Cannot claim free space in C:\

[hulkbuster]

Hello guys, i thought i would post my problem here. Since Google didn't show many results.
U see my problem is my C:\ is 200 GB which is quite less for Win7.
I h' portable drive to make a backup of my data. Which i do and its going okay.
But whenever i download some movies to drive C:\ it occupies some space and over time it becomes quite full
but i also delete those files which r on C:\; but when i check the details it doesn't show the amount of free space available.
Please see snapshot.

So as it doesn't do that, i end up with more and more used space, i don't know what i should do to
claim those free spaces. At one time, my available free space was only 11 MB and Win7 showed some errors. But
it quite did not claim the free space. So eventually i reverted back to the snapshot that was fresh and still working with
lots of space. Due to this problem i h' to go back to previous snapshot again and again. (I use Rollback Rx for that).

So guys hope it was understandable, how do i fix this.
Please do not tell me to use Disk Cleanup tool as i h' already done that and it shows only 200 MB of file to be deleted.
Where as i am talking about 80-90 GB of space. Refresh button doesn't help.

hulkbuster.

[4wd]

WizTree - Find out where the space is being used first.

[x16wda]

^ What 4wd said - Wiztree. First pane shows where the space is being used. Second pane is top 1000 largest files. Between the two of them you'll get a better picture of what's used where.

[hulkbuster]

WizTree - Find out where the space is being used first.

Thank u for the link, i already h' SpaceSniffer. Although i did use that in the past. Without much success.
As this tool is doing the same. It shows all the files but those are important or video files.
I just deleted The.Lord.of.the.Rings BluRip that was 6 GB but the Windows Explorer didn't show any decrease in the
file size. So i m thinking maybe i installed some program that is encouraging this behavior, for that i need to restore the
snapshot many time to see the changes.
But even there is a reason behind it, could anyone suggest something.

[Carol Haynes]

Try running CHKDSK C: /R in PowerShell (you will need to restart).

Sometimes if there are issues with the file map on the drive space remains marked as in use after deleting files.

You could also use the built in Windows utility Disk Cleanup from the start menu (just click start and type Disk and it will popup, run it and click Clean System Files). If you have old leftover windows installations after updates they take up a lot of space (sometimes 30Gb+). Note it can take a long time to delete some stuff so be patient.

[MilesAhead]

Sometimes it can happen that Rollback Rx itself can get confused and stuff on the HD may get scrambled.  I used the product on my Toshiba Laptop but I reverted to Macrium Reflect because RX can make scrambled eggs out of the storage esp. if you use it often.

I used to have a bookmark for their forum but I think it has moved to Reddit.

What I did on my desktop W7 PC I added a USB 3 docking station and plugged bare WD HD into it to download directly to the WD drive.  One issue I had because I mixed XP, W7 and Vista, there seems to be subtle differences in the NTFS file system across these OS.  Sometimes I got the error that the drive in the dock was not formatted when it was loaded with downloads.  So I lost some downloads but my systems themselves did not get corrupted.

Weird things can happen for sure.  It may be worth trying to ask at RollbackRX community.  If "Froggie" is still there he is excellent when it comes to RX side effect type problems.

[MilesAhead]

I see you have Google drive.  On my current Laptop I only have 32 GB of storage.  I also have OneDrive.  I set OneDrive to only store the links locally rather than shadowing the files in the cloud.  But the system did not recognize the free space.  Wise Disk Cleaner fixed it for me.  I got about 8 GB of free space back.  As long as you can recover via your backups Wise may be worth a try.  But I would caution that it may not recognize the RollbackRX stuff.  It could delete all that if it mistakes it for HD corruption.

[Shades]

How is your 'Thrash can' configured? You might throw files away after which Windows should report that more space has freed up. But that doesn't always work as smoothly as you would expect (by now). As suggested earlier, using the disk cleanup tools built into Windows fixes this.

Also, over time you Windows installation gets bogged down with applied patches and updates. Windows keeps a spare copy of each, so you can then roll back/forward your system. There are ways to get rid of those files, but do this with caution. Depending on the amount of patches/updates you gave collected over time, you could reclaim several GBytes on your C:\ partition. See this link for more info.

