Windows 10: "You are running out of disk space on local drive J:" - how to resolve

Running Windows 10, I recently started receiving this notification every few minutes:

"You are running out of disk space on local drive J:"

... but when I click on it to free up space, it says I can free up 0 bytes. This is not my main hard drive, which has over 1 TB of available space. I'm not sure why I'm getting this message suddenly (and so frequently!) ... any advice for me? Thanks in advance.

:)

 

Low Disk Space - You are running out of disk space on windows RE tools message

Glad you found the information helpful Mike. We both saved money and time.

 

Low Disk Space - You are running out of disk space on windows RE tools message

Hello Mike,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and Thank you for posting your query.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused with Windows 10. I understand you are receiving Low disk space popup message.

Thanks for providing the screenshots and details about the issue.

Recovery drive is to store all the files needed to do an emergency recovery when the system becomes unstable like to do a system restore.

The Recovery drive is actually a partition on the main hard drive in your computer - not an actual, physical drive. It has much less available space than Drive (C.

You may please refer to the below article about a similar issue and check if it helps.

HP PCs - Error: Low Disk Space. You are running out of disk space on Recovery (Windows 8)

HP PCs - Error: Low Disk Space. You are running out of disk space on Recovery (Windows 8) | HP® Customer Support

(The Steps given for Windows 8 in the above link also applies to Windows 10).

Hope the information helps. Do reply if you need further assistance.

Thank you.

 

Hard to offer advice when you have not told us what you are using drive J: for.

 

I really don't know what it is for, to be honest. It doesn't show any files in File Explorer except for ST17473.30959 (0 bytes)

 

The size of 449MB and the fact you cannot see files on the J: drive suggests this may be a recovery partition that has somehow been assigned a drive letter. It would help diagnosis if you could post a screenshot of disk management.
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

 

Disk management shows no partition has the letter J: assigned. Presumably you still see a J: drive in File Manager though. The only partition that matches the size in the earlier screenshot is (disk 0 partition 6) which is indeed a recovery partition (and as such, should not have a drive letter).

This solved thread from a year or so ago had a similar problem (drive letters assigned where they shouldn't be, but not showing in Disk Management). See the last couple of posts for their solution.
Issue with Windows auto-mounting drives that shouldn't be mounted

 

Thank you, I'll look into this. *Smile