- Aug 24, 2015
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- 4,510
Hi Guys (and Gals),
I have a really weird one here and none of my usual contacts have a clue.
I should also say that I am a 30+ year industry trained tech, and I have tried everything I could think of but nothing seems to have any effect.
I am working on a brand name gaming laptop, with a 256gb msata ssd as C: and a 1tb spindle drive for D:. Knowing that the SSD is relatively small, on the initial setup, the user folder was relocated to D: all additional software and applications have been installed to D: to prevent the SSD running out of space.
It has recently started warning about low free space on C: and File Manager showed 6gb free.
I installed WinDirStat and ran as Admin to see what was taking up all the space and it showed, amongst other things, 32gb as a swapfile. So that was an obvious easy target. (note: I didn't look at how much free space WDS listed at this stage)
I went into the swap file settings and created a 16gb swap file on the D: and then cancelled the swap file on C:, then rebooted.
WDS (always as admin) shows the swap file gone, and 150gb in use, BUT Windows File Manager still shows only 6gb free. Rechecked the swap file settings again and it shows only 16gb on D:, nothing on C: as swap files.
OK, I went back to WDS and found a few stray files that had ended up where they didn't belong, a 20gb cache file from a video editor, etc. All up I deleted (permanently) about 35gb worth of unwanted files. Rebooted.
WDS now shows 115gb in use, but windows shows 188gb used.
I have tried a full chkdisk and it has found no issues on the drive.
I am out of ideas. For some reason, when files are deleted the OS does not seem to be releasing the unused space.
Other than this issue, the machine runs flawlessly, and it has alot of student software on it, which took a lot of hoop-jumping to get the student licences, has to be installed through special portals, etc, so I really don't want to have to go the re-install route.
I have even considered buying a new 500gb ssd, cloning the OS across and swapping the drive. Now, it is possible that the lost space could re-appear when the files are copied across to the new drive, but it is also possible that the 'failure to release' issue could continue on the new drive, with IT eventually filling up with lost-space.
I am open to suggestions, but please don't say 'did you empty the recycle bin' because that was the first thing I tried.
Help? Please?
Update:
I have managed to find a couple more large packages that were accidently installed to C: so have removed them, but the problem is still there.
Just to re-iterate:
I have removed the swap file from C:
I have run System Cleanup and wiped out everything, including system files.
System restore is off, and there are no restore points.
Hibernation file exists but I WANT to keep hibernation it stays.
I have emptied the recycle bin.
Chkdsk shows no issues.
The Partition is 196gb.
Windows file manager shows 170gb used, 25.5gb free.
WinDirStat in Admin mode shows 89.3gb used, 25.5gb free, 112.9gb total, so 87gb missing!
WinDirStat IS showing everything including hiberfil.sys, etc.
I have deleted/uninstalled over 90gb, but everything I delete or uninstall is only releasing a small part of the space it was occupying. 90+gb deleted but only 20gb released. Where the heck is the missing 87gb?
I really need some help here.
I have a really weird one here and none of my usual contacts have a clue.
I should also say that I am a 30+ year industry trained tech, and I have tried everything I could think of but nothing seems to have any effect.
I am working on a brand name gaming laptop, with a 256gb msata ssd as C: and a 1tb spindle drive for D:. Knowing that the SSD is relatively small, on the initial setup, the user folder was relocated to D: all additional software and applications have been installed to D: to prevent the SSD running out of space.
It has recently started warning about low free space on C: and File Manager showed 6gb free.
I installed WinDirStat and ran as Admin to see what was taking up all the space and it showed, amongst other things, 32gb as a swapfile. So that was an obvious easy target. (note: I didn't look at how much free space WDS listed at this stage)
I went into the swap file settings and created a 16gb swap file on the D: and then cancelled the swap file on C:, then rebooted.
WDS (always as admin) shows the swap file gone, and 150gb in use, BUT Windows File Manager still shows only 6gb free. Rechecked the swap file settings again and it shows only 16gb on D:, nothing on C: as swap files.
OK, I went back to WDS and found a few stray files that had ended up where they didn't belong, a 20gb cache file from a video editor, etc. All up I deleted (permanently) about 35gb worth of unwanted files. Rebooted.
WDS now shows 115gb in use, but windows shows 188gb used.
I have tried a full chkdisk and it has found no issues on the drive.
I am out of ideas. For some reason, when files are deleted the OS does not seem to be releasing the unused space.
Other than this issue, the machine runs flawlessly, and it has alot of student software on it, which took a lot of hoop-jumping to get the student licences, has to be installed through special portals, etc, so I really don't want to have to go the re-install route.
I have even considered buying a new 500gb ssd, cloning the OS across and swapping the drive. Now, it is possible that the lost space could re-appear when the files are copied across to the new drive, but it is also possible that the 'failure to release' issue could continue on the new drive, with IT eventually filling up with lost-space.
I am open to suggestions, but please don't say 'did you empty the recycle bin' because that was the first thing I tried.
Help? Please?
Update:
I have managed to find a couple more large packages that were accidently installed to C: so have removed them, but the problem is still there.
Just to re-iterate:
I have removed the swap file from C:
I have run System Cleanup and wiped out everything, including system files.
System restore is off, and there are no restore points.
Hibernation file exists but I WANT to keep hibernation it stays.
I have emptied the recycle bin.
Chkdsk shows no issues.
The Partition is 196gb.
Windows file manager shows 170gb used, 25.5gb free.
WinDirStat in Admin mode shows 89.3gb used, 25.5gb free, 112.9gb total, so 87gb missing!
WinDirStat IS showing everything including hiberfil.sys, etc.
I have deleted/uninstalled over 90gb, but everything I delete or uninstall is only releasing a small part of the space it was occupying. 90+gb deleted but only 20gb released. Where the heck is the missing 87gb?
I really need some help here.
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