Lost 6GB free space ?

Without making any changes or adding software and seemingly unrelated to any update I discovered that the amount of free space on my boot drive was decreased by about 6GB. I've run disc cleanup etc. and deleted and restored system restore files and it just seems to hover around that loss. I;ve seen it in the past release that space in a day or so after an update but not in this case.

Thanks in advance for any ideas ?

Download treesize from MS Store to see if you can work out reason.

If you are using hibernate/hybrid sleep, the size of its file is approximately 40% of the amount of installed ram, which in your case is 6.4 gb. The computer uses the Hiberfil.sys file to store a copy of the system memory on the hard disk when the hybrid sleep setting is turned on. If this file is not present, the computer will not hibernate.

Thank you both. Downloaded treesize and deleted my 6.4GB hiberfile.sys file and I'm back to normal. Thanks !

Back again - my system took away the 6.4 gb and I went through the routine of powercfg -h off in elevated command prompt or power shell and I cant get it to delete. Also, I have no toggle to enable / disable hibernate. This one has me stumped. All help appreciated.

idainc said:

Thank you both. Downloaded treesize and deleted my 6.4GB hiberfile.sys file and I'm back to normal. Thanks !

Click to expand...

I confused at what you did. The proper method is to disable hibernate. Doing so, should automatically remove hiberfil.sys
You should not have to delete it manually. Are you saying disabling hibernate did NOT remove the file or are you saying you were unable to disable hibernate.
Open cmd as admin and type powercfg -a
Post a screenshot of result

I am pretty sure that you can recover at least 20GB, Windows and third party softwares nowadays are just made to fill disk space like crazy, it seems like they are getting a check from storage manufacturer or they just don't care about environment, consumer resources... and the issue is that even the cleanup softwares aren't good enough to do this garbage collection... Chromium based navigator keep often old extensions, NTFS features (LZX Compresssion, SymLinks, etc) aren't used by the OS to avoid duplicates, Browser allows you to download the same F$@# file dozens of times without the slightest smartness that a simple hash check would just avoid and save hundreds of petabytes of data and space world wide (I do some technician work and help to people and I know what I am talking about)... Installer keep several copy of the .msi and other installation file all around (I am not talking about temp folder), electron based apps keep the update which an exact copy of the app itself on the disk shamelessly, something that makes no-sense... No support of JPEG XL or AVIF yet which can make JPEG and PNG obsolete and save tons of space... No implantation of AI into OS to keep things tidied up and organized so non-technical users don't have to care about their files become a big mess and that they have to pay someone who will just do a format / reinstall... and in best case scenario they have a backup of their important data.

I wish if I can do something about this myself but I am not into a position to make a decision but I laugh every time I hear that some big corporates care about the environment while they cannot even do something about what they have the very control upon so it can collectively adds up to something meaningful.

How to know what is filling your disk if it is not a malware requires so many utilities and experience... I don't from where to begin a tutorial on the subject.

Start menu > All apps > Windows tools > Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what power buttons do (in LH column) > Change settings that are currently unavailable > untick Hibernation

(Me, I untick everything ! I'm a vindictive b4st4rd, I believe the harder MS hides a setting or makes it harder to change something, the more likely it should be changed to meet the user's requirements, not Microsoft's)

idgat said:

Start menu > All apps > Windows tools > Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what power buttons do (in LH column) > Change settings that are currently unavailable > untick Hibernation

(Me, I untick everything ! I'm a vindictive b4st4rd, I believe the harder MS hides a setting or makes it harder to change something, the more likely it should be changed to meet the user's requirements, not Microsoft's)

Click to expand...

This is one aspect of this that threw me off.

I understood what was happening from the beginning, but your statements in post 4 and 5 are what is now throwing me.
You said in post #4 "deleted my 6.4GB hiberfile.sys file and I'm back to normal."
You then said in post #5 that "my system took away the 6.4 gb....I cant get it to delete." Does the hiberfile.sys file still exist or not?

Per the screenshot, hibernation is disabled and there should be no hiberfil.sys file on your system. The only sleep state available is s3 sleep.

glasskuter said:

I understood what was happening from the beginning, but your statements in post 4 and 5 are what is now throwing me.
You said in post #4 "deleted my 6.4GB hiberfile.sys file and I'm back to normal."
You then said in post #5 that "my system took away the 6.4 gb....I cant get it to delete." Does the hiberfile.sys file still exist or not?

Per the screenshot, hibernation is disabled and there should be no hiberfil.sys file on your system. The only sleep state available is s3 sleep.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. Yes, about 4 weeks ago I was able to delete the hiberfile.sys file. and regained the 6.4GB and after the update last week I lost it. I no longer have the hiberfile.sys file on the machine and hibernate is not running but have lost the 6.4GB. I ran treefile and it is not reporting anything in that size range and I'm pretty familar with the drive ( C is about 100GB of which 50 is used) and I am now stumped.

FWIW I have in the past regained that much after an update gets deleted but that was in W 10.

From your specs I see only a 256gb ssd listed. Are you saying you have partitioned this drive into more than one partition and allowed only 100 gb for C: and that C: is already using 50 gb of this partition? IMO that is not sufficient space allotted to C: Assuming, wyou're running the release version of 11, when a version upgrade comes down the pike like we're going to see 22H2 in Sept, it will create a windows. old folder. You're cutting it too close for the needed space to create this folder.

Ways to reclaim disk space:

At the root of C: drive is there already a windows.old folder? Run disk cleanup as administrator which will remove windows.old (if there is one) as well as other temporary system files. If there is a windows.old at root of C, in the disk cleanup procedure several boxes are automatically selected. However, you have to manually check the box by 'previous windows installations' to recover its space as well as any of the other unchecked boxes for items you want to delete.

Manage your downloads folder efficiently. Move the ones you want to keep to external media and delete the others.

Remove duplicate files.

Regularly clear the cache for all browsers. Cached web pages can add up to gigabytes in size rather quickly. Delete cookies regularly. Clear recycle bin. I optimize with Ccleaner Free Version and have for many, many years. It does these things for me.

Uninstall any apps you do not use, especially bloatware.

Move some or all of your personal files to another storage drive.