Windows 10: Loss of disk space despite clean install

I recently did a clean install of W10 from a USB drive that I downloaded the media on from Microsoft. I did this because my 580 GB hard drive showed only 20 GB of free space despite the fact that I really don't store that much data. After the clean install of W10, Windows explorer still shows I am using 500 GB of disk space and only have 80 GB of free space. All apps are gone now as are my files. I did backup to Macrium, but that is another issue. Right now I am just trying to get some free disk space. I have a Dell desktop with 4 GB RAM and 580 GB hard drive. I am not at that computer right now and cannot remember the exact chip specs, but I think it has a 2.5 MHz speed. Any ideas on why my disk is so full despite a clean reinstall of W10? Any suggestions on how to fix it? I appreciate your help. Also, prior to reinstall I was getting frequent BSOD's with various different error codes, never the same one. In addition, restart does not seem to work right. It hangs when trying to restart and I have to shut it down and restart manually. I don't know about the BSOD issue yet, but the restart issue is still a problem after the reinstall.

:)

 

clean installation and adding disk space

I have total of 231 gb ssd hd for the C drive. If I want to increase it and do it via clean installation under format in the partition, is that possible? I mean increase the C drive space and decrease the D drive space.

 

clean installation and adding disk space

If the total disk space is 231 GBs, what else would be left for you increase. If there is a recovery partition, it would be a negligible amount.

Press Windows key + X

Click Disk Management

Take a screenshot and post it in a reply here - learn how:

How to include a screenshot in your post

 

goto system then storage double click on drive c: now you can see were the space is going clicking on any object gives you more details post results. Have you got a lot in 1 drive or similar. I have all my software files etc and its only 70 gig. try UnCleaner – The Unnecessary Files Cleaner Solution - Josh Cell Softwares see what that frees up.

When you say a clean install did you format the drive is there a windows old folder?

 

I regularly install Windows 10, both 32-bit, and 64-bit on partitions of 30 GB for testing. A clean install takes about 12GB.

What else are you restoring?

Could it be a large synced Onedrive folder?

 

I looked at the storage map. 435 GB listed in "other". Under other, there were 331 GB in (Files at root drive). I looked into these file folders individually but couldn't get them to add up to 331. There were 6 that had contents listed at greater than 1 GB. These were Windows (15.7 GB), Windows Old (16.0 GB), AMD (8.09 GB), IDrive Local (35.3 GB), Program file x86 (1.97 GB) and Users (1.2 GB). I'm not sure what's taking up all the space. Any thoughts?

I will try the Uncleaner you suggested.

 

I don't think it's the onedrive. that has only 5.13 MB,

 

I looked at the Uncleaner from Josh Cells Softwares but it doesn't say it is compatible with W10. It lists W7, W8, XP and VISTA. Ergo, I did not try it. Any other thoughts?

 

If you have a Windows.old folder, it was not a clean install, but an upgrade.

 

I recently reinstalled W10 using the W10 installation media downloaded from Microsoft. Originally I had upgraded from W7. The description of the reinstallation lead me to believe the disk would be essentially wiped, and it was termed a "clean install". Apparently not. Still, I am not sure how to proceed to free up this huge amount of disk space that is being usurped. Any thoughts?

I have attached the storage usage screen shots if that is helpful.

 

I also tried vssadmin list shadow storage, but this tool did not work.

 

I would start with option 2 here:
Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

Select everything on the list to remove.

 

I tried the Disk Cleanup as suggested. No change in the storage map. It would seem the only resolution would be to completely wipe my current drive and then reinstall W10 as a new program, then retrieve backup files. I am nervous about this approach, but I cannot spend a lot more time dickering around. Any suggestions? What would be the best method to wipe the disk and reinstall?

 

I tried the Disk Cleanup as suggested. No change in the storage map. It would seem the only resolution would be to completely wipe my current drive and then reinstall W10 as a new program, then retrieve backup files. I am nervous about this approach, but I cannot spend a lot more time dickering around. Any suggestions? What would be the best method to wipe the disk and reinstall?

 

Can't say for others but I've done clean installs 2 ways, one method is booting to a Linux Mint LiveDVD to run GPARTED or booting to a GPARTED boot CD, both allow deleting all partitions to give the drive a clean start.

The second method involved using an HDD that still contained a single partition with no files on it. Caveat: the partitioned and formatted drive did not get any additional partitions during the clean install of version 1703 Build 15063, has only 1 partition on it. It is an older computer without EFI and the used HDD was from a different computer.