Windows 10: Deleting files does not reclaim disk space - instead System & reserved expands on the drive

Hello,


If I delete files on my drive F: on a Windows 10 machine, no new space shows for the drive. Looking at Storage, I see System & Reserved expands (now 177 GB) on my 207 GB drive F:. So if I delete a 20GB folder, this will go up to 197GB.


Have tried drive clean up, examination with WinDirStat and Treesize (neither of which show these files even when run as Admin). Tried researching what System and Reserved might be used for. Have deleted system restore points. Don't think indexing is on.


So I guess the question is really, how to do I stop System & Reserved files from eating my machine?


TIA,


Larry

Windows 10 Pro (up to date) 64 bit

On Dell Workstation with 32 GB RAM 1.6 TB drive

:)

 

Reclaim Un-allocated Space (Formally System Reserved)

Hello,

I previously had run low on disk space on my Operating System Drive (SSD 250GB), my operating system (Windows 7) created a system reserved space (100MB) and placed the boot files there, this creates a warning on log in that a temporary paging file has been
created.

I have now cloned this drive to a new 1TB Corsair SSD (Including the system reserved partition) with Active Boot Disk software. I have reclaimed un-allocated space on the new drive which was not identified during the cloning process. As the boot files were
being stored on the system reserved partition, I conducted a "boot fix" on my Windows 7 Disc. This placed my boot files into the main partition and then I proceeded to make the main partition active and deleted the system reserved partition (now un-allocated).

Windows now boots from the main partition as intended,

However in Disk Manager, an un-allocated space created by the system reserved function exists and the Temporary Paging File Warning still appears on start-up, even though the new SSD has 800+GB of free space and the main partition is the
boot partition. Also, the left most partition is the 100MB un-allocated space that I wish to reclaim but the option to extend the main partition is greyed out in and not available in active boot disk software and disk manager. I have tried to make the disk
"dynamic" but it warns me there is not enough "space" on either partition to do so, which is simply not true.

TLR

I want to:

1. Merge the left most 100MB un-allocated partition (previously system reserved) with the main 800+GB partition
2. Remove the temp paging file alert on start up

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Wade.

 

No space on hard drive due to system reserved patition and installer files

Hi Ruth,

The issue may occur due to corrupted system files or memory full. In order for us to assist you, please answer the questions below:

• What is the exact error message?
• Can you please provide us a screenshot of your hard drive status.

To isolate the issue, we suggest to check this article of Andre Da Costa:
How to free up disk space in Windows. It contains troubleshooting steps and explanation pertaining to the issue.

We look forward to your response.

 

Disk space

Hi,

Windows create a special partition when installed on a new disk. This is usually under the name System Reserved. This partition contains these two important things:

• Boot Manager and Boot Configuration Data
• Startup files used for BitLocker Drive Encryption

These two should not be deleted as it is essential for booting and Bitlocker drive encryption. Regarding Windows upgrade, it will not take the allotted space for the System Reserved Partition. It will just take the remaining space outside of it. If you have
30 GB of space, and 13.5 GB is for the System Reserved, then whatever amount of space is remaining on the C drive less than all the installed apps and stored files, then that's what the Windows upgrade will take.

Hope this answers your query. Feel free to post back if you have other concerns.