Windows 10: Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB

gedstar · Jan 10, 2017

Just after updating Windows 10 pro and decided to run Disk Cleanup and noticed that I have 3.99 TB of Windows Updates to clean, I read that this was a bug in previous builds and had been fixed or maybe not!
I'm not in the Fast Ring or Insider Preview

:)

Parpaluck · Jan 10, 2017

Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB of Windows Update files to be cleaned

Axiomatic Ones:

I called this KGB 3.99TB virus
for a good reason or two. It ain’t, as a spirited poster here put it:
“BTW the error is only cosmetic and can be ignored.”

No. it ain’t cosmetic. A virus can never be cosmetic. Unless, er, an innocently idiotic PC user never cleans up his computer. Every PC user should
clean up his/her computer after every Windows update, at the least. Then, automatically, robotically, he/she must follow up with a
Defragment run. Only those knowledgeable users with overly-bloated egos would scream:
“Disk clean-up and defragment ain’t necessary!”

Those who claim that KGB 3.99TB is a simply cosmetic issue only replay the
Egg of Columbus fallacy. They already learnt how to deal with the issue in this very thread. But there are still PC users out there who pull their hairs because their PCs freeze while doing the necessary disk clean-up. They
think their PCs died! Reading posts all over the ‘Net, you know how users have dealt with this
virus: Hit the
Reset button or even pull the plug!!

A cosmetic issue is very easy to solve. The
KGB 3.99TB appeared first in the first Windows 10 update of October 2016. The “cosmetic problem” should have disappeared in the next update of October 2016 (end of the month). But it is January
2017 and the issue is still there.

More than three months without a solution. Only tough viruses are that “stubborn”. This
KGB 3.99TB virus
is so clever, that the Windows development team hasn’t been able to even locate the virus in the source code!

Yes, I called the virus KGB because Russia and ex-KGB agent
Putin have been in the news in the USA: HACKING. Short-memory PC users should also remember that the Russians were in the news a few years back when a bunch of them succeeded in hacking
Microsoft. They stole everything possible about Windows: The entire source code. It was big news, but humans have short memory (it is so because there are too many news events!)

It is for the first time that the Windows team admits the virus:

"We fixed an issue where Disk Cleanup would sometimes unexpectedly show 3.99TB worth of Windows Update Cleanup files. "

Up until now, Microsoft stated on every update page that “There are no known issues with this update”. But they falsely claim that they “fixed an issue”. The virus is still there,
so they lied again!

And I said virus because it was not fixed in over three months. If it wasn’t fixed now, I am skeptical it’ll be fixed any time soon. As a spirited Microsoft
wanna-be put it so eloquently: “The fix will
eventually be included in a Windows Update for Released versions”.

Eventuallyis the keyword here. How
eventual is eventually? Nobody knows… except maybe for Putin and his hackers…

But, hey, Microsoft hasn’t even fixed the help issue for legacy software running under Windows 10:

WINHLP32 in Windows 10: Help Files for Older Software Programs, Applications

Ion Saliu

“A good man is an axiomatic man; an axiomatic man is a happy man. Be axiomatic!”
Click to expand...

After Windows 10 update KB3213986, a lower numbered update came out on January 24, 2017:
KB3211320. Surprisingly also, Windows did not require a restart after installation.

The best news: KB3211320 solved
the KGB 3.99TB virus. I did a
Disk Cleanup, including Cleanup System Files, and I no longer saw 3.99TB for
Windows Update Cleanup.

So far, so good!

Ion Saliu

“A good man is an axiomatic man; an axiomatic man is a happy man. Be axiomatic!”

Ang087 · Jan 10, 2017

Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB of Windows Update files to be cleaned

On my computers, the Disk Cleanup utility would not finish even after several hours. The green bar reaches the end in a few minutes but the utility never quits on its own.

Even when the end of the bar is reached, the process Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows hogs one entire logical core. The Windows Modules Installer Worker hogs another core.

There are constant writes to disk.

I am worried that this is going to eat away at the life of the SSD.

Is this a cosmetic bug? To me, it isn't.
Click to expand...

This has happened with the free disk space tool since the beginning when I first started receiving cumulative updates for Windows 10 in the old version 1511 and in the new version 1607.

After the green bar goes all the way over, it never completes the disk cleanup which is trying to clean up the 3.99TB of previous older windows updates.

What I learned to do is either cancel it by hitting the cancel button or opening up Task Manager and end Disk Cleanup. Either way works. After I've waited a few minutes, I try Disk Cleanup once more. It goes through the whole process and also no longer shows
that 3.99TB of older Windows Updates that needed to be cleaned up.

I have never waited for the Cleanup Disk Utility to clean up that 3.99TB because you would be waiting forever for it to finish. Once the green bar goes all the way over, I then cancel it. Everything works okay the second time you use Disk Cleanup.

I figured it out to be a glitch of some sort. I did have Windows 7 Home Premium when I first upgraded to Windows 10 version 1511. Not sure exactly what causes this problem, but just know that you can cancel Disk Cleanup, wait about 5 or 10 minutes and then
do the Disk Cleanup again. That 3.99 TB will disappear, and you can finish up with Disk Cleanup.

EdTittel · Jan 11, 2017

This has happened before on other Windows 10 builds. I blogged about this on October 12 and again on November 11 last year. Here are some links:
http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarge...ter-kb3200970/
Cleanup 3.99 TB from 500GB Drive! - Windows Enterprise Desktop
The issue, as forum member Bree explained it back when, is that a file with lots of hard links is going to be reported as equal in size to the number of copies linked. Thus, for a 200 MB file, 10 hard links means 2 GB! The older updates were in the range of 900 MB to 1.1 GB if memory serves, and reported as 3.99 TB likewise. It's not a bug, it's a feature!
HTH,
--Ed--

CountMike · Jan 11, 2017

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's been a matter of ridicule for years now, was happening since W7 at least.

NavyLCDR · Jan 12, 2017

I wonder if anyone has filed a claim against Microsoft in small claims court? "You promised me 4 TB of free space and I want my 4 TB of free space!"

CountMike · Apr 4, 2018

I wonder if anyone has filed a claim against Microsoft in small claims court? "You promised me 4 TB of free space and I want my 4 TB of free space!"
Click to expand...

Lol. that would teach them.

Windows 10: Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB

Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB

Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB

Disk Cleanup says that I have 3.99 TB

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