Windows 10: C drive space dicreasing rapidly

My c drive space is decreasing rapidly (at least 1 gb per day). I have bought a laptop with pre-installed windows and I have already deleted old win. I have run system and disk clean up, checked for shadow files (I had none) in the command prompt, ran my antivirus and ccleaner, deleted '%temp%', 'temp' and 'prefetch' files. I have uninstalled apps and compressed my drive and had not downloaded anything, yet my c drive is decreasing. I have run the WinDirStar program and here is the screenshot





Oh and my notifications show that there were no new updates, so I am really confused, can somebody help me solve this problem?

:)

 

C drive filling rapidly.

You need to provide info related to what data you deleted and what type of data is filling up your drive.

You can use the Settings-System-Storage page and check what on that partition. The type of files would give a clue as to what might be happening. There is a thread where someone has a log file growing and taking up space.

 

C drive filling rapidly.

Hi Swamy,

The Windows update usually downloads raw update files to your computer first before the update gets applied. The raw update files should be automatically deleted by the system afterwards. Which Windows build and version are you using? It may be possible
that you are using an earlier build of Windows and the Windows update keeps on installing each update released one by one, the reason why your storage gets full.

For the meantime, we have an article on our support site that can help you with this issue. Kindly visit the link provided here and follow the steps you have not done yet:

Free up drive space in Windows 10.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Hi, it would help if you could monitor this for a couple of days and identify in which area files are accumulating - which folder is increasing steadily in size- without cleaning anything over the period.

 

32GB for Windows is quite a lot. Download "WC.bat" and run it as admin.
It will take about an hour to complete, then select to clean everything.

 

@TarikuOkami - we need to see what is increasing in size- i.e. what the cause of the concern is, being the purpose of the original post. Using a cleaner won't stop whatever it is that's filling space.

After that, by all means consider the total size- which I wouldn't consider particularly excessive. It may contain some pre-installed stuff, and user data as well.

 

Looking at the WinDirStat output, I don't see any obvious pathologies. If we knew which folders were growing so dramatically, it would undoubtedly tell us more than we currently know. Also, if the Unknown folder proves interesting in the future (it doesn't look that interesting right now), launching WirDirStat with a right-click to "run as administrator" will often shed a lot more light on the file system analysis.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thank you for all of Your suggestions I will try to monitor with WinDirStar for a couple of days and then will get back with more information.

 

There's a problem using WinDirStat. Some folders restrict access - even to administrator (such as System Volume Information where windows saves restore point data). Run WinDirStat, even as admin, shows System Volume folder with size 0! Use TreeSizeFree instead and run as admin.

TreeSize clearly circumvents Windows permissions
> I just downloaded and ran WinDirStat as admin on my PC. WinDirStat shows System Volume Information folder at size 0
> I run TreeSize on my PC shows it's over 3GB!!!

/* EDIT */
System Volume folder is always my first suspect for disappearing space - especially since it's non-obvious since most tools don't show its real size

/* EDIT2 */
In full disclosure, I ran the tools on a Win 7 machine, but would guess Win 10 will be the same results

 

Agreed about Windirstat and System Volume Information. The space you allocate to restore points is under your control, thus is constrained anyway so should not be of particular interest- disappointing that doesn't show it nonetheless.

E.g. type restore (in the Cortana search box), create a restore point, configure...

 

Hello again, I have still decided to run WinDirStar today and this is what I got. Prior to running this program I did what dalchina suggested with system restore and then I pressed delete, now nothing really happened but when I ran WinDirStar my recovery file that took up 3.6gb disappeared, but I did not gain any space. Nor did I loose it yet. However, as you can see form the screenshot my unknown file became 1.2 gb. My windows folder decreased from 20.3gb to 20, as well as program files from 1.8 gb to 629.5mb, program data from 1.1 gb up to 691.9 mb. Nothing else changed, yet I did not gain any space. Here's the screenshot Attachment 107466

 

Hi, unfortunately your screenshot isn't accessible - could you edit and update your post?
Unsure what you mean about 'pressed delete'. I only commented on System restore.

It would be wise to try to identify what your 'unknown file' is.

Could you post a screenshot of explorer viewing C:, showing anything which might correspond to it?
And open a command prompt window at c: and type
dir
and post a screenshot
then type
DIR /ADH
and post a screenshot
then type
DIR /AH
and post a screenshot

 

You can try something like this: Watch 4 Folder - The Portable Freeware Collection
or
10 Tools to Monitor Files and Folders for Changes in Real Time • Raymond.CC

 

Ok, hopefully it would show

 

Sorry, those command prompt screenshots aren't of C:

Try cd ..
(twice) and you should be at C:
Check that, then repeat.
And include explorer showing C: please.