Hey, guys, I really hope you can help me!
I'm not as computer savvy as I want to be, so I have no idea how to solve this issue.
I'm running Windows 10 on my desktop, which is an HP Pavilion. It's a 1TB model and it had 919 GB available at the start. I've had it for years and the memory has never been an issue. However, my PC notified me that all 919 GB have been used up. I opened up the file explorer to see how much was being used up by each file type and under OTHER, it says there's almost 600GB used up! I opened it and all the folders inside don't add up to 595GB.
I converted some music files to a smaller format and even deleted a LOT of videos I don't plan on watching anymore and it brought it down to roughly 870GB. However, not even a day later, it's already back up to 919GB used! I don't know what to do!
I read that there's a windows.edb file that can be deleted that freed up a lot of space for people, but I don't want to delete anything if I'm unsure of what it will do to the system.
Please help!
I've heard that WinTree or other similar utilities, if run with admin-power, can give you a run-down of the files in each folder. I have no idea how to do this in Windows 10: make sure explorer.exe is set to show hidden folders, hidden files, etc.
click and type disk clean
you should see Disk Clean-up desktop app - click on it, select your windows disk drive, and after a wait, you should
check all the tick boxes that you want to - deleting all of these will not wreck your system - and then click "Clean up system files" as well - after a longer wait as the disk is scanned, you should find even more garbage to remove. Check these off - all are non-critical - but you can check in file explorer if you want - then click OK for the disk clean up. It will take a while.
There are 3rd party disk cleaners (not registry cleaners, which have varied and dubious claims) such as Baidu PCFaster, which clean garbage such as your browser temporary files and caches, other temporary stuff and clean unused stuff left in memory, on demand, and can make a real boost to performance, preventing stuff from building up, if used periodically. Although the Chinglish is a little quaint, it is free and trouble-free in use.
To get basic picture of storage usage in Win 10, open Settings, search for Storage, then click on the drive of interest. You will get a graphic, of sorts.
If you want a 3rd party solution, WinDirStat is good.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I tried one method so far with no results. I'll try the others and see what I come up with. I really appreciate the replies!
Can you press the Windows key + R, type diskmgmt.msc and post a screenshot of the result? (Icon to left of the video icon above)
I did as you suggested and downloaded that program. What I got appears to be the answer. I don't know the first thing about backing up my files on my computer, so I simply clicked the back up option on my Norton 360 program and I believe I selected the OS drive as the destination for the back up. That may have been the issue. It's a huge chunk of the storage that's being taken up right now. Do I need an external hard drive to back up all of my files properly? Should I get rid of this backup? I don't know what to do. Like I said, I don't know the first thing about backing up. I never learned.
Here's the screenshot you asked for, as well as the results from the WinDirStat scan.
Yep, you set your backups to the drive that's being backed up - so if your disk fails, you lose your backups too.
Byebye data..
Backups must be to a physically separate medium which can ideally be kept in a physically separate location (think fire, thieves, flood (very) small asteroid...).
So you backup might be
- to an external physical disk that ideally you can easily remove
- over a network
- to the cloud (assuming an adequate connection)
Now it is clear from the amount of backup data being generated that your backup schedule is inappropriate- generating too much data.
WHATyou back up is also important.
You should think about protecting your whole PC- so should you be infected with ransomware or yuor disk fail or your PC become unbootable thru corruption etc you can recover easily without technical help.
That's where disk imaging is invaluable.
Ok, here's the faster way and the strongly recommended way by all here to defend yourself against most problems.. from cryptolocker to (oh no.. user error!).
Start using disk imaging. Regularly. Before any major change, and after a big change or a series of smaller changes. System Restore isn't enough.. it can help sometimes, but only if you turn it on (it's off by default.. absurd).
With disk images you
a. Can restore your disk/partition in a defined time (e.g 20 to 40 mins).
b. Have a full backup - can extract files.
c. Can use them to rebuild your system on a new HDD (e.g.)
d. Have peace of mind (most important!)
Get a copy of Macrium Reflect or Aomei Backupper (both have free options). The first is more geeky and a cut down version of a commercial product - no incremental backup. The 2nd is more straightforward, offering both differential and incremental backups. (You can read about those yourself if unsure).
Make sure you create the boot disk.. essential when dealing with an unbootable PC.
You need large enough external storage for the image files.
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For critical fast changing data you can supplement this with a specific file backup routine using the same program or a different one.