Windows 10: Excessively Large System Files

I have two excessively large system files located in C:\Windows\:

{2FD0AD83-973A-11E5-B6B9-ACFDCE21931D}
{2FD0AD87-973A-11E5-B6B9-ACFDCE21931D}

The first is 43.4 GB and the second is 26.6 GB. Together, they constitute 30% of my total disk usage or over 42% if you ignore my Linux VM.

Standard questions:
- What are they / what do they do?
- Why are they so big?
- Can I delete them?

I'm Running Windows 10 with a clean install originating from a late insider build. My present OS build is 10586.36. More information is available upon request.

:)

 

Packages Folder Excessively Large

My sister has a one year old computer with Widows 10 installed. I was surprised that her 650GB drive is full except for a 1 or 2 free gigabytes. I found the folder C:/Users/Admin/Appdata/Local/Packages/ has over 400 gigabytes stored in it.

I don't know what caused the Packages folder to become so large. I do not know how to decide what to delete.

Any suggestions?

Laverne

 

Packages Folder Excessively Large

Hi

I have the same problema with a 8.1 Surface tablet . What can i do to Free hd space?. I havent installed any app.

 

If these are under a System Volume Information directory, they are files used by System Restore. If you don't use the System Restore function, turn it off. They will be automatically deleted. Another possibility is Hibernation. Same deal.

 

you could try deleting all but the latest restore point see if it shrinks , right click computer goto properties then general tab select disk clean up thenm select clean up system files/more options , then clean up under system restore and shadow copies *Smile

 

TL;DR: Thanks for the replies and good guesses, but no and no.

The path to the files in question is C:\Windows\, not C:\System Volume Information\. In my experience from Windows 7, System Volume Information\ never grows much beyond 1 or 2 GB, not the 70 GB that I'm wanting to remove. I'm also rather dubious that it's system restore at this point because:
- I disabled system restore for the C drive in question.
- I deleted both system restore points on disk through the system protection GUI.
- I tried Archie123's method for removing system restore points.
- The disk space usage limit for system restore was set to 10 GB.
- I doubt that a Windows software engineer would link a file in C:\Windows\ to System Volume Information\ (although I haven't checked - Windows 10 seems hell bent on keeping me from viewing the contents of System Volume Information or even changing the permissions as an admin and I don't feel like Googling it).
... and the two files are still there and as large as ever..

I'm pretty sure the hibernation explanation is also out. I disabled system hibernation a while back and verified that the hibernation file had been deleted. WinDirStat also shows no indication of a hibernation file at this time and I don't have enough RAM for the system to justify a file anywhere near 70 GB.

 

Is there a backup option called file history on win 10? I had a friend with an issue with this but it was win 8 , windows was backing up his files what seemed to be multiple times and the resulting files were huge , i cant remember how he fixed it ill get in touch with him . Probably not the issue but ill get the info anyway

 

Hi Archie,

If you mean this File History feature, then yes; Windows 10 has that feature. However, I'm a git user and haven't played with File History until know. If I go to Control Panel >System and Security > File History, it claims that "File History is off" and I also haven't associated a backup drive. Whether file history is actually off, I don't know, but assuming the Microsoft SWE's did their job correctly it should be.

 

As an extra data point, I appended "-hide" to the names of the two files in question. I have been able reboot and everything so far (Chrome, Word 2010, Task Manager, Skype, VMWare, [Windows] Settings, Control Panel, and File Explorer) appears to be functioning properly. This doesn't definitely answer any of my questions, but it does suggest "nothing" as a possible answer to my first question.

 

Those look like temp files to me. I would delete them.

 

I just finished copying them onto an external hard drive just in case they aren't temp files. I'll run for a while and go through the typical Windows forced update process at least once before permanently deleting them. However, that still doesn't answer what they do (did) and why they are so big.