Windows 10: Inaccurate C: drive capacity reading/Unable delete winold folders

FYI,
A clean System Volume Information folder should only contains 2 files (20KB). If you have Macrium installed, a third file $MRCBT is also created (7MB).
$MRCBT ( To reduce the amount of time it takes to perform incremental and differential imagesby monitoring the changes to an NTFS formatted volume in real-time).
Besides the System Restore points, SVI also stores other junk files, For example, when you run chkdsk, the result will also be stored there.

 

I have 2 problems which may or may not be connected.1. Following the Fall Creator 'upgrade' the 'Windows10' C: drive shows red with '5.67GB free of 97.2GB'. I have completed a disk cleanup of system files and the total of all files actually existing in all folders showing on C: using WinDirStat is 49.2GB.2. Despite completing system disk cleanup the 'windowsold' folder still exists. All files were deleted but 245 folders remain and cannot be deleted despite apparently having permissions set.The 245 remaining folders in 'windowsold' are WINDOWS/Software Distribution/Download/ and a random number code . . . . etc.Any assistance would be much appreciated.

:)

 

Need to free up storage

Hi Tina, you can safely use Disk Cleanup.

Disk Cleanup will only suggest and delete files and folders that are safe to delete!

In each of the 2 runs of Disk Cleanup, check the boxes on everything in the list(s) and then click Delete to free up as much space as possible . . .

To find out the size of your hard drive:

Open File Explorer (folder on your Taskbar)

On the left click 'This PC'

On the right hand side, right click your hard drive and choose Prooperties

In the resulting dialog, you will see 3 numbers, the bottom one is capacity

What does capacity read in GB

 

drives missing

Hi Ayashkant,

Can we have the information of your drives capacity? Since your device was formatted, it's a possibility that your partitions have been deleted. Those deleted capacity should be added automatically to your C drive.

We look forward to your response.

 

Step 1: Run disk cleanup a different way to see if it makes any difference. Open an Administrator Command window, and copy/paste this command, press ENTER. Check off all boxes and let it run to completion (you may see flashing command windows in the task bar, just let it finish). Then check your space. Windows.old we'll get to later.

%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

 

Many thanks for the info, sadly there was no change after 2 attempts including reboot . . .

 

Easiest option is to boot from a live linux drive or winpe drive (eg Macrium Reflect Rescue drive) and delete it from there.

 

Many thanks for the linux drive option which was partially successful in that 'windowsold' has been removed but the C: drive icon under 'devices' still shows red with 4.25GB free of 97.2GB and actual files existing total is 51.0GB

 

To eliminate the possibility that lost clusters are occupying the rest of the used space you should run Chkdsk.

Open a command prompt (Admin) and type CHKDSK C: /F
When it says...

...type Y then restart the PC. A disk check will run at boot. Any lost clusters will be turned into files that can then be deleted.

If there is still a lot of space 'missing' after that, what does WinDirStat say for the size of 'System Volume Information'? You may need to run it as administrator for it to be able to see the true size.

 

Still the same, I'm afraid:

 

I do not see 'System Volume Information' in your screenshot. This is a hidden folder on the root of every drive, you'll need to show hidden files (and perhaps System files) in order to see it.

System Volume Information is where restore points are kept, so can grow to many GB if left to its own devices. This tutorial tells you how to see the space currently being used for restore points, and how to limit the space it's allowed to use.

Change System Protection Max Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10

 

The System Volume info is shown highlighted - and empty!

 

I actually deleted all restore points except a new one before starting this thread.

 

WinDirStat does not show the full picture. TreeSize Free shows everything.
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilit...-free-portable

Here they are, side by side, looking at the same C: drive. In particular, look at System Volume Information, highlighted in both. WinDirStat says it's empty, TreeSize shows the files and folders it contains.

 

Aha! Secret stuff, thank you! Success at last. So my last question is; can I safely delete the biggies?