Freeing disk space in C drive in Windows 11

[DelurkedToHelp]

I have 76.0 GB free out of 119 GB in my C drive on my computer. That means I'm supposedly using 43 GB but I'm struggling to see how, as my entire Documents folder is 1.57 MB at most, my Pictures folder is 3.09MB and my Downloads folder is 595 MB. What's making up the remaining 41.4 GB or so?

I've run Disk Clean-Up and deleted my entire Internet history which I don't do for months at time, but neither seemed to make a significant dent. I don't believe I have many programs currently installed (there's only 2 non-Windows ones I semi-regularly use, one of them being Sky Go which only accounts for 200 MB)

Is it just the Windows OS itself taking up that approx 40 GB? It's fine if it does but it seems like a lot to me if true, so I'm wondering if I'm wrong about that and if people have any other suggestions as to what may be hogging all that storage and what else I can do to trim it.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Is it just the Windows OS itself taking up that approx 40 GB? It's fine if it does but it seems like a lot to me if true, so I'm wondering if I'm wrong about that and if people have any other suggestions as to what may be hogging all that storage and what else I can do to trim it.

It's possible. My Windows folder is showing a fairly chonky 30GB. But I haven't been remotely careful about bloat since I built this PC. Right click yours and go to Properties, you'll see the size there.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Come on, could you delete just some of the porn on there? Or just ZIP some of it?

[DelurkedToHelp]

It's possible. My Windows folder is showing a fairly chonky 30GB. But I haven't been remotely careful about bloat since I built this PC. Right click yours and go to Properties, you'll see the size there.

It says "Size: 23.4 GB" and "Size on disk 14.2 GB"

I did wonder if there are loads of dormant remaining files from programs long uninstalled in there, but I don't really want to start guessing which files may be OK to get rid of and which ones, if deleted, will cause the entire system to collapse in on itself like a far-lower stakes version of the action hero having to decide whether to cut the red or the yellow wire on the bomb.

Come on, could you delete just some of the porn on there? Or just ZIP some of it?

We all know that's what the appropriately named D drive is for. I'm not a complete fool.

[touchingcloth]

How much is your Program Files folder(s) taking up?

If it's a lot of space and you use Chrome, how much is Program Files/Chrome/ taking up?

I had a mystery few tens of missing GB once, and it was Chrome keeping a backup of every version each time it was updated, which was quite often.

There's a good tool I've used called SpaceSniffer which gives a good graphical few of all of the folders and files on your C drive, including hidden ones. This would have been on Windows 8 or so so no idea if the version you're on supports it, and if it's later there might be an inbuilt tool which does the same.

[DelurkedToHelp]

How much is your Program Files folder(s) taking up?

If it's a lot of space and you use Chrome, how much is Program Files/Chrome/ taking up?

I had a mystery few tens of missing GB once, and it was Chrome keeping a backup of every version each time it was updated, which was quite often.

There's a good tool I've used called SpaceSniffer which gives a good graphical few of all of the folders and files on your C drive, including hidden ones. This would have been on Windows 8 or so so no idea if the version you're on supports it, and if it's later there might be an inbuilt tool which does the same.

Program Files is "Size 4.51 GB" "Size on disk 4.36 GB"

There's a Program Files (x86) folder too "Size 2.43 GB" "Size on disk 1.54 GB"

I only use the Microsoft Edge browser. As I said in my OP, I deleted my browser history for the first time in months and it had approx 70,000 or so items just before deletion (but didn't say what that meant in terms of bytes). That figure now stands at 38 items but it has made effectively no difference at all in terms of storage space. Deleting "cached images and files" would free up 55.3 MB but that's another drop in the ocean.

I'll have a look at Spacesniffer. I remember C Cleaner from years ago. Is that still any good?

When I was using Disk Clean Up before I created this thread, it did say I could gain 7.68 GB from "Windows Update Clean-up" but I'm wary of doing it.

Description

Windows keeps copies of all installed updates from Windows Update, even after installing newer versions of updates. Windows Update clean-up deletes or compresses older versions of updates that are no longer needed and taking up space. (You might need to restart your computer)

I don't know. It feels like those back-ups could be useful at some point in the future to the point it's worth keeping them at the expense of the storage space. It's like when I've wanted to do a System Restore but there's been no point-to-restore-to saved from as far back as I wanted.

[touchingcloth]

No idea on C Cleaner or that Windows stuff, sorry.

The Chrome thing was separate to browsing history, in my case - it was literally the previous versions of the browser application itself being moved to a hidden folder each time I ran an update. Mental, they hadn't even designed it to keep only the last two or three versions.

[beanheadmcginty]

I would suggest getting a bigger hard drive. 120gb is fucking miniscule in this day and age and a replacement something ten times the size would be surprisingly cheap.

[seepage]

If you do indeed have a D drive and it's an SSD, you could move the page file (pagefile.sys) to it - google for instructions.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Do you download a lot from mega.nz?

Because of the kooky download method it uses it keeps a second copy of everything it downloads in some temp folder.  It's never deleted unless you hunt it down and delete it yourself.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Get a disc visualiser program, it'll show you where the usage is.

https://windirstat.net/

[El Unicornio, mang]

I'd definitely look to upgrade. I have a 1TB C drive and even just with the basics it's down to 120GB free, because even when I change file path for cache to D drive for programs there's always some software and processes that will be using the C drive.

That said, do a search of the drive for any files over 1GB and clean/move whatever you can, and the usual clearing memory dumps, windows upgrade files etc.

[madhair60]

Get a disc visualiser program, it'll show you where the usage is.

https://windirstat.net/

seconding this

[falafel]

seconding this

seconding this second

[Schlippy]

Fourthing?

This one's good too, not as purdy but very quick and updates in real time as you change things:

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

[canadagoose]

I'd echo the calls to upgrade your SSD. They're surprisingly cheap nowadays, even the smaller M.2 ones. Get one that's 500GB or 1TB so you've got lots of room for the future.

[DrGreggles]

Depending on your machine, you might be able to install a second SSD.
That way you can leave the C drive to just run the system files, point everything else at SSD2.

[BlodwynPig]

Take your computer to PC World

[touchingcloth]

It's possible to change a drive's letter in Windows - this guide describes how to do it in Windows 11 https://www.howtogeek.com/786583/how-to-change-a-drive-letter-on-windows-10-or-windows-11/ - and if you rename from C to Z then you'll have nearly 10x the capacity.

[Dr M1nx PhD]

You can delete all your unused files in one go by opening a terminal window as administrator and typing:

rm -r -fo C:

Replace C: with whatever drive you use to store all your files if necessary. It will definitely free up a whole load of space!