How is your 'pagefile.sys' configured? Depending on how that is configured, you could reclaim several GBytes on your C:\ partition. By default this is set to let the operating system handle it automatically. Over time the size of this file could have grown to a size that is unnecessary. You can disable the automatic management and set the minimal and maximum size of this file to the same size. I always use  a size of 2 times the available RAM when there is 4 GByte of RAM or less. If there is more than 4 GByte of RAM in the laptop, I set the min./max. values to the same amount of available RAM.

Windows 7 defrags your HDD drive on a weekly basis (by default). Once in a while you could use a different tool to defrag your drive. Disk Defraggler (freeware) can also defrag empty space on your drive. Often this results in a little bit more free space.

Do you use the 'Restore points' feature of Windows? By default this is enabled. Depending on how many of these restore points have been generated over time, you could reclaim a GByte or two on your C:\ partition. If you feel competent enough you could disable the feature and remove all remaining restore points. If not, you can reduce the amount of restore points manually or configure the feature to do this automatically for you.

There are usually two folders in the root folder of your C:\ partition, called: 'Temp' and 'TMP'. Open these folders, select everything and delete these files. The temporary files which are still ion use will not be deleted, but most of the collected cruft will. Don't expect to reclaim much free space with this though. You could do this on a regular basis, but not too regular as it can negatively affect your whole computing experience. Myself, I don't care about the results of emptying these folders, but people consider me weird over here.

Those are the immediate tricks that come to mind for reclaiming space on your drive.

[wraith808]

Try running CHKDSK C: /R in PowerShell (you will need to restart).

Sometimes if there are issues with the file map on the drive space remains marked as in use after deleting files.

You could also use the built in Windows utility Disk Cleanup from the start menu (just click start and type Disk and it will popup, run it and click Clean System Files). If you have old leftover windows installations after updates they take up a lot of space (sometimes 30Gb+). Note it can take a long time to delete some stuff so be patient.

A Carol sighting! It's great to see you again! Not as long as between your prior posts- but still a while without you around!

[hulkbuster]

Try running CHKDSK C: /R in PowerShell (you will need to restart).

Sometimes if there are issues with the file map on the drive space remains marked as in use after deleting files.

You could also use the built in Windows utility Disk Cleanup from the start menu (just click start and type Disk and it will popup, run it and click Clean System Files). If you have old leftover windows installations after updates they take up a lot of space (sometimes 30Gb+). Note it can take a long time to delete some stuff so be patient.

I did it 2-3 times just to be sure but it didn't stop or reverse the process.
So are any other ways. I m on a dual boot XP & 7.
But the vol with 7 is still showing problems. I was though thinking of doing that but payed little attention to it.
I don't what to do at this point.

[4wd]

Run WizTree, when it's finished, drill down on the left side to the directory that's using the most space, then take a screenshot of the WizTree window, (including the right side), and post it here ... because atm we have no idea what we're dealing with.

It could be 150GB of AVIs, 130GB of old Windows patches, 160GB of VM VHDs ...

eg.

Largest thing I've got is Docker's VHDX.


A suggestion, never, ever download stuff to your C drive. Microsoft might think this is the greatest idea on Earth, having a single drive in which everything is stored in a directory tree from Hell but it isn't, it's a shit idea.
(I'd expand it to anything that's not the OS you don't have on C unless absolutely necessary.)

BTW, to bypass the Recycle Bin use Shift+Delete.

[hulkbuster]

If that helps, here it is.
I don't know where the error is starting.
chkdsk c: /r too doesn't work.
I open cmd prompt as an administrator and it did restart and completed the chkdsk process.
But still no improvement.

[x16wda]

It looks like you have lots of stuff in Downloads. It's perfectly fine to save things there if you want, however you don't want to clog up your C: drive.

Right click on Downloads and go to Properties and click the Location tab. Use the Move button to change the place where Downloads points:



If you're going to save videos in Downloads, best to move it away from C: if you can.

[hulkbuster]

I don't think changing the download location could magically claim lost space in c:\
Thank u for ur time and concern.

[Target]

I don't think changing the download location could magically claim lost space in c:\

its not going to recover any space, but its going to stop taking up space, ie the top 9 video files are nearly 40Gb so downloading to a different drive (DISK!) would be an immediate saving.

you also appear to have a bunch of game stuff there, so moving that to another disk (if you can, they don't HAVE to be installed to C:) would help clear up a bit more space

Deleting stuff you don't need anymore is a good habit to maintain, eg video's you already seen, games you're not playing any more, etc.  YMMV but using one of those uninstaller apps (I use REVO, but there are several others) can be helpful when removing redundant apps or games cos they can clean up a lot of the cruft the regular uninstall routines can leave behind.

