Windows 10: Hard drive filled with invisible files.

Discus and support Hard drive filled with invisible files. in Windows 10 Support to solve the problem; My C:\ drive, which holds the Windows 10 OS, programs data/files and a little bit of user data, shows that I have used roughly 600gb of space (first... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Support' started by Slow Processor, Apr 6, 2017.

  1. SLOW PROCESSOR
    Slow Processor Win User

    Hard drive filled with invisible files.


    My C:\ drive, which holds the Windows 10 OS, programs data/files and a little bit of user data, shows that I have used roughly 600gb of space (first image below) on a 1TB SSD. When I use WinDirStat to see what's on that drive, it shows that I have about 120gb of data on it (second image). Could someone kindly suggest what could be taking up 480gb of space—and why it is invisible to WinDirStat. Your help would be greatly appreciated.



    Hard drive filled with invisible files. [​IMG]



    Hard drive filled with invisible files. [​IMG]


    :)
     
    Slow Processor, Apr 6, 2017
    #1
  2. DAVEM121
    DaveM121 Win User

    Invisible Files on Hard Drive

    Hi Jalswim, Windows Explorer is useless when it comes to working out where your hard drive space is being used . . .

    Click the link below to download a small free utility called Treesize. Using that tool, you will instantly see where this space is being used

    TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

    Since it is 15GB of files, that app will show you where on your drive the files are . . .
     
    DaveM121, Apr 6, 2017
    #2
  3. SARAHKONG
    SarahKong Win User
    Invisible Files on Hard Drive

    Run a chkdsk on the drive and that is all i can suggest unfortunately.

    If that doesn't work then you will have to format the drive or you can take it into a local PC shop and they can try and retrieve your files.

    So back in command prompt run the following command.

    chkdsk /f K:
     
    SarahKong, Apr 6, 2017
    #3
  4. WOT
    WOT Win User

    Hard drive filled with invisible files.

    WOT, Apr 6, 2017
    #4
  5. SLOW PROCESSOR
    Slow Processor Win User
    WOT. The WizTree allowed me to see the hidden files. It seems they are System Volume files... which, I guess, are system restore points (gone wild). I'll have to look into how the tame this feature going forward.


    Hard drive filled with invisible files. [​IMG]
     
    Slow Processor, Apr 6, 2017
    #5
  6. INDIANACARNIE
    indianacarnie Win User
    Welcome to the forums Slow Processor!

    How many system restore points do you have? You may want to delete a few of them. Have you cleaned up all your old updates and such? Those can take up an amazing amount of space. Here's some links to a few tutorials that may help you reclaim space. We have some very talented people here and their tutorials are very easy to understand and follow. Hope this helps.

    Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

    Delete Older Versions of File History in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

    Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

    Looks like we posted at the same time. These tutorials will help.
     
    indianacarnie, Apr 6, 2017
    #6
  7. WOT
    WOT Win User
    Also see here:
    Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10

    Also, you can manage the number of restore points created by limiting the size here:

    Hard drive filled with invisible files. [​IMG]


    Please remember to mark this post as solved if/when you feel your issue has been resolved.

    Cheers,
     
    WOT, Apr 4, 2018
    #7
Thema:

Hard drive filled with invisible files.

Loading...

  1. Hard drive filled with invisible files. - Similar Threads - Hard drive filled

  2. Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?

    in Windows 10 Network and Sharing
    Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?: I factory reset my computer cause I planned on starting fresh because the everything is so disorganized but when I did it wiped everything like I wanted it too but it still says that my hard drive is using like 800gb worth of files but there’s nothing there? I tried to...

  3. Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?

    in Windows 10 Gaming
    Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?: I factory reset my computer cause I planned on starting fresh because the everything is so disorganized but when I did it wiped everything like I wanted it too but it still says that my hard drive is using like 800gb worth of files but there’s nothing there? I tried to...

  4. Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    Space on hard drive being used by invisible files…?: I factory reset my computer cause I planned on starting fresh because the everything is so disorganized but when I did it wiped everything like I wanted it too but it still says that my hard drive is using like 800gb worth of files but there’s nothing there? I tried to...

  5. Temp files fill hard drive

    in Windows 10 Gaming
    Temp files fill hard drive: Hi. I just bought a new HP desktop with Win 11. Imagine my surprise to find my 237gb SSD drive is filled with 198gb of temporary and system files which I apparently can't remove. I already deleted a 19gb Windows.old file. How can I get rid of the rest of the stuff crowding my...

  6. Temp files fill hard drive

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    Temp files fill hard drive: Hi. I just bought a new HP desktop with Win 11. Imagine my surprise to find my 237gb SSD drive is filled with 198gb of temporary and system files which I apparently can't remove. I already deleted a 19gb Windows.old file. How can I get rid of the rest of the stuff crowding my...

  7. Invisible bloat filling my C drive

    in Windows 10 Network and Sharing
    Invisible bloat filling my C drive: After a complete windows reinstall using a usb install method I found out that my main SSD is nearly completely filled up.[ATTACH] but all visible files account for only 33 GB. [ATTACH]I already tried to find the missing files using wiztree and windirstat but no luck there...

  8. Hard Drive Filling Up with Temp log files

    in Windows 10 Network and Sharing
    Hard Drive Filling Up with Temp log files: My HP Laptop harddrive is filling up with Event Log files in the Windows Temp folder. The harddrive fills totally within 2 days running. Solution...

  9. A hard drive is invisible to disc management

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    A hard drive is invisible to disc management: Simply does not even appear anywhere in any program in win 10. However drive appears in the bios. Using Ubuntu drive appears in gparted and disks, and I can create and delete partitions on it. The history of the drive, it recently had a severe boot problem, and I copied most...

  10. Hard drive filling up

    in Windows 10 Performance & Maintenance
    Hard drive filling up: Each night my hard drive fills up. I can't figure out where the free space is going. I can clear off 5 gigs, but the next morning there is a 'low disk space' error.. How can I find where the empty space is being used? Can I search by newest file created? 106834