C drive nearly full, why?

Thanks Winuser and badrobot. Disk Cleanup did make a small amount of disk space free, as did Junk Files Cleaner in Revo Uninstaller.

k0065126 said:

It looks as if it is the 186.8Gb in system volume information which is the cause of my low free space.

Click to expand...

Those look like old System Restore points to me. CCleaner has a nice facility for seeing what your current set of Restore Points looks like, and it lets you delete old ones that you don't want.

Here is the result from DiskParinfo.log.

Disk 0 : SSD. It has 4 partition(s). Model: GIGABYTE GP-ASM2NE2512GTTDR
Disk 1 : SSD. It has 2 partition(s). Model: INTEL SSDSC2MH250A2
Disk 2 : SSD. It has 1 partition(s). Model: Samsung SSD 850 PRO 1TB
Disk 3 : HDD. It has 2 partition(s). Model: ST8000DM002-1YW112
Disk 4 : SSD. It has 1 partition(s). Model: Corsair Performance Pro

The script has found the above 5 storage device(s) in total.

=============================================================================

Drive
Letter Drive Label Fs Free Space Used Space Capacity Free
------ --------------- ------ ---------- ---------- ---------- -----
NTFS 504.04 MB 15.96 MB 520.00 MB 97 %
FAT32 67.03 MB 28.97 MB 96.00 MB 70 %
NTFS 85.23 MB 570.76 MB 656.00 MB 13 %
NTFS 506.55 MB 14.45 MB 521.00 MB 97 %
C NTFS 93.53 GB 382.16 GB 475.69 GB 20 %
D Documents NTFS 133.51 GB 104.96 GB 238.47 GB 56 %
E Backups NTFS 622.45 GB 331.42 GB 953.86 GB 65 %
F Photos NTFS 2.26 TB 5.02 TB 7.28 TB 31 %
G Spare NTFS 166.21 GB 66.16 GB 232.37 GB 72 %
H 0 B 0 B 0 B

=============================================================================

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.22000.1

The "Free" column below refers to unallocated space rather than unused space.
On computer: DESKTOP-KPSLSPP

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 476 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 1 Online 232 GB 3072 KB
Disk 2 Online 953 GB 4096 KB
Disk 3 Online 7452 GB 0 B *
Disk 4 Online 238 GB 0 B *

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 H DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 475 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 656 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 520 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 G Spare NTFS Partition 232 GB Healthy
Volume 6 NTFS Partition 521 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 7 E Backups NTFS Partition 953 GB Healthy
Volume 8 F Photos NTFS Partition 7451 GB Healthy
Volume 9 D Documents NTFS Partition 238 GB Healthy

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

GIGABYTE GP-ASM2NE2512GTTDR
Disk ID: {ECC5F1A4-2C0E-11EC-B5A0-B42E9933FDAC}
Type : NVMe
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1D00)#PCI(0000)#NVME(P00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 475 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 656 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 520 MB Healthy Hidden

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 475 GB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Recovery 656 MB 475 GB
Partition 3 System 100 MB 476 GB
Partition 4 Recovery 520 MB 476 GB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 475 GB Healthy Boot

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

Partition 2
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : Yes
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 510770806784

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 2 NTFS Partition 656 MB Healthy Hidden

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

Partition 3
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 511459721216

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

Partition 4
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : Yes
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 511564578816

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 4 NTFS Partition 520 MB Healthy Hidden

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

INTEL SSDSC2MH250A2
Disk ID: C9301753
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 1
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C00T01L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 5 G Spare NTFS Partition 232 GB Healthy
Volume 6 NTFS Partition 521 MB Healthy Hidden

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 232 GB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Recovery 521 MB 232 GB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : 07
Hidden: No
Active: Yes
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 5 G Spare NTFS Partition 232 GB Healthy

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

Partition 2
Type : 27
Hidden: No
Active: No
Offset in Bytes: 249509707776

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 6 NTFS Partition 521 MB Healthy Hidden

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

Samsung SSD 850 PRO 1TB
Disk ID: 05F1BBE2
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 2
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C00T02L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 7 E Backups NTFS Partition 953 GB Healthy

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 953 GB 32 KB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : 07
Hidden: No
Active: Yes
Offset in Bytes: 32768

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 7 E Backups NTFS Partition 953 GB Healthy

Disk 3 is now the selected disk.

ST8000DM002-1YW112
Disk ID: {98D66F4E-D4F7-4549-817C-A68D25DD6B60}
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 3
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C00T03L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 8 F Photos NTFS Partition 7451 GB Healthy

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Reserved 128 MB 17 KB
Partition 2 Primary 7451 GB 129 MB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 17408

There is no volume associated with this partition.

