94GB <Unknown> Space Taken Up In HDD (WinDirStat)?

m00kster14 · Mar 11, 2015

So I already used Windirstat to access my HDD a few months ago and saw that I had a MASSIVE Unknown file taking up nearly 300GB. I found it was the backup thing that Windows has that protects you from * up your system so I turned it off and deleted the file and it was all good.

My PC was running a bit slow randomly however so I checked if my HDD needed defragmenting (it doesn't), I fixed my registry and then I checked windirstat only to see I have a NEW Unknown filed taking up nearly another 100GB. FFS!

I literally have no idea what to check or do. I don't want to just delete it, but it's new and wasn't there before so where has it come from?

I recently downloaded a bunch of games off steam and download my fair share of torrents (I know naughty naughty). Not sure if that is relevant but I haven't really done anything that would equate to nearly 100GB.

If anyone has any ideas what I can check or do I'd really appreciate it. I still have 1TB of free space with my other External HDD but I like to have everything organised and this file is pissing me off. Nearly 100GB of space gone for seemingly nothing is a bit excessive. Btw I already ran WinDirStat in Admin mode as I saw someone say that can show up what the unknown files are on another forum but it didn't work.

Cheers!

<Language, please>

hang-the-9 · Mar 11, 2015

Well it's impossible to know what an "unknown file" is, does it have a name or a location?

It's like asking "I saw this unknown animal in my yard, can someone tell me what it was?" and not giving any other info.

m00kster14 · Mar 11, 2015

hang-the-9 :

Well no. Windirstat only displays it as an unknown file. Although on further inspection I do believe it is from within the Users files. But there isn't a specific location.

USAFRet · Mar 11, 2015

How much RAM do you have?

jitpublisher · Mar 11, 2015

Just tossing this out there, its not the Windows swap file is it?

USAFRet · Mar 11, 2015

jitpublisher :

Right. Thats why I asked about the RAM. Pagefile and hibernation.

hang-the-9 · Mar 11, 2015

m00kster14 :

Without knowing where it is or what it's really called there is no way to know what it is or what to do with it. You said it may be in the users files, what does the program show you when you look at the block? You should have a drop-down list of the directories and that should lead you to where that file is. If you look for a file for that size in Windows, does it find anything? Is it actually a file that large or a directory?

I doubt it's the swap file, that should not be much larger than the RAM amount and I doubt the system has 50 gig of RAM

Could be the hibernation file but that is also a bit odd as that should be the contents of the RAM and swap file and a few others, which should not add up to 100 gig again. Plus I know the hibernation and swap files show up in WinDirStat properly, not as unknown files.

mainemtbiker · Mar 27, 2015

Be careful of your words. I don't think that WinDirStat is showing it as a "file" but rather as just used space with the same black box symbol as it uses for free space. At least that's the way WinDirStat is showing on my machine. I have a similar problem with 100GB of "Unknown" space. I would like to know what it is and how to minimize it.

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94GB <Unknown> Space Taken Up In HDD (WinDirStat)?

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