Losing free space

compiler · Dec 3, 2022

It seems my SSD's free space loses maybe 1 gb per week or two.

Any idea how I can figure out the culprit. I had this problem when I bought this Dell

about 2 years ago. I eliminated the previous versions feature and shut off bitlocker.

I do backup a few small files regularly to One Drive (always replacing previous file) and there is a very large One Drive folder (30 gb) on my SSD. I will be monitoring that.

Suggestions? Maybe a program to show me the largest files (that's how I identified previous versions as being a space guzzler).

Mel

Ghot · Dec 3, 2022

compiler said:
It seems my SSD's free space loses maybe 1 gb per week or two.

Any idea how I can figure out the culprit. I had this problem when I bought this Dell

about 2 years ago. I eliminated the previous versions feature and shut off bitlocker.

I do backup a few small files regularly to One Drive (always replacing previous file) and there is a very large One Drive folder (30 gb) on my SSD. I will be monitoring that.

Suggestions? Maybe a program to show me the largest files (that's how I identified previous versions as being a space guzzler).

Mel

TreeSize Free | JAM Software

TreeSize Free is a free disk space manager for Windows. The software shows you the sizes of folders including all subfolders.

www.jam-software.com

zbook · Dec 3, 2022

These may be some additional methods to free up space:

Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10

How to Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Free up drive space in Windows - Microsoft Support

Learn how you can free up drive space in Windows. Keep your PC running smoothly and up to date by increasing the disk space.

support.microsoft.com

Also consider a larger drive as needed:

Crucial System Scanner | Memory Upgrade Scanner

Use Crucial SSD and RAM compatibility checker for your PC or system. Scan your system to find compatible upgrades.

www.crucial.com

Treesize is most frequently used.

These are some alternatives:

WinDirStat

Windows Directory Statistics

windirstat.net

WizTree - The Fastest Disk Space Analyzer

Official WizTree web site. WizTree is the fastest disk space analyzer available for Windows. It reads the Master File Table (MFT) directly from the disk, bypassing Windows and gaining a huge performance boost.

www.diskanalyzer.com

CountMike · Dec 4, 2022

UnCleaner. Get the software safely and easily. cleaning up to 1GB or more every week what other cleaning utilities miss.

TairikuOkami · Dec 4, 2022

View file read / write counters of every application on Windows

AppReadWriteCounter is a tool for Windows that counts and displays the current file read / write operations of every application running on your system.

www.nirsoft.net

compiler · Dec 4, 2022

My largest folder is SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION. It is 9.8 gb. There are about 6 folders with names like:

{39635d81-6a4c-11ed-8767-bd0f00af9250}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

This one is the largest: 6 gb

I don’t have permissions to do anything right now, and not sure what to do. Ideas?

compiler · Dec 4, 2022

CountMike:
Uncleaner sounds too automated for me. Can I set it to ask me before uncleaning anything?

Mel

CountMike · Dec 4, 2022

It's perfectly safe, using it for years. It has only manual on demand and a full auto.

Mooly · Dec 4, 2022

I wondered if it was a Dell. I got a new Dell earlier this year and found the default Windows installation showed massive reductions in free space every few hours seemingly. The culprit was some custom Dell utility similar to Microsoft restore points.

Wait a minute... is this the same issue you posted earlier about:

Something is eating my storage

Dell Inspiron 15-5510 W11 home 21 H2 22000.613 My free space keeps getting smaller at an alarming pace. I checked settings/system/storage. Nothing jumped out. I'm now going to make note of the memory used by the 4 main categories listed and see if I can narrow it down. Any suggestions on...

www.elevenforum.com

This was what I was looking for:

Mooly said:
I found that Dell 'OS Support' app as supplied has something similar to restore points in Windows and although System Restore was OFF it still showed as being active with space used. Found a way to turn that off in the Dell app. Also the OS Support gives permission for Dell to turn off Bitlocker remotely ??? to install updates automatically. I can see where they are coming from but its not something I want or would like.

compiler · Dec 4, 2022

Mooly:

Yes, and I referred to it (previous issues) in my thread.

But thanks also for posting the link. I rediscovered some old issues (system restore configuration/space alloted and previous versions). Those had been resolved and are still resolved, so not the current issue. BUT the Dell Support crap (Including DDV--Dell Delta Vault) was reinstalled about 10 days ago, unbenowst to moi.

So I again renamed the DDV exe files and voided them in services. Still, even if Dell did stuff to eat at my SSD, still need to find it.

Mel

Mooly · Dec 4, 2022

I did a totally clean install on my Dell and the reduction in space used was dramatic. I can understand where Dell is coming from in making the system as secure and fool proof as possible, but I felt I had no control over what was going on.

Maybe something to consider.

pparks1 · Dec 5, 2022

I also use Tree Size Free to see where the space goes on my machine.

Bree · Dec 5, 2022

compiler said:
My largest folder is SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION. It is 9.8 gb. There are about 6 folders with names like:

{39635d81-6a4c-11ed-8767-bd0f00af9250}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

This one is the largest: 6 gb

I don’t have permissions to do anything right now, and not sure what to do. Ideas?

Those files are your system restore points. To delete them all turn off System Protection. You can turn it back on again if you wish, but you will start getting more restore points.

Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off system protection to create restore points and do a system restore for drives in Windows 11. System protection in Windows is a recovery feature designed to help you safeguard your system settings. It primarily involves creating and managing...

www.elevenforum.com

To delete all but the latest system restore point in Windows 10 or Windows 11, see Option Two here:

Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10

How to Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Mooly · Dec 5, 2022

Bree said:
Those files are your system restore points. To delete them all turn off System Protection.

Now that was the issue I had, turning off restore points didn't work because I found the Dell utility overrode that setting and still did its own thing. All historical for me because I blitzed it with a fresh install. I just wonder if something like this is causing the OP's issue.

compiler · Dec 5, 2022

I've SOLVED the problem

I did find disk cleanup by right-clicking C drive in Explorer. I could not right click it but the ctrl/shift/enter combo worked which I THINK runs it as an administrator. It gave me the option to remove all but the last RESTORE point. It took about a milli-seconds so I thought it did nothing. But checking thereafter, I gained 9 gb of free space.I’ll have to see what was creating those restore points (it might be DELL crap, which I’ve now disabled).

Each time System Volume Information did expand by about the loss of free space.
That is the culprit and it does contain the restore points. But there is more. Get this:

Well, this morning started out as “The Plot Thickens.”

Once again, my free space declined by a gig. Once again SysVolInfo inc. in size by that amount.

I then went into System Restore and found “The Smoking Gun.” A Restore Point was added. The title was DELL SUPPORT ASSIST REMEDIATION.

How F-OBTRUSIVE. BUT...

There’s more: On a hunch I checked Task Scheduler. Guess what’s there. Guess what won’t be there very shortly. I’m going to delete all that stuff today (delete the task then uninstall the Dell stuff today — hope it lets me)

Final Update: DONE. The whole thing is outrageous

Winuser · Dec 5, 2022

Dell should give the users a choice of using the program or not to use the program when first setting up the computer.

Mooly · Dec 6, 2022

In the 'small print' in one of the preinstalled Dell options (it may even have been the one gobbling free space) it said something like you agree to Dell being able to implement BIOS updates and to disable Bitlocker to implement this. All these things were on and running by default.

I get the point that it makes for a seamless user experience for a non technical user but we are all here because we do things differently and don't do that.

Perhaps the OP could image his whole PC and then at least try a clean install and see how much slimmer (lean and mean and responsive) the whole install is. Obviously only do that if you are confident to be able to restore it back if you don't like it or have issues.

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