Windows 10: CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file taking up all of my hard drive space - how do I delete...

There is a single file called CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal taking up 122.1GB of hard drive space and now windows is unable to run properly due to lack of hard drive space. When I delete other files this one just grows in size and quickly grabs up the newly freed space.I do not want to try and delete it if it will mess up my system and do not even know if I can and am wondering what other options if any I have.

:)

 

Windows defender scan files hogging system drive space

• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?
  • Used procexp, perfmon and resmon to see what msmpeng.exe was doing; (only read/write to it's own db, db-shm, and dh-wal files)
• During what activity does the CPU get the highest usage?
  • Any and all activity, start immediately after a reboot.
• Have you made any recent changes to your computer prior to this issue?
  • Started after upgrade to Build 16232 on the slow release of Windows Insider.

Today msmpeng.exe crashed and Windows Defender is saying "Threat service has stopped. Restart it now." and is asking me to click the restart now button. I checked my drive and I only have ~300MB free. I assume the process crashed after it ran out of
space. The db-wal file is 142GB. Attempts to open the db file in SQLite Browser asks for the encryption key which I don't have.

 

deleting hard drive files

Hi,

May we know what type of file are you trying to delete? Would it be Office documents, media files, or picture files? If you're trying to delete files for free some space on your device. We suggest to perform a Disc Cleanup. Kindly follow the steps below to
perform the task:

• Type in Cortana Disc Cleanup
  
• Choose the files to delete
  
• Click on "Clean up system files"
  
• Click on Ok
  

For any concerns, don't hesitate to get back to us.

Regards.

 

some hidden files that takes up space on my hard drive?

the next step after it finishes is to run disk clean again /clean up system files and when the box shows up click
on the more options tab there you can clean up programs you don't use and delete restore points which can take up space