From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11
Maria Sophia wrote:
I checked all the normal places to clean up disk space. Anything I deleted kept the disk below limits for only a few minutes. Then the disk filled up again. I looked in all the usual spaces for the usual culprits (which I cal list separately in a followup article so others also know where to look).
While this PSA describes a Windows shadow-storage setting that can quietly consume remaining disk space & how to correct it with a single command,
below is a list of the classic places to check for storage hogs (AFAIK).
These are ranked (by me) by likelihood & impact (risk for mass deletion):
Impact = how large it can get (which can be safely deleted, IMHO)
Risk = how dangerous it is to delete or modify (low, medium, high, IMHO)
HIGH IMPACT (can consume tens or hundreds of GB)
Windows Installer cache (MSI/MSP) [H]
C:\Windows\Installer
Windows Search index database [M]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
DriverStore (FileRepository) [H]
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
Hyper-V virtual disks [L]
%PUBLIC%\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks
Docker / WSL2 virtual disks [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Docker
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited*
VirtualBox VMs [L]
%USERPROFILE%\VirtualBox VMs
VMware VMs [L]
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Virtual Machines
Paging file (pagefile.sys) [H]
C:\pagefile.sys
System memory dump (MEMORY.DMP) [L]
C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP
MEDIUM IMPACT (can grow large)
Windows Update working folder [M]
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
Windows Installer rollback backups [M]
C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$
C:\Windows\Installer\*.rbs
C:\Windows\Installer\*.rbf
System Restore snapshots [M]
C:\System Volume Information
Windows Event Logs [M]
C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs
Hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) [H]
C:\hiberfil.sys
LOW IMPACT (common, small, safe to delete)
User temp files [L]
%temp%
System temp files [L]
C:\Windows\Temp
Extra temp folders [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp
C:\Temp
Crash dumps (apps and services) [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\CrashDumps
Windows Error Reporting [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER
%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER
Browser caches [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Windows Update download cache [L]
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
Delivery Optimization cache [L]
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization
Microsoft Store / UWP data [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages
Package Cache (VS, .NET, etc.) [L]
C:\ProgramData\Package Cache
CBS and DISM logs [L]
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS
C:\Windows\Logs\DISM
Application logs [L]
C:\ProgramData\*\Logs
%LOCALAPPDATA%\*appname*\Logs
Windows.old (rollback) [L]
C:\Windows.old
Setup logs [L]
C:\Windows\Panther
C:\Windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log
WPR traces [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WPR
Reliability Monitor [L]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\RAC\PublishedData
Media Player thumbnails [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player
Old .etl logs [L]
C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI
C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\NetSetup
Delivery Optimization logs [L]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DeliveryOptimization
Windows Defender history [L]
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender
Prefetch [L]
C:\Windows\Prefetch
Crashpad dumps [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Crashpad
Large app caches (Adobe, Unity, Steam) [L]
%APPDATA%\Adobe
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Unity
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Steam
%PROGRAMDATA%\Steam
Shader caches [L]
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Steam\htmlcache
%LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache
%LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\GLCache
Driver installer caches [L]
C:\NVIDIA
C:\AMD
C:\Intel
Useful commands
Disk Cleanup:
cleanmgr
Remove superseded updates:
dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Show largest folders under C:
powershell -c "gci C:\ -Directory | sort length -desc | ft name,length"
Show largest files on the entire drive
powershell -c "gci C:\ -Recurse -File -ea SilentlyContinue | sort length -desc | select -first 20 | ft length,fullname -auto"
Show largest folders under a specific path
powershell -c "gci 'C:\path' -Directory | % { $_.FullName; gci $_.FullName -Recurse -File | measure length -sum }"
Check shadow storage usage
vssadmin list shadowstorage /for=C:
Resize shadow storage to a sane limit
vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=C: /on=C: /maxsize=5GB
Show disk usage by folder (PowerShell 5+)
powershell -c "gci C:\ -Directory | % { '{0,10:N2} GB {1}' -f ((gci $_.FullName -Recurse -File | measure length -sum).sum/1GB), $_.FullName }"
Show Windows Update download cache size
powershell -c "(gci C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download -Recurse -File | measure length -sum).sum/1GB"
Clear Windows Update download cache
net stop wuauserv & net stop bits & rd /s /q C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download & net start wuauserv & net start bits
Show size of the Windows Search index
powershell -c "(gci 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows' -Recurse -File | measure length -sum).sum/1GB"
Show size of DriverStore
powershell -c "(gci C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository -Recurse -File | measure length -sum).sum/1GB"
Show size of pagefile and hibernation file
dir C:\pagefile.sys
dir C:\hiberfil.sys
Show size of MEMORY.DMP
dir C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP
Show size of Windows.edb
dir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb"
Show size of System Volume Information (admin only)
dir "C:\System Volume Information"
Show size of event logs
powershell -c "gci C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs | sort length -desc | select -first 20 | ft name,length"
Show size of CBS.log
dir C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
Show size of DISM logs
dir C:\Windows\Logs\DISM
Show size of Windows.old
dir C:\Windows.old
Show size of a folder (quick)
powershell -c "(gci 'C:\path' -Recurse -File | measure length -sum).sum/1GB"
Confirm whether something is currently exploding in size
Win+R > resmon > Disk > [sort by] Total (B/sec)
Look for something like...
SearchIndexer.exe > Windows.edb corruption
svchost.exe (netsvcs) > Windows Update stuck
OneDrive.exe > sync loop
MsMpEng.exe > Defender logs
chrome.exe > runaway cache
System > pagefile or memory dump
TiWorker.exe > update cleanup
vmwp.exe > Hyper-V checkpoint explosion
vmmem > WSL2 disk expanding
etc.
In addition, I've written system-specific scripts, which check my own
system (since I employ a highly-organized structure) for size hogs.
--
These are learned by experience, & hence I would want others to benefit.
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