Out of disk space

spapakons · Oct 14, 2025

Simple remedy: Replace 480GB SSD with 1TB or larger SSD like I did. Once a week move downloads and videos to other disk to free Windows disk.

Helmut · Oct 14, 2025

After all that, it is a nearly full 512 GB drive.

For start go to:
Settings > System > Storage >

That will give an overview and some suggestions for cleanup.
Click on any category, Installed apps, Other, Documents, Temporary files for more detail.

The installed apps details is rather useless as App sizes are way wrong, but then you should know what you have installed and the approx storage space required.
You can find out using File Explorer.

If that disk 1 is the 4 TB then it has not been initialised partitioned or formatted, thus unusable.

Try3 · Oct 14, 2025

lunisj said:
W-A-A-A-Y wrong on my HD

You need to drill down as pseymour said. It's just like moving in File explorer from ThisPC down to C:\ then down to C:\Users\ and so on. You'll be able to see where the space is being used & post suitable screenshots of what it's telling you.

pseymour said:
you should select the C: drive in WinDirStat and let it run, so you can see what's taking up the space

Then you'll be able to do something about it.

Denis

spapakons · Oct 14, 2025

Next step: put a second disk in the computer, then create a folder, such as Programs. Uninstall some apps and reinstall them using CUSTOM when available, so you can change the default location (Windows disk) to the new disk in the Programs folder. This will free some space more, after of course you have moved any downloads or videos to another disk. But the best of all is to replace the 480GB disk with a larger disk. Everything else is short term solution.

pseymour · Oct 14, 2025

Not sure why folks are making recommendations without knowing the underlying condition. If the issue is, for example, some program generating a bunch of temporary files and not cleaning them up, then bigger disks and moving things to other disks is just making more room for that program to generate files. Find the underlying problem first, then solve it.

Try3 · Oct 14, 2025

lunisj said:
W-A-A-A-Y wrong on my HD

pseymour said:
Not sure why folks are making recommendations without knowing the underlying condition

Absolutely.

Denis

Scannerman · Oct 14, 2025

If Disk1 unknown is supposed to be your 4TB Backup HD you have bigger problems. You will need to scan that disk, run DISM, and attempt to rescue before you initialize. Do not attempt to initialize at this stage as it could result in a cyclic redundancy. Attempt a repair first.

gunrunnerjohn · Oct 14, 2025

pseymour said:
Not sure why folks are making recommendations without knowing the underlying condition. If the issue is, for example, some program generating a bunch of temporary files and not cleaning them up, then bigger disks and moving things to other disks is just making more room for that program to generate files. Find the underlying problem first, then solve it.

Exactly. Unless there's a TON of large applications or a huge Documents file, it should be fairly difficult to saturate a 500GB Windows drive. Knowing where all the space went is certainly the first step.

lunisj · Oct 14, 2025

OK, I have the WinDirStat file. It looks large. Attach the whole thing?

gunrunnerjohn · Oct 14, 2025

lunisj said:
OK, I have the WinDirStat file. It looks large. Attach the whole thing?

Have you taken a look at the display to see if you can figure out what's taking all the space?

spapakons · Oct 14, 2025

lunisj said:
OK, I have the WinDirStat file. It looks large. Attach the whole thing?

Sort by the largest size first and take a screenshot of the first apps.

lunisj · Oct 15, 2025

See if this is what you want.

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

Looks like the user files occupy the majority of the disk space. Do you have more than one user? Check the videos, pictures and downloads of all users. Copy to other disk and delete them from Windows disk. Make sure you also empty the Recycle bin.

gunrunnerjohn · Oct 15, 2025

Expand Users using the + sign at the left and drill down to see where all the space is being consumed!

lunisj · Oct 16, 2025

I have 6 users.
default = 262mb
Default user = 562mb
emailaddress = 3.72gb
wifename = 0
public = 8mb
myname = everything else

Try3 · Oct 16, 2025

Your MSAccount-linked user account [that you can see is named after your email address] is the one using 3.72GB
But it does not explain why you have run out of free space.

Something else in your Users folder is using the ~300GB reported in your earlier post.
How big is your "myname" folder?

Denis

lunisj · Oct 16, 2025

I can find 2TB internal drives - $70-80. Wouldn't that be easier? where do I find how to do change HDs?

spapakons · Oct 16, 2025

lunisj said:
I can find 2TB internal drives - $70-80. Wouldn't that be easier? where do I find how to do change HDs?

For a desktop computer, connect new disk inside the computer. Boot with a clone utility USB flash drive. Clone original disk to new disk. Make sure you select the source disk (old) and target disk (new) correctly so not to lose any data. Remove the old disk and put the new in place of the old one. Boot to Windows. Open Disk Manager and expand the Windows partition to fill all the unallocated space. Congratulations, you have upgraded to a larger disk.

For a laptop, connect the new disk on a USB adaptor or suitable enclosure. Connect it to the laptop. Boot with the clone utility USB. Do as above and then swap the old disk with the new disk. Boot in the new disk, open Disk Manager and expand the Windows partition to fill all the unallocated space.

There are many disk backup applications which also include a clone function. Most of them also allow you to create a rescue CD (now known as Rescue USB). One of them Is Macrium Reflect. Find the free version here:

Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition 8.0.7783 - MajorGeeks

With Macrium Reflect Free Edition you'll be able to easily make an accurate and reliable image of your HDD or individual partitions. Using this image you can restore the entire disk, partition or...

www.majorgeeks.com

Other is Hasleo. Download the free version here:

Download Hasleo Backup Suite 5.8.2.1 - MajorGeeks

Hasleo Backup Suite gives you access to backup, restore, and cloning features that can be used on both Windows PCs and servers. Hasleo Backup Suite comes packed with features encased in a user-friendly interface that is configured with complete usability in mind allowing any type of user to...

www.majorgeeks.com

Try3 · Oct 16, 2025

lunisj said:
Wouldn't that be easier?

That cannot be answered without an explanation from you about how much of that ~300GB in your myname folder is required as opposed to merely having been accumulated for no particular reason.

Denis

spapakons · Oct 16, 2025

Sometimes I have discovered that the disk APPEARS full due to some logical error (that is file system error, not physical damage). In that case running Check Disk to fix any errors would solve it. However, this is not a very common bug, so you might have to MOVE all your big files, downloads, videos etc to another disk as we have already said numerous times. If you want them available all the time, just install a second disk and copy them there.

Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run this command:

chkdsk c: /f

If you also want to check and mark bad sectors, run this command instead:

chkdsk c: /f /b /r

Since the command cannot check the disk while Windows is running, it will ask you to schedule the check at next restart. Reply yes and restart to begin. Note that the second command syntax might take more than an hour, so you better leave it overnight.

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