I found all file should be deleted and could do it from this program

Thanks again

 

[whs]

So you had no problem with your shadowstorage.

 

[BigBingo]

Thanks, I solved it, How can I define it so that it would not exceed more than I wish?

 

[whs]

Open an elevated Command Prompt and run this command: (note the spaces in front of the slashes)

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=X%

Where 'X' is the amount you want to chose. I would take 3%. You can also put in /MaxSize=300MB (which is the minimum but gives you no restore points).

 

[BigBingo]

Sorry for the ignorness what is "elevated" ?
Should I just it in the command prompt and it will stae after boot?

Thanks

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Right click on the Command Prompt link, and select Run as Administrator.

 

[BigBingo]

Thank you.
Will it remain after shutting down the computer?

 

[whs]

Thank you.
Will it remain after shutting down the computer?

Not sure what you mean. The elevated cmd (run as admin) you have to do every time you run cmd unless you set it permanently in cmd Properties > Advanced.

The settings you have done with cmd are permanent - e.g. if you have reduced the shadowstorage as shown, it will remain at that level until you change it again.

 

[BigBingo]

Thanks

I understand.