Windows 8 Why is windows 8.1 using up 80 GB of hard drive space ?

[Explodey]

I just reformatted my system drive and reinstalled Windows 8.1 yesterday. The only software I've installed so far is Chrome and Steam (just the Steam app, no games). But for some reason I'm using up 80 GB of space on my system drive. Windows can't possibly be using that much space, right? I mean, before I reformatted, I had Windows 8.1 plus a bunch of software installed, and I still wasn't using that much space!

I went to Settings -> Disk Space, and it says that my apps are using 336 kB of space, and my media and files are using up 8 MB of space. None of this makes any sense. I'm using a fairly small SSD for my system drive, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to reformat it yet again, unless anyone has any other ideas? Thanks.

 

[Neemobeer]

Please post a picture of Disk Management and grab a copy of DU Disk Usage and open a command prompt in the same directory as du and type du -l 2 C:\ >> du_output.txt and let it and upload that text file

 

[Neemobeer]

Actually you may want to right click on C:\Windows\temp if this folder is taking up a ton of space open the folder press ctrl + a then press delete and delete all the content here.

 

[Explodey]

OK here's a screenshot, and I tried that other thing but I don't think I really understand what you mean, because it just kept saying "du is not recognized as an internal or Extertal command." Also I checked the temp folder, but there's nothing big in there.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I would just reformat my drive again, but I'm afraid the same thing is just going to happen again.

 

[Neemobeer]

• Download du.exe from the link I gave you to your desktop.
• Press the [Windows key] and type cmd
• Command Prompt should be listed or cmd.exe, click it, you will have a black window similiar to a terminal in Linux or Mac
• Type cd %USERPROFILE%\Desktop and press enter
• Now if you type du /? you should get a help output for du
• Now type du -l 2 C:\ >> du_output.txt
• It should run and create a text file on your desktop, go ahead and upload that

 

[Explodey]

Great, thanks for explaining. Here's what I got:

0 c:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4194830336-2834351242-1271683095-1001
0 c:\$Recycle.Bin
6 c:\DU
13 c:\Intel\Logs
13 c:\Intel
34,939 c:\Program Files\AMD
6,802 c:\Program Files\Boot Camp
84,771 c:\Program Files\Common Files
1,023 c:\Program Files\DIFX
10,222 c:\Program Files\Intel
25,691 c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer
0 c:\Program Files\Uninstall Information
10,000 c:\Program Files\Windows Defender
8,757 c:\Program Files\Windows Journal
6,164 c:\Program Files\Windows Mail
5,242 c:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
279 c:\Program Files\Windows Multimedia Platform
7,641 c:\Program Files\Windows NT
6,276 c:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer
279 c:\Program Files\Windows Portable Devices
0 c:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar
0 c:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell
208,092 c:\Program Files
2,679 c:\Program Files (x86)\Apple Software Update
118,235 c:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies
52,231 c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
0 c:\Program Files (x86)\Google
16,496 c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel
6,593 c:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer
23 c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft.NET
1,326 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Defender
5,321 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mail
3,166 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player
225 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Multimedia Platform
7,240 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows NT
5,325 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Photo Viewer
225 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Portable Devices
0 c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar
0 c:\Program Files (x86)\WindowsPowerShell
219,091 c:\Program Files (x86)
6,800 c:\ProgramData\Apple
0 c:\ProgramData\ATI
37,160 c:\ProgramData\Intel
35,667 c:\ProgramData\Microsoft
16,763 c:\ProgramData\Package Cache
0 c:\ProgramData\regid.1991-06.com.microsoft
96,392 c:\ProgramData
1,411 c:\Users\Default
247,646 c:\Users\Jeremy
3 c:\Users\Public
249,060 c:\Users
0 c:\Windows\addins
1,133 c:\Windows\ADFS
4,973 c:\Windows\AppCompat
11,674 c:\Windows\apppatch
0 c:\Windows\AppReadiness
752,982 c:\Windows\assembly
572 c:\Windows\BitLockerDiscoveryVolumeContents
32,975 c:\Windows\Boot
2,242 c:\Windows\Branding
7,042 c:\Windows\Camera
0 c:\Windows\CbsTemp
4,398 c:\Windows\Cursors
1 c:\Windows\debug
22 c:\Windows\DesktopTileResources
3,413 c:\Windows\diagnostics
0 c:\Windows\DigitalLocker
0 c:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files
0 c:\Windows\ELAMBKUP
95 c:\Windows\en-US
14,135 c:\Windows\FileManager
477,606 c:\Windows\Fonts
91,132 c:\Windows\Globalization
1,451 c:\Windows\Help
149,261 c:\Windows\IME
7,116 c:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel
56,598 c:\Windows\Inf
116,382 c:\Windows\InputMethod
119,943 c:\Windows\Installer
59 c:\Windows\L2Schemas
850,594 c:\Windows\Logs
19,477 c:\Windows\Media
18,474 c:\Windows\MediaViewer
365,063 c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET
3 c:\Windows\Migration
0 c:\Windows\Offline Web Pages
3,160 c:\Windows\Panther
43,785 c:\Windows\Performance
0 c:\Windows\PLA
5,392 c:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
22 c:\Windows\Registration
5,680 c:\Windows\rescache
2,280 c:\Windows\Resources
0 c:\Windows\SchCache
115 c:\Windows\schemas
27 c:\Windows\security
0 c:\Windows\ServiceProfiles
110,149 c:\Windows\servicing
0 c:\Windows\Setup
4 c:\Windows\ShellNew
30,637 c:\Windows\SKB
253,483 c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
122,859 c:\Windows\Speech
30 c:\Windows\System
3,998,878 c:\Windows\System32
8,108 c:\Windows\SystemResources
1,345,227 c:\Windows\SysWOW64
0 c:\Windows\TAPI
0 c:\Windows\Tasks
2,985 c:\Windows\Temp
21 c:\Windows\ToastData
0 c:\Windows\tracing
7 c:\Windows\twain_32
15,246 c:\Windows\vpnplugins
12 c:\Windows\Vss
8,611 c:\Windows\Web
1,747 c:\Windows\WinStore
5,958,444 c:\Windows\WinSxS
15,032,365 c:\Windows
Files: 99659
Directories: 25184
Size: 16,184,742,672 bytes
Size on disk: 15,902,204,000 bytes

