Windows 10: Excessive Storage?

It is most likely your page file, swap file and/or your hibernate file allocation. They are by default sized based on the amount of RAM you have installed.
To see them, you must unhide the Protected Operating System files.

 

The pagefile is shown as virtual memory or in TreeSize in the filegroup that isn't in a folder.
Attachment 79857

 

I will mark this a solved:

1. WizTree was a good suggestion and I found GBs of hidden metadata in $Extend.

2. Did an Admin CMD and ran 'fsutil resource info c:\' to check for transactions.

3. All OK then ran fsutil resource setautoreset true on C:\ (CMD will hint the format and choose drive as appropriate)

4. Restarted and waited a long...long time as fsutil worked through the SSD. - be patient!!

5. Windows restarted and freespace jumped from 174GB to 200GB.

6. WDS now has 0% unknown with 1 item.

I hope the metadata does not regrow.

Excellent support and your feedback pointed to a possible solution. Thanks all at tenfoeums.com.
Dave

 

$Extend is a folder you can't even see in Explorer with all hidden stuff unhidden, never heard of that folder either.

Good to hear you solved it *Smile

 

Forgive me for jumping on this post but do I have a similar problem? I have added a screen shot showing my C drive with used space on the SSD but Foldersize showing the total of the folders on the drive as only 42GB. Would I be able to run that command fsutil resource setautoreset true on C:\ as well?

 

Sorry, I forgot about the hidden system files!

 

Sorry, I forgot about the hidden system files!

 

Just a random, but hopefully helpful, observation: If you right-click on WinDirStat.exe in Explorer, and select "Run as administrator" from the pop-up menu, it will tell you more than running it at normal user privilege. I'm not sure it will illuminate the $Extend stuff you encountered, but I'd be curious to find out if it does. I don't see any hidden items like that on any of my Win10 machines, so perhaps you could try? Thanks!
--Ed--

 

For me WinDirStat doesn't show the $Extend folder or other files that WizTree does show,
even if i start WinDirStat with Run as administrator.
The link to download WizTree is in Post #13

WizTree and WinDirStat have portable versions available.
I have both programs, it's like having 2 different screwdrivers in the toolbox, rather than just 1.