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

Partition 2
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 135266304

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 8 F Photos NTFS Partition 7451 GB Healthy

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

Corsair Performance Pro
Disk ID: {86E205FF-9BC7-491F-AC81-13BC5DABA2C6}
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 5
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C00T05L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 9 D Documents NTFS Partition 238 GB Healthy

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 238 GB 1024 KB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 9 D Documents NTFS Partition 238 GB Healthy

===============================================================================

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition2\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 74198418-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

===============================================================================

Firmware Boot Manager
---------------------
identifier {fwbootmgr}
displayorder {bootmgr}
timeout 1

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume9
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-GB
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {74198415-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 11
locale en-GB
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {74198418-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {74198415-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {74198418-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
device ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume8]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{74198419-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows Recovery Environment
locale en-GB
inherit {bootloadersettings}
displaymessage Recovery
osdevice ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume8]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{74198419-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {da12d83c-2c0f-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}
device ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume10]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{da12d83d-2c0f-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows Recovery Environment
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
displaymessage Recovery
displaymessageoverride PushButtonReset
osdevice ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume10]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{da12d83d-2c0f-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
winpe Yes

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {74198415-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winresume.efi
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-GB
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
recoverysequence {74198418-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
filedevice partition=C:
custom:21000026 partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
bootmenupolicy Standard
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume9
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-GB
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems No

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Local

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}

Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Device options
--------------
identifier {74198419-2d2d-11ec-9b09-eba421e2eb38}
description Windows Recovery
ramdisksdidevice partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume8
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

Device options
--------------
identifier {da12d83d-2c0f-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}
description Windows Recovery
ramdisksdidevice partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume10
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

k0065126 said:

I am not sure if deleting these files, if I could find them, would cause a problem.

Click to expand...

This includes all windows backups, like system restore points, but also previous file versions. You can use this to see details:
Then you can use this to remove them all:

The 49GB, 39 GB, 33 GB, 24 GB, and 14 GB have no English file names but only identifiers.

Are you exploring them?

Page file, hyperfil, winsxs, livekernelreports, dmps, etc. were not seen in the image.

Thanks for the suggestion TairikuOkami. When I run it I get this :-
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {c306a41c-bed1-4b52-bbf2-15c5d2508a2d}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 01/03/2022 00:01:23
Shadow Copy ID: {c74deaed-1018-4835-9913-2812d99948fd}
Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{ecc5f1a1-2c0e-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy10
Originating Machine: DESKTOP-xxxxxx
Service Machine: DESKTOP-xxxxxx
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {15a84e5e-e400-4844-9105-1bd5bc5b0463}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 12/03/2022 14:43:17
Shadow Copy ID: {1467a232-b9eb-4bfc-9994-1aa718283cc2}
Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{ecc5f1a1-2c0e-11ec-b5a0-b42e9933fdac}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy14
Originating Machine: DESKTOP-xxxxxx
Service Machine: DESKTOP-xxxxxx
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered
I have no idea what this is telling me as none of the identifiers is similar to the ones in System Volume Information, although the dates do correspond to 2 of the 9 largest files.

zbook said:

The 49GB, 39 GB, 33 GB, 24 GB, and 14 GB have no English file names but only identifiers.

Are you exploring them?

Page file, hyperfil, winsxs, livekernelreports, dmps, etc. were not seen in the image.

Click to expand...

How do I explore these files?
Unfortunately I do not understand the significance of the absence of these files from the image.

These large files were last modified March 2022.

So they are recent.

Download and install Everything:

Birk said:

Those look like old System Restore points to me. CCleaner has a nice facility for seeing what your current set of Restore Points looks like, and it lets you delete old ones that you don't want.
View attachment 24838

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have tried that but it seems to make little difference, and there are only 2 restore point if I look in Settings, but still 15 files, 10 of which have identifiers instead of names.

zbook said:

These large files were last modified March 2022.

So they are recent.

Download and install Everything:

voidtools

www.voidtools.com

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have downloaded Everything and run it but all it seems to do is give the same information as TreeSize Free.

See what happens when you copy a portion of the tree size displayed information into Everything.

Each of the the above rows in post #25 should be explored to see the contents.

zbook said:

See what happens when you copy a portion of the tree size displayed information into Everything.

Each of the the above rows in post #25 should be explored to see the contents.

Click to expand...

I copied the largest of the files in System Volume Information into Everything and all it does is show the same information as TreeSize, except that it does show the time when the file was modified. Right clicking on the file name in Everything gives an option for Read Extended Information, but that did nothing.
I have also tried reducing the amount of disk space used for system protection to 157Gb and that has reduced the number of files in System Volume Information to 11 and File Explorer now shows 178Gb free.

I know smarter people than I are helping on this thread, but I just wanted to add I use Spacesniffer as it's visual representation and ability to drill down into each space makes it easier to visualize where space is being taken up


A Guy

See if you can right click open the files using tree size and report your findings.

zbook said:

See if you can right click open the files using tree size and report your findings.

Click to expand...

I have tried Notepad, Wordpad and Word. None of them would open the files.

A Guy said:

I know smarter people than I are helping on this thread, but I just wanted to add I use Spacesniffer as it's visual representation and ability to drill down into each space makes it easier to visualize where space is being taken up

SpaceSniffer, find lost disk space the easy way.

A Guy

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. TreeSize does show me the files, but not what they are.

k0065126 said:

TreeSize does show me the files, but not what they are.

Click to expand...

Files in System Volume Information that have names that look like {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} will be restore points.

Bree said:

Files in System Volume Information that have names that look like {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} will be restore points.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I now have 6 files with names like the above, none of them with a last modified date of 12 March, which is the only restore point showing when I go into Control Panel.

k0065126 said:

Thanks Winuser, I have turned on Storage Sense to see if that helps.

Click to expand...

Have you checked system restore? See the following link, it may provide some useful information.


I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so you might already be aware of the System Restore disk space usage.

Sir_George said:

Have you checked system restore? See the following link, it may provide some useful information.

How to use System Restore on Windows 11 and Windows 10

System Restore can help recover your computer after system changes, and here's how on Windows 11.

www.windowscentral.com

I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so you might already be aware of the System Restore disk space usage.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I did check System Restore.