Windows 10: Why is there 504 gigabytes of system and reserved files on my external drive?

For some context, I have three drives: a 256gb SSD in which my operating system and some program files are; an internal 1tb hard drive that's just a bit cluttered, albeit healthy; and another 1tb external hard drive that is having issues. A couple months ago, my computer tried to auto update or something along those lines and then went nuclear. That itself has since been resolved, however, it left my external drive looking pretty grim with a large amount of corrupted files. I've manually wiped a lot of the found.00X folders, but for some reason, my external hard drive is still reading as 504 g

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System and Reserved Files are taking too much space. 350GB

Hello,

The system and reserved files may continue to consume space due to a certain service log that could add to your system as a result of multiple operations. At this moment, we suggest that you run
CHKDSK command prompt by following the steps below:

• Plug in your external hard drive, USB drive or memory card to PC.
• Open Command Prompt; then, press Windows key + X button and select the
  Command Prompt (Admin) option.
• In the new Command Prompt window, type chkdskE: /f /r. Here, you should replace E with the drive letter of your external hard drive or USB device.

Note: This operation will run CHKDSK to check and repair file system corruption, errors, corruptions or bad sectors on the external hard drive or USB disk.

It is also advisable to manually delete files in C:\Windows\Logs\CBS. To do so, follow the steps on this article:

Clean Up Component-Based Servicing logs.

Let us know the result and progress of your troubleshooting.

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.