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Resolved Question

C drive suddenly full dont know why?

May 11, 2015 10:07PM PDT

I have just noticed that my C drive is full, I don't understand why?
I can only find 98gb and its saying it has 205gb. I have run Winderstat but it hasn't helped me Sad
I just cannot find the missing 120gb.

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Discussion is locked

Sophieandkay has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
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Clarification Request
Tell me the size of this folder.
May 13, 2015 4:10AM PDT

"System Volume Information"

Best Answer

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C drive full - don't punt, attack!
May 16, 2015 10:47AM PDT

A succession of steps to take:

As a first step, be sure that there has not been a new partition created from Drive 0. Right click on My Computer on desktop, select disk management. View Drive 0 to verify that C: contains the full capacity of the disk. If not, look for any unallocated capacity.

Check that your anti-virus software is not retaining too much from each scan and not releasing out-of-date data.

Look for any dump and lost and found files.

It may be files left by an aborted or untidy clean-up from a recent program installation.

Clean the temp folder, windows temp folder and windows prefectch folder and any temporary download folders. Have you downloaded a movie that lurks in the download folder?

Run Chkdsk. While rare today, it is possible for the OS to get confused on space utilization.

Run a program such as CCleaner to get rid of temp files. Also, run the registry cleaner option.

Run a program such as Glary Utilities with same options as CCleaner. I have found that each will find stuff the other did not.

AdwCleaner can find a lot of problems and clean them. Be aware of the cookies that it may remove.

XYPlorerFree can be run with a size option to find large files. Also, running it in ambiguous search will give you all the files on the drive. Then sort by date to see if it is garbage left behind recently.

Download a program such as Spacesniffer to visualize file usage. It may be a large number of small files, thus looking for a single large file may not locate the problem..

Run a program such as Puran Defrag with boot time option to compact the registry. Some programs leave behind a lot of trash. I would run the Glary to clean the registry before Puran Defrag. Why both? The registry is normally in use and cannot be compacted, thus it must be done at boot time (cleaning and compacting are distinct operations).

As a last resort in looking for large files:
Go to command line
Change to C: root
execute the command: dir * /S /O:-S > dolist.txt
That may take some time if there are many files.
Return back to Windows
Open the dolist.txt in Excel, split the text to columns, the sort to your heart's content to find the biggies!

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Answer
Re: c-drive full
May 11, 2015 10:13PM PDT

In such cases:
1. Run chkdsk to see if the file system maybe is corrupted (quite rare).
2. Boot from a Linux disk or USB-stick. The Linux file manager sees more than windirstat.

Kees

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Answer
(NT) Exactly what drive do you have ...make/mfg and model # ?
May 12, 2015 11:06AM PDT
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Acer
May 12, 2015 6:07PM PDT

Hi there, it's an Acer touch screen all in one. 500gb model.

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Answer
(NT) Did you check Disk Managment program in windows?
May 12, 2015 11:49AM PDT
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hi
May 12, 2015 7:58PM PDT

I have ran a disk clean up. Where do I find disk management?

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Disk management
May 13, 2015 3:52AM PDT

Found disk management! Yes I have, I have now run a spacesniffer and found teh space, but spaceniffer cannot scan it.

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does it have a name or filenames or folder name?
May 13, 2015 9:48AM PDT

does it have a name or filenames or folder name? Did you try the advice to shrink the Recovery section? Turn it off, then back on and save a new recovery point. Also limit how much space it can use.

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(NT) How is the diskspace described or titled ? What size is it?
May 16, 2015 8:08AM PDT
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Answer
Check certain folders under C:\windows\system32
May 16, 2015 5:34AM PDT

Several laptops in our office were suffering from this issue until I discovered that the FxsTmp folder under the System32 folder was full of tmp files, as many as 39,000 of these! These were apparently generated by a phantom fax setting. I deleted all of them, then uninstalled the never-used fax device under Devices and Printers. The problem never recurred.