 

[Explodey]

Probably easier if I attach it as a text file.

 

[Neemobeer]

You may need to open Explorer > View tab > Options > Change Folder and Search Options > View tab > Under Hidden files and folder change it to show and uncheck Hide system files, then run du again


After doing that you can look in the root of C:\ and see if you have a really large page and hibernate file too.

 

[Explodey]

Okay, I unchecked the hide system files option, and I did check the root folder for big files, but I couldn't find any. The new DU output file is attached. Thanks again.

 

[Neemobeer]

Looks normal is it still reporting low disk space in disk management?

 

[Explodey]

Yes indeed it is. I went ahead and reformatted my drive. We'll see if this happens again.

 

[ussnorway]

I just reformatted my system drive and reinstalled Windows 8.1 yesterday

are you sure you did in fact formate the drive... looks (from the screenshot) like you may have just re-installed windows to the same place without a format.

open your c drive in explorer and see if the old programs (you had installed BEFORE this reinstall) are still listed?

 

[Explodey]

I guess I should've said "partition" instead of drive. Anyway, yes, I already did all of that, alas to no avail. Anyway, I went ahead and reformatted again, so we'll see what happens. So far so good.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
Interesting thread here. I noticed that you appear to be running your Windows8.1 on some kind of a Mac using the Bootcamp Windows emulator. This makes a difference in how partitions are reported by Windows utility such as Disk Management. That's why in our Forum instructions that you provide us with the make/model of the computer your are having difficulties with. It's possible the other helpers here missed that..

In any case, can you please tell us the make/model of the Mac you are using? And exactly what kind of Windows install media you are using? I think Norway is onto something with his question. Are you using a copy of Windows8.1 media (Disc or USB stick)? Or do you own a Legit copy of Retail Boxed Windows8.1 with the Microsoft hologram on it? If you didn't purchase the media, it could also be a factory Recovery Disc from an OEM computer; look for a Logo on the Disc such as Dell, HP, Acer, Gateway, etc. If you attempted to install an OEM Windows Recovery Disc, then you are using the wrong media on your Mac. OEM Recovery Discs are hardware specific and usually will only work on a PC hardware type machine; not Bootcamp. In addition, these Recovery Discs often include many GB of "Bloatware" or free trial programs the PC maker includes on license deals with the software makers. Much of this stuff you don't need; however, one must be careful of removing these programs, as many times they include diagnostics for the Motherboard, Audio, and Video components, or wifi, and removing them can keep your computer from operating correctly.

I'm not going to go any further with you on this issue until you respond back and tell us exactly what type of computer you have. Then we can make a better analysis of what you are doing, and make recommendations from there. In the mean time, you can see that if you are using the incorrect Media (anything other than a Retail Boxed Windows8.1 from Microsoft), it's unlikely to work right. And you are quite correct that a reinstall of Win8.1 normally doesn't take up 80GB of disk space.

Thanks,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[ussnorway]

well spotted Bigbearjedi, I missed that.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Thanks, Norway!! It's always a team-effort here, and it's fun and challenging to go over problems other volunteers have responded to and find something they may have missed. Multiple sets of eyes solve many problems!!

Cheers!
BBJ

 

[holdum333]

Hey @BIGBEARJEDI Great reply my friend. It is so refreshing to finally find a help forum where the big ego's of the staff don't interfere with their members helping other members with a team effort. They say confession is good for the sole. So here goes. I was banned on a help forum where I had been a member for a long time with 500+ replies because of IMHO big Ego's. Well that's great because I found Windows forum and I'm now a happy camper

Multiple sets of eyes solve many problems!!