Windows 10: C drive full, Can't reset PC

My local Disk C: has about 27GB of space, It only has around 2.3GB free after spending a long time deleting as many things as I could from this laptop.

I noticed that the thing taking up so much space over 20GB is a folder labeled 'Windows', which I can't delete any files from to clear my disk space.

I wanted to make a fresh start on my laptop so I tried to do a factory reset, but there isn't enough disk space to do this, as I need at least 4GB more space to be able to reset this laptop with its default settings and a new Windows 10 that isn't taking up all my storage. There are no other files on this laptop apart from the ones that I can't delete.


The reason I needed to clear my disk space in the first place was to be able to run an app that can fix problems I have on my phone, so nothing is really working out at the moment.


I also need this laptop to be able to do my online classes, and because there is such low storage i usually get cut off a few times in each class and have to join back in the call.


I've tried all of the solutions on YouTube, I tried the disk clean up, clearing up the softwareDistrubution file, the %temp% file, clearing the rubbish bin, all of my documents aka my school work and some photos have been moved to an external hard drive, so there really isn't anything on here except for that huge Windows file that can't be removed.


Hopefully somebody knows why the file is taking up so much space and how I can get rid of it! I've had these storage problems for over a year so it would be nice to have a working laptop again :/

:)

 

Can't find the C drive in Windows 10

All the suggestions above work, however, the easiest way to find C Drive is to type>This PC in the search box>Right click on>This PC and choose pin to taskbar. The hiding of C Drive and other Drives is another one of Microsoft's one-step forward and three-steps
back.

 

C: drive

Hi Viva,

If you recently made some changes on your machine and needs to access
C: drive, you can do it by following the steps below:

• Press Windows key + E.
• On the left pane, click This PC. It will show you list of different folders. For
  C: drive, it may look like this.

If you have further queries, feel free to reply to this post.

 

Resetting Computer with Multiple Hard Drives?

Hey all,

Just a quick question. My computer has three hard drives:

• An 128GB SSD as C:\ for Windows 10 and essential applications (Visual Studio, Office, etc)
• An 700GB SSD as D:\ for nonessential applications and games
• A 2TB platter HDD as E:\ for general file storage.

My computer has been running a bit weird lately (especially since I had a RAM stick go bad about a month ago) and so I just want to reset the C drive. My intention is to use the following steps:

• Settings > Update & Security > Recovery
• Click Get Started under Reset this PC
• Click Remove Everything
• Erase quicky (since I'm not trading this PC in)

So, my question is, if I do this will it format all three drives or will it only affect my C drive? I just want to know if I should disconnect my E drive before restoring my PC.

Thanks in advance!