Windows 10: Hard drive keeps filling up on it's own.

Using MS10. Properties say I have 3GB, very soon after, with no new things added to hard drive I get a warning that hardrive is almost full. I run chkdsk c: /x /r and restart. Now I am back to around 3GB. Very soon after back to 250Mb. Now having to repeat this several times a day. Anybody know what is up?

:)

 

Windows 10 Hard Drive Keeps Filling Up

No it's not, it's about right. This is the breakdown of what 'System & reserved' actually means....





You get this detailed breakdown by clicking on the 'System & reserved' bar seen in the earlier screenshots.

On possible cause for the OP's shrinking free space could be item two in that list, the virtual memory. If that is set for 'system managed' (as it is by default) and an errant app is eating up memory but not releasing it properly, then the swap file may just keep growing until it fills the disk.

 

Windows 10 Hard Drive Keeps Filling Up





In Settings under Storage, have you checked it there.

 

Windows 10 Hard Drive Keeps Filling Up

I've used WinDirStat in the past, and it's been quite helpful. Here's an example of what you'll see, after the "pac-men" are finished:





As you select bits in the map, it tells you what they are. You can then hover your mouse over one, right-click, and you get this:






You can also have it show "Unknown" (although I'm not sure how to handle that - deleting Unknown might bork the system):





I once found and fixed a leaky program this way.