Disk Capacity

I have a home build desktop that I have used for about five years. Within the last six months the C Drive has been reaching its capacity; however, I don't feel the drive should be anywhere close to being full. I have been deleting everything I don't use but there is still an issue when I look at the drive verses the folders.

I have ran a "properties" query on the C Drive and then on the individual folders and the numbers don't add up. The C Drive shows 395 GBs used; when I add up the individual folders I get 169 GBs used. It seems there are hidden files to the tune of 226 GBs.

Can someone tell me why the difference and how I can remove the hidden files?

I have an Intel i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60 Hz with 16GB Ram, 500 GB hard-drive,
running Windows 7/64 Service Pack 1

 

This may or may not be anything to worry about. Have you scanned for malware? Run Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner?

If you have any older "windows.old" files and your computer is running fine, you can delete those with no problems.

You might try something like Folder Size, TreeSize and/or my favorite, WinDirStat to map out your drive(s) and see where the space is being used. But I caution, do not delete anything unless sure it is not needed by your system - Google it first.

 

I just ran WinDirStat and it shows the C Drive with 197 GBs used. When I run a "properties" it shows 402 GBs used. I ran Disk Cleanup and it trashed 8.6 GBs. It seems that the OS is seeing additional files stored when looking at the C Drive.

Any other ideas on how to get the OS to see the correct GBs stored?

 

You might start a command prompt "as administrator" then enter chkdsk /r and see what happens, just to make sure the drive is okay. You will likely be told it cannot run now, and be prompted to run Checkdisk at next boot. Follow the prompts to allow that, then reboot. Note it can take many hours to complete and appear to be locked up. Just let it run. It will eventually finish. I usually start it up and go to bed.