C drive keeps running out of space

[MartianPotatoSoup]

Hello,

Title says it really. I keep making space on c drive and it keeps disappearing! I am not installing anything there as I keep most stuff off of the c drive.

Yesterday for example I cleared about 36Gb - this morning it was still there - went out for an hour, came back and the drive was on 0?
Page file seems to be limited to 1GB (I havent touched this, just looking).

I have malware bytes as my antivirus/malware protection. Daily scan.

Other possible symptoms - startup times vary greatly - sometime going from off to log in screen in about 30 - 40 seconds, sometimes a few minutes. Occasionally I get a System_thread_exception_not_handled error. It does its thing, and then boots up.

Computer is not used for any dogyness - all legit software.

Specs:
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i9-9940X 14 Core (3.30GHz @ up to 4.4GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME X299-A: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
6TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
+ Thunderbolt card I have installed
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [MUP-00003]

 

[SpyderTracks]

Remember things like OneDrive and your Quick Access Libraries will default to C if you haven't moved them.

You can use something like TreeSize to see what's taking up space.

TreeSize Free | JAM Software

TreeSize Free is a free disk space manager for Windows. The software shows you the sizes of folders including all subfolders.

www.jam-software.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just saw as well, 64Gb RAM is instantly going to reserve 64Gb hiberfil.sys cache file for hybrid sleep states.

You can disable hibernation by elevating powershell / cmd prompt and type

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

You can then delete the hiberfil.sys file, instantly save 64Gb space.

Hibernation is redundant really on modern systems, they start so fast it's not gonna make any real difference having hibernation enabled and does in fact introduce far more problems than it solves.

 

[MartianPotatoSoup]

Thanks for that - First time I have seen hiberfil.sys, as even though I have view hidden files switched on, I could not see that file...

Now, next question if this is what is causing it - I have all hibernation settings switched off in settings, as I never had a use for this (although I have not run the command you just posted) - would there be any reason for the hibernation cache to still be generated?

But in the meantime, will switch it off with the command you suggest and delete all that. See what happens

Cheers
J

 

[SpyderTracks]

I have all hibernation settings switched off in settings, as I never had a use for this (although I have not run the command you just posted) - would there be any reason for the hibernation cache to still be generated?

You need to run the cmd line to disable hibernation., windows settings generally will retain the hiberfil.sys file in the background.

You need to see what's taking up space in programdata and program files as there's an awful lot in both..

Your recycle bin is 1/2Gb which is easy to clear down

The above will clear out about perhaps 70 - 80Gb

 

[Martinr36]

The above will clear out about perhaps 70 - 80Gb

And assuming This is your C drive, that a third of its capacity, personally i'd reccomend replacing that with a 500GB
1st Storage Drive
240GB ADATA SU630 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)

 

[MartianPotatoSoup]

Yeah, looking at programdata and program files - its mainly my audio programmes - most of the space being samples and audio files. I usually select to have that kind of data stored on a different drive when I have been able to, but not always possible.

I will monitor with Treesize.

@Martinr36 I have a 2 TB NVMe that I need to install which I plan to partition in half, and making one half C drive (if possible) - I just havent had time to open up the machine, as I know its going to be a ball ache to get to the motherboard - I just wanted to make sure there is nothing funky going on the current c before I do that!

Thanks!

 

[SpyderTracks]

most of the space being samples and audio files. I usually select to have that kind of data stored on a different drive when I have been able to, but not always possible.

You would always want those on a dedicated drive away from C

 

[stegor]

If you switch hibernate on it only uses 40% of memory size but 100% when disabled, which seems a bit counter intuitive.