[4wd]

I don't think changing the download location could magically claim lost space in c:\

It would actually, when you change the location, part of the process is to ask you if you want to move the existing files to the new location, to which you'd answer "Yes".

Instant 40GB+ drive space freed up.

If you're trying to say, in a round about way, that you have no other drive than C: then you're right ... and you could have said this earlier.

[tomos]

@hulkbuster, I think the only way you can prove the problem, is to delete/move a large amount of files, or files that take up a large amount of space. Then, if that space doesn't show up....
The advice on this thread is very good, essential even, for an OS + files on a small partition (been there). You don't seem to have tried a lot of it.
For example the paging file could be gone crazy -- have you tried the suggestion there etc etc

[x16wda]

Yeah Windows managing paging is a terrible idea. So many many times I look at a server and the recommended page file size is say 8200mb, but directly underneath that is a note that it's currently using 4140mb.

[Carol Haynes]

Try running CHKDSK C: /R in PowerShell (you will need to restart).

Sometimes if there are issues with the file map on the drive space remains marked as in use after deleting files.

You could also use the built in Windows utility Disk Cleanup from the start menu (just click start and type Disk and it will popup, run it and click Clean System Files). If you have old leftover windows installations after updates they take up a lot of space (sometimes 30Gb+). Note it can take a long time to delete some stuff so be patient.

A Carol sighting! It's great to see you again! Not as long as between your prior posts- but still a while without you around!

LOL - still lurk from time to time. Have retired now and am actively avoiding technology these days (no money so it saves disappointment when I don;t see new toys I want to play with )

[hulkbuster]

Thank u guys for honestly involving ur time and concern for this post.
But i came to a fix. Simply by uninstalling Rollback RX 10.7, i was able to salvage the space.
After that the disc displayed correct available and consumed space. After selecting Disc detail.
My is an old system with dual core, which honestly hasn't given me bad results.
I thought my system couldn't handle Rollback, but the problem was RollbackRx Pro.
And i h' decided never ever to use Rollback again.
But the problem was fixed, it was the software itself.
Thank u guys, every one who posted. Some i couldn't understand because of my English. U guys r so thoughtful and honest.

[x16wda]

You know, looking at the RollbackRX product page, I can see how you would "lose" disk space. It is creating snapshots of your system for recovery. So if you downloaded a bunch of movies or had them on your C: drive, then when it does a snapshot it would have to safeguard that data which would mean protect it from being overwritten or removed. That stuff has to be stored somewhere, doesn't look like any options to put it anywhere else. So probably your disk use would depend on how many snapshots you keep, how often you clean big files off your disk, and how often you reset the baseline.

The free version looks interesting and I can see a use case for example on my son's pc where there just isn't that much that changes. I guess this software worked fine for you other than the disk space issue?

[hulkbuster]

The free version looks interesting and I can see a use case for example on my son's pc where there just isn't that much that changes. I guess this software worked fine for you other than the disk space issue?

Man i have been using Rollback Professional ver from 2018 (almost 3 1/2 years). Up till the second year it was all good.
But i noticed this error from 2020. Its some bug issue i suppose.
I thought it would make my system bullet proof, but i was wrong. Never use the free ver too.

[MilesAhead]

The free version looks interesting and I can see a use case for example on my son's pc where there just isn't that much that changes

I used the free version myself for some time before getting the Pro.  Since it only lets you do one save it is much less likely to get confused when it restores.  There are no multiple save sets to get scrambled.  If I had desktops and wanted the convenience of multiple quick restores I think I would go with Macrium Reflect Home edition.  It has the quick Differential Restore feature that is in many ways is similar to snapshots but I think may be more reliable.  The Home edition costs $70 which is the same as RollbackRX Pro.

What I ended up doing with RollbackRX Pro was only making one snapshot at a time.  If I made a bunch of changes in my PC storage I would delete the old snapshot first.Then make a new one when my storage was stable.  But that was because I already bought the Pro version.  Making the best of it so to speak.  Pardon me for jumping in but since I did have several years expeience using Rollback I thought you may want to know my conclusions.